My job moved to a 30-hour-week and immediately made my life better
My job moved to a 30-hour-week and immediately made my life better
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Standing in the back garden, I take a sip of my hot coffee and then a deep breath of the cold morning air. I feel calm, content. That morning had started like any other with me dropping my son off at school. But because we’d managed to do his reading and lay out his uniform before bed, there’d been no mad rush.
![[Emma Thackray: A Single Mum?s Perspective on the 30-Hour Work Week]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236033261-114b-e1736937492728.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
So now I had time to enjoy a moment’s peace before signing on for work. As any single parent will tell you, moments like these can be hard to come by, especially when you work full time, too. But thanks to the flexibility of my job at Women’s Budget Group (WBG) and its shorter working week policy, I’m finding these moments have not just become more common, but practically routine.
![[Emma Thackray: A Single Mum?s Perspective on the 30-Hour Work Week]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236033331-cfd8.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
And it’s got me thinking: shouldn’t a 30-hour working week be standard practice for all?. Until 2023, my husband and I had managed just as well as any other two-parent household at juggling a 4-year-old and two careers. But then, in late September, our marriage ended.
![[Emma Thackray: A Single Mum?s Perspective on the 30-Hour Work Week]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236033262-0465-e1736938061572.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
While it was the right decision, it was a rocky first few months as my household bills doubled overnight and I wondered how I was going to be able to emotionally and financially support myself and my son in this new reality. Gradually though, things did get easier. We found a good balance of co-parenting teamwork and, thanks to the flexibility of my job – I was already working from home on a 36 hour contract by then – we were doing OK.
![[Emma Thackray: A Single Mum?s Perspective on the 30-Hour Work Week]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_236033327-ec89-e1736938233948.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
