Hello!
I’m a 30 man with a wife, 10 month old baby, and 1 year old dog at home. My wife is a teacher and I have been working as a Food Service Manager at a theme park in NY for the last 14 years. My wife works a typical teacher’s schedule that includes the summers off. She spent last summer home recovering from having our son while I went to work. I stayed home with them the first two weeks and then went back to work. I didn’t want to do this because it left my wife doing everything to care for our child and dog.
I had an agreement with my employer that would allow me to work less than I normally would. For context, I work six days a week and about 70-75 hours a week in the summertime. I’m also a salary employee. Our agreement was for me to work only 5 days a week last summer so that I could be home more.
My commute is about 2 hours round trip by the way. So about 12 hours a week of driving on top of my 70ish hours of work.
About halfway through the summer, they asked me to work more than we had agreed upon and I did because we were short staffed. I feel horrible about that decision and I do not want to do that again.
I mentioned in my review that I need to work on my work/home situation and that I cannot be doing the hours I always do. They told me that they would like for me to come up with a plan for this summer so that we can discuss.
My wife and I are hoping to be pregnant again this summer with our second child. I know that everyone in my family will be happy that I am home more.
Does anyone have any advice on what I should ask for going into my meeting with my employer? The meeting is in about 3 weeks.
Thank You!