4 day work week- advice

CTJune06

Does anyone work a 4 day week? If so, what are your daily hours? How does it work for you? Which days are you in the office? I'm trying to work out my schedule and I'm being given a lot of room for flexibily and finding it difficult to make any decisions. Thanks for any advice you can offer.

livinitup

When I was in grad school, I worked 4 ten hour days (8-6 pm) and had off on Thursdays to go to classes.  Worked great.  Although now, I rarely take an hour lunch so I'd ask for 8 - 5:30 (with half hour lunch) or 8:30 - 6:00 pm.

I also has a pretty long commute - about 45-50 minutes, so that was as long a day as I wanted.  If my commute was shorter I'd be temped to work two 12 hour days and two 8 hour days (or less with 1/2 hour lunches).  Maybe alternate days long-short-long-short with Fridays off.  Or long-short-off (Wednesdays) -long-short.  It is so great to have a weekday off and to break-up your work week. 

What are you leaning to?

 

 

joelle&joseph

I work M-Th 9-4 and some Friday's 9-12 just depending on the time of the month.  I love that I have Friday's off!  I also love that I don't have to get up until 7 and get to have breakfast with DS.  I'm also home early enough to get to sepnd time with him in the evenings.  Once DC #2 comes I might try and switch my schedule to 8-3 M-Th since newborns go to bed earlier.  GL! 4 day work weeks are great!

RedBrideNC

I've been thinking about switching to a 4 10 hour day schedule but I can't get over the fact that DS will be at daycare for 11 hours.

Taylor44

It depends on your work and office.  For me, Friday's are the only day that I could be away from the office.  I work at home on Friday's, so I only work 7 hours M-T at the office (I also work through lunch most of the time). 

azuremama

My office won't let anyone work a 4 day week with either Monday or Friday off.  I decided not to try to do 4 day weeks on a full-time schedule because it would mean DS would be in daycare 10 hours every day.  Plus, by the time you add in our commute, I wouldn't get to see him much on the days I work.

I'm going to go to 32 hours a week and take Wednesdays off.  Women in my office who have done this told me they prefer Wednesdays because then you only have to go through two days before getting at least one full day with your child.  I'm a little worried because some weeks, Mondays are a little rough and I don't want to essentially have two Mondays.  We'll see how it goes.

ILoveLarry

I work 4 10 hour days, 8-6 Monday through Thursday, but I don't take a lunch break.  I eat at my desk every day.  It does get long, but my husband gets off at 5 and picks up DS, so he's not away from us for such a long time.  It is really nice to have Friday through Sunday off.

Good luck!

CTJune06

Thanks for your feedback. My dh could pick up from daycare earlier so she won't be in daycare for 10 or 11 hours at a time. I'm leaning towards having Weds off as it would really break up the week, and then doing an 8-6 or 7-5 schedule. It's early- but (at least right now) I'm very much a morning person and way more productive in the mornings. Plus it would be good to have some quiet time in the office. It's hard to think what will really be feasible once she's here.

Saha1127

I chose to take Fridays off bc traffic in the boston area on Friday afternoons is horrendous. Something to consider...

vagirl06

I'm going to be trying out 9 hour days M-F the first week and 9 hour days M-TH the second week.  That will give me every other Friday off and I'll just need to come into the office 30 min ealier each morning and still be able to leave at 4:30.

I can't swing the 4 ten hour days.  DD would be at daycare too long and I wouldn't have much time with her when I got home in the evenings.