I’ve negotiated going part-time twice in
my profession: as soon as efficiently and as soon as not efficiently.
On this article I’ll share some recommendations on find out how to request part-time hours based mostly on my expertise of fixing from full-time to part-time work.
In search of recommendation on find out how to ask to work remotely? I’ve bought you coated. Learn my guide to asking your boss to let you work from home.
My swap from full-time to part-time hours (finally)
I wished to be part-time for a few years, and again after I was a Six Sigma Black Belt at my outdated employer I put in my first request for part-time working.
Within the UK, employers have to contemplate your request, however they don’t need to grant it. I’d have been the one part-time individual on the group, and I didn’t have kids again then.
My request was refused.
There’s an enormous cultural factor round working part-time. In my expertise, it largely depends upon how your supervisor feels about part-time employees. Do they imagine the remainder of the group have to choose up the slack? Do they really feel it could be too troublesome to rearrange work for the group when you aren’t there a few of the time?
I modified corporations later (nothing to do with not getting part-time hours) and after my first youngster was born, I went again to work three days every week, after which finally 4. I had a (totally different) supervisor who was all in favour of ROWE working the place outcomes reasonably than hours, and who had kids himself.
I can’t say {that a} supervisor who has kids is extra prone to grant part-time working hours requests, however somebody who appreciates work/life stability, who fashions an excellent working tradition the place unpaid extra time isn’t anticipated (not like what this research into overtime reveals about US corporations), and who values a outcomes over hours of bums on seats might be extra open to the dialog.
What working part-time really meant for me
Nevertheless, again to the story.
After I moved to a 4-day working week, I did technically work 5 days every week. Fridays had been my essential writing and running a blog days, the place I draft emails to ship to you, my pretty readers, met with my digital assistant and usually bought life admin stuff performed. So I had (and nonetheless have) childcare organized for 5 days every week.
I wished to go part-time as a result of I wished extra time for writing mission administration books and doing the enjoyable stuff. Principally, I wished one thing exterior of my day job — I wished to spend extra time on my aspect hustle and never really feel that point was consuming into the balance between work and family.
Whether or not you’ve got a aspect job, need time with your loved ones, or wish to balance study or retraining with work, going part-time may very well be an possibility for you.
What occurred was I ended up taking calls about my day job on a Friday as a result of I used to be at my desk anyway.
On one mission, the group conferences had been arrange for Fridays at 11am each week earlier than I joined the group. After I took over the mission administration, the group wouldn’t budge from that point slot. I needed to be a part of the decision weekly, take the meeting minutes, and to be sincere I resented it.
Usually, although, working part-time labored for me. Generally I begin work at 7.30am, different occasions I’m working till 10pm at night time. Generally I take an extended lunch break or go to the college for Keep and Play periods.
The whole lot I have to get performed will get performed, and I’m fortunate to have flexibility from my employer to make that occur.
I’ve misplaced monitor of the quantity of people that have requested me for recommendation on going part-time as a mission supervisor — or in any job (I additionally appear to talk to attorneys about this quite a bit!).
Listed here are some generally requested questions.
“Can I work part-time?”
Sure. Properly, at the least technically you may. There are only a few jobs that demand you to personally be obtainable all week, though if you’re CEO of a global company that’s going to be a tough position to job share.
Some customer-facing roles are usually not going to be simple to do part-time both, if somebody must be on website to cope with buyer queries. Consulting mission administration roles, or ones the place you might be completely based mostly on the shopper’s website at some stage in the mission, space additionally going to be difficult.
Nevertheless, there are alternatives for job sharing. I’ve identified a number of individuals who have job shared in senior roles. They’ve all been ladies, and I can depend all of them on the fingers of 1 hand. It’s not a straightforward route, however it’s doable.
For center administration jobs, group chief jobs, project management roles, enterprise evaluation roles and lots of different jobs, whether or not you may work part-time or not depends on whether or not your organization is open to serving to you make it work.
Your employer could discover it extra palatable when you swap roles concurrently going part-time, and it’s as much as you to resolve if that’s one thing you might be open to doing.
“Can I swap from full-time to part-time?”
