Exchanging Sleep for Personal Time

I am a part-time HR professional struggling with the decision to move to full-time. How much sleep does a girl need anyway?

When I started with Acquiso 1 – 1/2 years ago, I was the first HR professional hired. I worked 2-3 days a week because the need wasn’t there yet for full-time work. As the need increased, I jumped to 4 days a week in the fall but was still able to stay part-time. I have been very happy with this situation because my children are still very young (3 and 5 years of age) and to have the flexibility of not working 5 days a week is great. This extra time was priceless when flu season, fevers and doctors appointments came and I needed to follow through with the kids. I also had time for networking events and projects with my HR association and to treat myself by taking a jog or going for lunch with girlfriends.

Now, I have a big dilemma.

As much as I enjoy this flexibility, my company is growing, I don’t have enough time to keep up with the work and I’m starting to be late in many projects. So, I hear you saying, “It’s a no-brainer. It’s time to make the jump to working 5 days a week – like everybody else on this planet.”

But the consequences are important. Working 2 – 3 days a week and increasing to 3  – 4 days a week isn’t that difficult because you still have flexibility. In jumping to 5 days a week, you’re totally losing the privilege of flexibility. And you know what? Beyond the fact that life has been good to me in by having time for myself, my kids and family, I truly believe that I’m a better HR professional since I have the flexibility working  4 days a week provides.

And that’s my biggest problem. When you work 5 days a week you are in a spiral and life never stops. You work all week, take care of your family on the weekends and you rarely get a moment for yourself. You never have an opportunity to step back and think of what you accomplished in the past week and your objectives for the week to come. You lose time to read great HR articles and blogs; I truly believe we need to reflect, plan and read on a regular basis to be good at what we do.

If we never have the time to stop to think and challenge our ideas, how do we become better or improve our skills? In my case, my solution was working only 4 days a week and having that extra day. When I consider working 5 days a week, I worry because I can’t figure out when I will have time.

To add to my dilemma, there are benefits to working 5 days a week. I will have to time needed to keep up with me work load and my role will also become more strategic and important within the company.

So what’s the solution to work week dilemma? Have you  struggled with this decision before? How did you decide? Did you consider the company and what was the best deal for them? Is a 4 day work week  the way to go or do I need to start exchanging sleep time for pause and reading time?

I’m listening and I can’t wait to get your feedback.

Photo credit iStockphoto