Many working parents dread the work week. Doing nine to five, Monday to Friday, makes it difficult to schedule the kids’ health appointments and creates hassles with getting them to after-school activities, among other problems. For these reasons, working parents often seek more flexible work weeks. In response, accommodating employers have developed several common mechanisms for adding flexibility to the seemingly-rigid forty hours per week.
The first option is perhaps the most common, even among employees without children. Young, single employees often use flexible hours or “flextime” to take off early for a weekend of camping or partying, while employees with children might choose to go into work earlier so they can pick the kids up from school. Flexible hours are negotiated between the employee and employer, each taking into account their needs so there are no gaps during critical work hours and the employee is satisfied with their schedule. You may be able to set up your own work schedule permanently, or have it change from week to week. Take advantage of this opportunity if your employer offers it!
Another common method of creating flexible work weeks is the compressed work week. A good number of employees would rather work four ten-hour shifts than five eight-hour shifts, or work an extra hour for eight days to take the ninth off. Within legal limits, you may be able to arrange to work a few longer shifts and have extra days off. This can mean you have a long weekend every weekend! Having a weekday off is perfect for shopping without the lineups and full parking lots, scheduling appointments, and so on, too.
Other working parents choose to share jobs or work part-time in order to reduce their work hours. This can be set up many different ways. Sometimes, it may be possible to set up a job-sharing arrangement where each employee works one out of two weeks, with the second week off while the other employee works. Other ways of arranging it are one day on, one day off, or one person working the morning and the other working the afternoon each day. For others, part-time hours are a simple way to cut back on their hours spent at work and spend more time at home, though this also means scaling back your income. Another disadvantage is that part-time employees are sometimes ineligible for company medical benefits and not covered by other policies. Be sure to research the differences between part-time and full-time work if you choose to go this way.
These are just a few options for flexible work weeks; if none of these meet your needs, try researching telecommuting or freelancing, and talk to someone in HR to see if your company offers any flexible work week options.
There are even more ways to create a flexible work week so you can spend more time at home, more easily schedule appointments, and break out of the boring 9-to-5 grind that so many of us get trapped into!
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