Sure! That’s what I did. I went from a full-time position to a four-day every week position.
Admittedly, I feel that swap was simpler as a result of I had a interval of maternity depart. I additionally had a time frame between my kids being born after I was solely working three days every week.
I do suppose it’s simpler to open up a dialog about part-time working if you come again from being off for any size of time, or are negotiating beginning a brand new position with a brand new employer. Begin desirous about what you prefer to your greatest final result to be so when the time involves return to work or take that new job, you are ready to have the dialog.
You can even swap again once more. Going part-time doesn’t imply it’s important to keep like that perpetually. When the season of life modifications, you may transfer again into full-time working hours in order for you, along with your supervisor’s permission and assist.
Likelihood are, they’ll be very happy to have you ever again, and if not, you can begin on the lookout for an alternate position the place you are able to do the hours you need.
“How do you negotiate going part-time?”
That is the place we’ve got to begin having the dialog. Right here’s what I’ve realized about part-time working in case you wish to put ahead an software your self. Right here’s the way you begin the negotiations!
It’s about your supervisor and your group.
If they’ll’t (or received’t) assist you, you received’t be capable of make it successful. How are you going to present your working time received’t have an effect on the group? Or if it is going to, show how it may be made manageable.
Folks care extra about what it means for them than what it means for you.
It must be about outcomes.
You ought to be judged in your contribution, not the hours you spend on the workplace. This goes for speaking to your boss about versatile (i.e. work-from-home) working too. If you happen to work in a results-orientated work place, then that’s going to be quite a bit simpler.
In case your supervisor is somebody who values presenteeism, your dialogue will likely be harder.
Be clear about what part-time means.
I didn’t wish to be a burden, and after I first began on 4 days every week I didn’t inform anybody that I wasn’t obtainable on Fridays. I took conferences on Fridays as a result of I didn’t need me being part-time to be ‘a factor.’ That will get tiresome shortly. Be clear about your availability.
Speak about how you’ll let individuals know when you’re obtainable, issues like altering your out of workplace commonly to alert colleagues that you’re not within the workplace. You can even put your working hours in your electronic mail signature so everybody has them clearly marked. I’m positive it received’t cease individuals ringing you on non-working days, however at the least they’ll be capable of see why you aren’t selecting up.
Clarify what your mission groups will be capable of do with out you round. Speak about whether or not you can be found for emergencies and if not what the again up plan is.
Now, I be certain that my work balances out over the week. I do nonetheless do some work on a Friday however I be certain that over the week I’m getting the time away from work. You won’t be capable of handle it flexibly like that, particularly if it’s important to be within the workplace for work.
Begin with an off-the-cuff chat.
Speak informally about why you might be contemplating part-time hours and what it could imply for the group. Ask what it’s essential to do to make part-time working work for everybody. Don’t make your first step be an official request.
The purpose of this step is that can assist you perceive how your supervisor feels about it, and what considerations they might have. You may then deal with their objections intimately in your formal request.
Ask clearly and observe coverage.
Learn the coverage, and don’t assume your supervisor has. Ask formally to your request to be thought of and be express about what ‘part-time’ means, itemizing the hours you are ready to do.
Requesting to go part-time is greatest performed in writing at this stage, so put collectively a letter that asks that you just go from full-time to part-time in your present position. The letter ought to state:
- What you might be requesting
- How you intend that may work in apply for you, your supervisor and your group
- A well mannered shut that references the coverage (if there’s one) and asks what the subsequent steps will likely be.
I don’t suppose it’s important to embody the rationale, however when you really feel that may assist get your request thought of extra severely (for instance, if your organization has a coverage of permitting part-time work for parental obligations), then put it in. If it’ll assist your case, embody it.
Be ready to compromise if that helps you get nearer to what you want. Take into consideration whether or not it’s best to ask to your good state of affairs or the compromise state of affairs first.
In case your supervisor agrees to the proper state of affairs you’ll each be completely satisfied, and in the event that they don’t you may transfer to discussing your next-best state of affairs.
Take into consideration the opposite circumstances of employment that can
change.
