Part time construction jobs?

[BigGingerBob]

They seem to be impossible to come by.

From January I will need to drop a day a week to look after my very young children and I am looking for another job anyway. I work away all the time which is not what I signed up for with this job.

Anyway, I put in fencing and crash barrier for a living so I am reasonably competent at groundworks and other bits but as soon as I float the idea of dropping a day I get ghosted by potential employers.

Does anyone have any ideas of where to look or words of advice?

I don't want to do part time stacking shelves or anything because I would like to come back full time once they're in school or we have childcare sorted.

[SteBrown91]

Would you be better being self employed then doing subbying? You will just be charged a day rate then.

Problem is as an employer in that field if you are building a house or doing a garden you don't want to be sub productive for 1 day a week as it costs you money, and there will be a load of others that can work 5/6 days.

[BigGingerBob]

Maybe, I just don't know how to get from here to being self employed with clients.

Just been told (literally 10 mins ago) that I'm working away all next week. This is another reason I'm looking to move. It's not fair on my wife or my children for me to just leave for a week.

I understand that it's difficult for employers. It's a shame for me as I work my ass off on site and do good work.

I can see how many women feel now about having to jeopardise their career for their children.

[ARHarh]

Why not find a job locally that you can do 5 days a week. I see you need or want to look after the kids one day a week, but would it not be a better compromise to have the kids in childcare one day a week and be there every evening? Or set yourself up as a handyman type thing.

[BigGingerBob]

I'm wanting to start up doing fences in the future as I put up crash barrier at the moment which is a fence, I just need the guaranteed money as I'm the only one paying the mortgage until January!

There's no one who can take both of the kids locally.

I'm going to call up local builders and fencers locally when I get home and see what I can find.

Just a bit of panic is setting in as time is going very quickly. It was implied (but not directly said) that the job I'm in would be more flexible when I joined but it turns out they say stuff to keep you happy but nothing comes from it.