How do you find working weekends?
Posted by hollyeastle22@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 14 comments
Hey everyone! š
I'm after some advice! After being on a working holiday for 2 years, working seasonal jobs - I'm trying to return to the UK workforce and get a job within the travel industry.
In England, my background is in 9-5 office roles, and Iām used to having weekends off, and I've just received an interview request from Trailfinders where I would be working 9-6 and working weekends.
For those of you working at travel agents, or just weekend jobs in general, how do you find it in the UK? Do you still feel like you have a good work-life balance? Any insights on what to expect would be really helpful! I'm just worried that I'd barely see my boyfriend/family/friends as they all work 9-5 office jobs!
Thanks in advance for any advice! š āļø š
Purple_ash8@reddit
Sundays tend to go to waste anyway. I do value my Friday and Saturday nights but Sundaysā¦ yeah, not a great day for me. So i might as well get paid.
bzzklltn@reddit
I work weekends and have my days off in the week. I think my head would explode if I had to have my days off on the weekends. Everywhere is so much quieter and cheaper on a weekday. Food shopping on a weekday? Delightful.
yolo_snail@reddit
I love working weekends, I get annoyed when they schedule me during the week.
It means I have time to actually do things, and don't have to cram everything into a Saturday because for some reason this country thinks Sunday is a special day and things need to either be closed, or only open a few hours.
It also means when I want to do things, they're generally quieter as people are at work!
WorkShirt5587@reddit
I love working Sundays. They're so boring and I just feel like I'm sat around waiting for the week to start. Plus Sunday usually comes with enhanced pay.
yolo_snail@reddit
We don't get any Sunday premium, but honestly I'd voluntarily work Sundays without it.
I work nights in retail, and get unsociable hours premium, but once again, I'd happily work nights without it! I'd need a 'customer premium' to have to deal with the riff raff that are in my area.
bibbiobi@reddit
It doesnāt sound like this is the case for you, but I worked weekends when I moved to a new city and it snuffed out my social life. Not only could I not travel home to see my friends and family, but it was also much harder to make new friends. It was not the right decision for me and I would never do it again.
Another consideration is, how easy is it to book weekends off? In my old job, annual leave requests were very very restricted during weekends so I had to fight tooth and nail to get time off for things like weddings or holidays. Booking a day off just to see friends on a Saturday was nigh on impossible.
There are pros and cons to everything and I donāt mean to be entirely negative! Not every experience will be like mine. Plus, it was really helpful having weekdays off for life admin, shopping, gym, dentist - while most other people are working 9-5 it was a great opportunity for me to do those sorts of things. I miss that, but not enough to go back to working weekends!
BaseballFuryThurman@reddit
I think it really depends on your own social circles and how not being available at weekends might affect it. I work one Saturday every 2-3 months due to only one of my department being needed on each time, but when I used to work every weekend (unless I booked it off) it was fine because most of the people at the time that I spent time with outside work, were also colleagues. So having days off in the week was fine as those were the days people aimed to plan things, and at least it meant places were quieter.
I wouldn't want to go back to that now as I like knowing that most of my weekends are free, but again it's case by case as to whether it will negatively affect your personal/social life.
Melodic-Lake-790@reddit
I would never, ever do it again.
Bose82@reddit
I work every other weekend, I donāt mind it. I work 7 days on 7 days off. I miss out on doing stuff with the kids sometimes but I get plenty of time off otherwise
cooky561@reddit
I donāt do it. I found it cost me many social opportunities and as I live alone, this affected my mental health. Ā
I will only take a job now if thereās no weekend work elementĀ
Chemical_Cobbler1225@reddit
I'm a maintenance engineer who does shift work and I've not worked Monday to Friday for nearly ten years. This has always included various degrees of weekend work, albeit it's never been every weekend. Personally I can't think of anything worse than working for five days, then having only two days off. You're right to be concerned that it may interfere with family and social time, but then so does having to do all those jobs on a weekend because you don't have time during the week due to work.
Current_Scarcity_379@reddit
I generally find that time off in the week to be more productive. More things are open, less traffic around in the daytime etc. Plus itās a good feeling going to bed, on say a Tuesday night, knowing you havenāt got to get up early in the morning !
loliconomy28@reddit
might not be that helpful but my best mate used to do 4 days on 4 off and the 4 days off gave her a good amount of time to do what she wanted to do instead of clocking off at friday and only really getting saturday fully off cuz your just preparing for work again on sunday
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