For me, going part-time got here with another circumstances. It’s not nearly pay and hours. You may lose some affect at work, you won’t be capable of attend conferences different individuals attend as they occur in your time without work and all that may have an total unfavorable influence in your profession progress over time.
All that occurred to me. It’s a part of the value to pay for going part-time, and in case your part-time motive is vital sufficient to you, then it received’t matter a lot. Since you’ll be getting the good thing about doing all of your aspect hustle, supporting your loved ones and so forth throughout your ‘off’ time, which is able to make it value it.
You’ll need to dwell with it if you wish to go part-time, as a result of you may’t count on everybody else to place their work conditions on maintain for you. So bear in mind it’s a risk.
“How do I persuade my boss to let me go part-time?”
Think about what it’s going to imply to them. You want to have the ability to see it from their perspective.
How will you doing fewer hours influence on the group total? Will the group’s deliverables be lower by a proportionate quantity? Nope. They received’t. Yearly individuals are requested to ship increasingly more, and in order for you sooner or later off every week (for instance) they aren’t going to get permission to recruit somebody simply to cowl you for sooner or later.
Another person within the group is prone to have to choose up the slack, or the group goes to need to do the identical with fewer working hours, or they must ship much less. However that isn’t your downside.
If there isn’t a job share sooner or later imaginative and prescient, then your supervisor goes to need to discover a method to adapt the group’s deliverables to the quantity of accessible useful resource — and that shouldn’t imply you doing extra time i.e. working in your time without work.
We did a survey that reveals individuals work 233 hours of unpaid overtime in a yr, and I imagine it’s worse if you’re part-time as a result of there’s strain to work in different individuals’s regular working hours.
The optimistic is that the group’s wage invoice will likely be lower proportionately, in order that’s a professional you may put to your supervisor.
Create a proposal that works for you each
Finally it’s essential to put ahead a proposal that works for you each, and to your colleagues. You don’t need them to need to be selecting up the slack if you are out of the workplace, as a result of that simply means they need to work more durable due to your part-time hours.
Search for methods to make it workable and never a burden for everybody. For instance, what conferences might go, what are you able to delegate? Might the saving in your wage be put in direction of one thing else?
Would you be open to contemplating compressed hours, the place you’re employed the ‘regular’ variety of hours per week however over longer days so that you get a time without work? That may imply extra stress and longer at your desk Monday to Thursday, however you get the time again on a Friday, for instance.
Think about a job share
If you happen to suppose your job can’t simply match into part-time hours or be diminished appropriately, take into consideration a job share. That is the place two of you’re employed the identical place, and you’ve got a handoff within the week in order that the opposite individual can decide up the work the primary individual began.
Job shares imply the employer will get a larger diploma of protection i.e. there’s by no means a day when somebody isn’t obtainable to do work. And also you get the share the burden.
I do know a number of individuals who job share and as
lengthy as you’ve got the precise accomplice, it might work out very properly for everybody.
Level out the price financial savings
If you happen to work fewer hours, the corporate pays you much less.
That may be a promoting level to your
boss, particularly when you solely plan to be part-time for a brief time frame,
for instance whereas caring for an aged relative or for a number of years whereas your
kids are small.
They might exchange you with a full-time individual (if part-time hours are a deal-breaker for you and also you’ll go elsewhere) however then they’ll need to fund the recruitment and onboarding of a brand new member of employees.
Take into consideration versatile working
If you happen to can’t get your boss in your aspect, take into consideration different options you may put ahead that provide the flexibility you need.
For instance, working compressed hours, versatile begin and end occasions or working from house (or extra hours from house when you already do a few of that). Versatile working nonetheless means it’s important to do the hours, however you may nonetheless discover some method to do your aspect hustle or caring obligations when you had the choice for compressed hours, for instance.
You’ll be exhausted, however you may make it work, presumably.
Half-time working is superior!
Placing apart the drop in wage, going part-time was the very best factor I’ve ever performed. It wasn’t with out challenges, like individuals anticipating me to be obtainable on a regular basis, and forgetting I used to be a part-timer, however total, it gave me a lot extra freedom.
I’d love to listen to your tales of requesting part-time working hours and the outcomes. Come over to our friendly Facebook group and share your experiences!
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