Part time - I can't believe it!!!!!

koan_2

My friend works Monday Tuesday Wednesday, and has Thursday to Sunday at home with the kids. It seems to work really well.

If it's the sort of job where it's possible to job-share (I know not all are), a company should offer that option.

Primrose

Well done! If you both want to make it work, it will,
but I'm sure both of you will end up putting in 120% to make sure it does. I did a job share for several years which worked well. Just remember to get in the habit of having a good handover note system and don't forget that even small mishaps in non-communication between you will undermine your role so you must both get used to remembering that something you started may end up having to be finished by your job share partner, so always keep each other's backs covered. If it's the first job share in your organisation, others will be watching to see how it works out so be determined to make a success of it.
Also agree between you how you will try and cover for each other if you have child sickness emergencies at short notice. An empty desk can be undermining for a job share.

duchy

Job sharing rather than reducing to part time seems to have gone out of fashion a bit and I really can't see why as it's win, win for everyone as far as I can see.

Staff are likely to be experienced, more work tends to be done -especially if there is no crossover day as it becomes a point of pride to finish up rather than leave bits to do, holiday and sick cover are simpler and it creates loyalty and good will so better staff retention.

I had a jobshare for a couple of years and loved it-until my sharee had her second child and the manager didn;t replace her...and then moaned having one part-timer didn't work. Ironically she was a working mother herself....I think she was a bit jealous lol (she had come along herself after the share was set up)

Lily-Rose_3

Halle71 wrote: »

I feel like singing from the roof tops :j

I am a 42 year old London mum of two little ones (1 and 4) and have just returned to work after maternity leave. It has been a real struggle because we don't have any family around to help - my partner is from NZ and my parents live a couple of hours away and my dad has Multiple Systems Atrophy (think Parkinsons/motor neurone/MS = hideous) and my mum has had a recent hip replacment and isn't up to looking after the little b*gger that is my 14th month old. They are both in childcare (school and nursery) but have also been ill requiring time of work and lots of mummy guilt trying to keep them in childcare despite being ill. Basically it's felt like we were surviving, not really living.

While we can afford for me to work part time, in my job it is impossible. Or so I thought. I'm a project manager in a large ad agency and it's a position that can't be part time and in fact is often more than full time (I worked a 19 hour shift until 4am on Tuesday). But. My friend is due back from mat leave in July and we were moaning on FB and hesitantly suggested (to each other and ourselves) a job share. Not thinking it to be a possibility we fantasized about a 3 day week with one day overlap. Never in a million years did we expect them to agree.
But she asked, we had a meeting yesterday and they agreed to everything. We both work Mondays, I work Tuesday and Wednesday and she works Thursday and Friday. In some industries this is pretty common but it is UNHEARD of in advertising and I am a very grateful guinea pig.

I can enjoy my kids again and be a less grumpy (albeit poorer) mummy.

Now I need to start money saving in a big way! :money:

Good for you Halle! Part time work is a very good happy medium for mommies. You have less dosh, but you have lots of free time for babies and family! :j

Goldiegirl

I work two days a week, and up until recently it has been a job share.

I joined the orgsinisation to replace one half of a job share. After a couple of years, my job share partner decided to go full time, and was replaced by another colleague who had just returned from maternity leave.

It has worked very well. Both my partners have worked in a similar way to me, and we are all very organised. We don't have a cross over day, but we emailed a handover.

My second partner has just returned to full time work, in a managerial role. At present I seem to be just an 'extra'. I'm not always allocated a set role, but have to slot into gaps. I don't like it so much without a partner - I'm not sure what's going to happen. Not that I care too much, as I'm hoping to leave by the end of next year.

Well done to the OP, hope it works out well for you.

rachiibell

Well done! Very pleased for you! Good luck!

PeacefulWaters

A word of advice.

Some people don't trust job shares. It's possible that at some point in time a less enlightened individual will challenge the benefits of it.

Keep a record of how it works. What benefits it brings to the company. What actions you both take to make it work.

Be ready to defend the success you've made of it.

Hopefully you'll never have to. But a few seconds a week to scribble down a couple of positive notes should help ward off any challenge that does come your way.

Enjoy it. Best of luck.

Takeaway_Addict

claire16c wrote: »

Thats great.

In my old company in London they lost so many staff after they had babies because they wouldn't agree to part time or job shares. It was pretty ridiculous as Id say around 90% of the work place were women, so theyd train them, and employ them from maybe the age of 23ish to 30sih and then theyd leave because the job wasnt very practical to do full time with children plus the commuting etc. So then theyd be loosing experienced staff, and constantly be looking for new people which obviously takes time and money.

These companies need to wake up!

It only works if it actually works for the company. I would have thought if the company felt it was a viable option they would have done it considering that the majority of the workforce were female and thus they knew there was a higher chance of maternity leave and it doesn't sound like they discriminated.

Also, 7 years in employment is a good stint for an employer and fresh blood can do wonders.

Whilst I agree employers should job share or allow part time where possible we must remember that not all employers are able or feel its in the best interest of the company, and that is their right.

davenport151

Primrose wrote: »

Well done! If you both want to make it work, it will,
but I'm sure both of you will end up putting in 120% to make sure it does. I did a job share for several years which worked well. Just remember to get in the habit of having a good handover note system and don't forget that even small mishaps in non-communication between you will undermine your role so you must both get used to remembering that something you started may end up having to be finished by your job share partner, so always keep each other's backs covered. If it's the first job share in your organisation, others will be watching to see how it works out so be determined to make a success of it.
Also agree between you how you will try and cover for each other if you have child sickness emergencies at short notice. An empty desk can be undermining for a job share.

It also can become one sided if one member of staff does not pull her weight.
It may be a good idea to define certain tasks to certain days with the agreement that these get done when the other is off.
Other general work being done 'as equal.'
I job share and having been the second one to join the company found that I seem to the one working harder.

claire16c

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

It only works if it actually works for the company. I would have thought if the company felt it was a viable option they would have done it considering that the majority of the workforce were female and thus they knew there was a higher chance of maternity leave and it doesn't sound like they discriminated.

Also, 7 years in employment is a good stint for an employer and fresh blood can do wonders.

Whilst I agree employers should job share or allow part time where possible we must remember that not all employers are able or feel its in the best interest of the company, and that is their right.

But most people who worked there thought it would have been in the best interests, it seemed apart from the people right at the top who were just stuck in their ways. I can remember having several chats with various women in the company about how they knew theyd have to leave one day when they had kids as they never let you back part time. It was one of the reasons why I left myself!

The job was very hierarchical, so when the experienced staff left, and there was no one to do their job, - they had to recruit from outside for someone at that level which wasnt always easy to find, so sometimes a team would be left without the manager at that level for some time, leaving a younger member of staff to fill in whilst they looked for someone, who often didn't know what on earth they were doing because they didnt have the experience. Meaning that it was more likely for bad decisions or less profit to be made etc. It wasn#t as simple as having a new young person being a good thing.

There was one time where someone at the sort of middle level, ended up doing their previous manager's job for about 6 months, whilst they were trying to hire someone, and she had to spend a lot of time in with the higher up manager of the entire dept, because she didn't know what she was doing - so it then took up that managers time, who should have been doing something else.

Honestly it was a farce, and it was simply one of those 'we've always done it like that around here' type things. I think they were scared if they let 1 person do a job share, everyone would want one. Even though it would have greatly benefited then.