As the major restructuring at my wife’s bank rolls on, it has become clear that she is likely to take the safer option than the risky one. We initially thought this is a chance for her to pivot out to another team where the jobs have more longevity in Singapore. Instead of the job being moved back to the head office location eventually. But going to a new team comes with its own set of challenges and this is not something she would like to take on now. Especially when we are considering having a 2nd kid and buying a bigger property in the next 1 to 2 years.

Until we find out the outcome of whether my wife would remain employed in the end, I have been keeping things stable at my job. Performing at a decent level to get the work done while taking advantage of the flexibility it offers to help out more at home. I had to delay attempts at expanding my job scope just so I can buy more time for our situation to improve before I can focus on the additional work. This could affect my chances of promotion and impact my remuneration numbers when it comes to my performance review next year. But it’s going to be bad anyway given the year we are having. So might as well focus on my family for now instead.

Anyway, my bank has been kind and understanding enough to offer its employees a benefit in consideration of the number of days of annual leave all of us have built up this year. From not being able to take them for overseas holidays and taking less of them due to us working from home. We have the option of encashing 5 days of annual leave or carry them forward to next year for use. This is on top of the usual 7 days of annual leave we are allowed to carry forward to next year for use.

I should be back in the office to work for at least a few days each week by next year. But I reckon I should still be able to work from home for the remaining days of the week. Being able to take annual leave is not as valuable anymore once I can work from home for even a part of the week. Because I can help out at home, run errands for my family and still get my work done on those days. Which is why I’m going for the full encashment option i.e. to encash all 5 days of annual leave and not carry forward any of them. The extra money would certainly come in handy as our expenses will start to climb from our expected increase in social activities as the restrictions start to lift even more.

I recently signed up for Level 2 of the virtual training course that I attended back in July. It’s more intensive this time round with half-days of trainings spread out across a few weeks. I’m slowly getting into the habit of going for more trainings while juggling the demands of work and family. While I acknowledge the importance of continuous leaning, I struggle to make time for it at this stage of my life. It takes effort to set aside a part of my day to do the training and still try to keep things moving along with my work and family schedule at home. My wife has been busy dealing with issues at work and can’t help out as much at home though she does try whenever she can.

I’m happy for my wife that going back into the office 1 day a week has been a positive experience for her. It’s good to have a change in environment from working at home all the time. She schedules catch-up lunches, dinners and drinks with her colleagues and friends on that day. And even manages to keep active by going to the gym for a workout. I have been resisting going back into the office even for just 1 day a week even though I know it’s likely to benefit me too. I want to spend more time with the baby and enjoy watching him grow up. I didn’t think I would get the chance to be around him so much as a father in his first year. So I don’t want to waste the opportunity by rushing back into the office to work.

But I understand it’s inevitable that I have to return to the office eventually. That seems to be the direction my bank is heading in as more people are going back into the office to work from this week onwards. I can delay it for as long as possible but things may change by the end of the year. Which is why I have started thinking about the logistics of how we can manage as a family when both my wife and I start going back into the office more. We are not keen on putting the baby in infant care or at her parent’s place. We could get her parents to come over to help out for the day but don’t see this happening too much in a week as it can be tiring for them.

We can alternate the days we spend in the office so that at least one of us will always be at home with the baby and get my wife’s parents to come over to help out on the days that both of us are in the office. This seems like the most likely option until the baby gets old enough to be put in childcare i.e. when he is more than 1 year old. Got to find a way to keep up the flexible work arrangements until next year so we can maximise the time spent as a family. It does take a toll as we find ourselves in a daily balancing act to coordinate all of our schedules so that everything gets done. We miss things sometimes but are fine to let them slide as long as they don’t have any significant consequences.