In my husband’s department at work, the time has come for people to change shifts – they are 24/7, so everything three months or so, people are given the option to move their schedule to another shift.

Currently my husband and I carpool, working five days a week.  In his department, they have the option to work four 10 hour days on either side of the week.  He used to work that shift pretty much consistently.  I don’t even remember why he switched to my schedule anymore, maybe it was to start carpooling, maybe it was to try to save some money.  Since working in the evenings in his department garners a 5% shift differential and there is no such thing on days, and when he worked that shift before, the Kiddo only went to daycare part time… ultimately it did not save us any money.

What money we saved in gas for only having to drive one car, was immediately turned and given to the daycare for full-time attendance.  Plus I think he was starting to go a little more nuts working five days a week in there, as opposed to working only four and having three blissful days away from the pits of hades.  Heck, I was starting to go nuts because his job sucks so bad that he vents about it daily – to me.

So when his manager announced they wanted to do the schedule change a few weeks early, we discussed his options.  He could continue to work the shift he is on, and still only have two days off, and see the dreaded manager all day.  Or he could chose a 10 hour swing shift, get three days off, see much much less of the manager, and get 5% extra pay.

The only problems now are that the Kiddo is going to pre-school, and we really don’t want to put her back on part-time where she could possibly miss whatever lessons they may have on the days she doesn’t go.  So we’ll still be paying full-time on that.  Plus, I’d be driving my car by myself again (instead of it sitting in the driveway, saving it from wear and tear), which would pretty much suck up whatever extra money he will get for working the evening shift.  *sigh*

On the flip-side, in my job I can telecommute one day a week, and while we were working the same shift and carpooling, I had forgone that option and saved my telecommute days for emergencies – like, if he was sick and I didn’t want to waste the gas to drive my lone self to work, like what happened last Friday.  So if he goes back to a swing shift, I can start telecommuting once a week again, and save a day of gasoline.  My car gets pretty good gas mileage usually, so I can usually get away with filling up my car maybe three times in a two week span if I telecommute.  Four if my gas mileage happened to be in the crapper.

So for the sake of our sanity, we’re just going to swallow whatever little extra money we may end up paying more of for him to switch to a four day work week.  And hope that in the meantime we can figure out other ways to earn some extra money on the side.  Like selling off our unused electronics and junk. Or hope that my jewelry store sales start picking up.

Tags: Daycare, Extra Money, Job, Kiddo, Pre School