The Challenge of Restarting

Spent half the morning last week trying to work out the breakeven point for returning to work full time. We've three kids in primary school and no local family support. We'll need to use the school breakfast club plus an after school nanny. Add in travel costs and I'm down £2000 a month.

I've a list of other monthly expenses which I'd expect to cover if I were working full time so I added that all together and threw it through a salary calculator. If I'm earning £40k a year then my actual take home is around £100 a month.

I've been out of the saddle for a few years on childcare duty so I feel like I'm taking the piss when I ask for top whack salary expectations but it's going to be costing me if I accept anything less. I've been up front and clear about looking for flexibility around starting time and reducing the number of days in the office but I can't see that helping my cause when I'm in a pile of 80+ applications.

I've the skills, kit and motivation to get stuck in remotely for 25 hours a week without going anywhere near hiring childcare. Add in cover for a couple of days a week and I can get that up to 33 hours on duty delivering difficult and technical design support work.

I can't afford to spend £24k a year just to be able to commute to an office all week. The only person that's going to benefit is the childcare provider. I think the best plan for me is to rebuild my freelance business rather than chase a unicorn job.

Have you got a load of designs that need preparing for print? Do you need a photoshoot retouched? Got too much on and need an experienced assistant?

Let me know. I'm eager to chat.