For those who work part-time...

redbirdmom

I just recently discovered this board and already have read lots of good advice, so I am hoping some of you ladies might be able to help!

 For those of you who have been successful negotiating part time, I would love to hear your experience and advice.

 

Here?s a little background on my situation ?

I  have been with my job for four years, DD is 1.  Turnover in this position before I started was really high, usually turned over yearly.  I am well-respected in my office and have approval from HR for part time (30 hours), I just need my direct supervisor?s OK.   I feel like I can actually keep all my same job duties, I have introduced efficiencies and b/c I am employed by a University, I also have the ability to find a year-round uunpaid student helper.

 

There are two reasons I want a part time schedule ? 1.)  I need extra time away from work because I am working on completing my thesis for my master?s degree (short term, if I get approved for part time, I will actually keep full time day care so I can work on this).  2.)  Long term, I want more time with DD.  I think playing up number one sounds better to an employer, but I don?t want my boss to get the idea that this would be temporary. Although I guess if I proved it will work out temporarily, he might be more willing to approve long term?  What do you think?

kcisthebombdotcom

hocus:

Neither 1 or 2 are reasons you should tell your boss P/T is a good idea.  If you want to work part time you need to figure out how this would benefit your boss and company. Chances are the costs savings would be the biggest selling point. I'd suggest writing up a proposal to have this implemented on a trial basis (e.g. 90 days) and then review.

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Iblamethebeer

KC_13:

hocus:

Neither 1 or 2 are reasons you should tell your boss P/T is a good idea.  If you want to work part time you need to figure out how this would benefit your boss and company. Chances are the costs savings would be the biggest selling point. I'd suggest writing up a proposal to have this implemented on a trial basis (e.g. 90 days) and then review.

this

I'm not sure I would go this far.  When I requested part time status, I basically said "I like this job and I want to stay, but the pace isn't working.  I would like to reduce my workload (and salary)."  They didn't want me to leave -- which I think they were afraid was imminent -- so they said yes.

I definitely came to them with a written proposal for how I thought part-time could work well for them.  I do agree, as PP said, that what I proposed is a good bargain for them.  But I didn't pretend like the idea came from my concerns about their balance sheet, rather than my own life goals. 

Employers aren't idiots.  They're going to know that as a young parent, time is at a premium and you might be looking for ways to carve out more for your increasing home responsibilities.  I'd just level with them on that.  As long as you present it as "Here's what I would like, here's how it would work, here's how it would be good for you" I don't think you should go through the hoops of pretending like the *reason* you're doing it is because it's good for them. 

You also don't want to set up a situation where you are misleading about the reasons you want to go part-time, so that then you feel like you can't be honest about what you're doing.  I told my boss I needed a day to take my kid to the doctor and go to the grocery store and return library books, because the weekends were too short.  Now when I get a call about a work emergency and there are kids in background, I don't have to fudge things.  I can just say "do you need me to look at that now, or can I log in during naptime?" or "wait, let me turn on Dora so I can focus on your question" or whatever.

redbirdmom

hocus:

Neither 1 or 2 are reasons you should tell your boss P/T is a good idea.  If you want to work part time you need to figure out how this would benefit your boss and company. Chances are the costs savings would be the biggest selling point. I'd suggest writing up a proposal to have this implemented on a trial basis (e.g. 90 days) and then review.

Thanks. But I believe getting my master's does benefit my company. My thesis is heavy in research that is related to my position.  And yes the financial aspect as well would be a benefit. Thanks for your feedback.

redbirdmom

Iblamethebeer:

KC_13:

hocus:

Neither 1 or 2 are reasons you should tell your boss P/T is a good idea.  If you want to work part time you need to figure out how this would benefit your boss and company. Chances are the costs savings would be the biggest selling point. I'd suggest writing up a proposal to have this implemented on a trial basis (e.g. 90 days) and then review.

this

I'm not sure I would go this far.  When I requested part time status, I basically said "I like this job and I want to stay, but the pace isn't working.  I would like to reduce my workload (and salary)."  They didn't want me to leave -- which I think they were afraid was imminent -- so they said yes.

I definitely came to them with a written proposal for how I thought part-time could work well for them.  I do agree, as PP said, that what I proposed is a good bargain for them.  But I didn't pretend like the idea came from my concerns about their balance sheet, rather than my own life goals. 

Employers aren't idiots.  They're going to know that as a young parent, time is at a premium and you might be looking for ways to carve out more for your increasing home responsibilities.  I'd just level with them on that.  As long as you present it as "Here's what I would like, here's how it would work, here's how it would be good for you" I don't think you should go through the hoops of pretending like the *reason* you're doing it is because it's good for them. 

You also don't want to set up a situation where you are misleading about the reasons you want to go part-time, so that then you feel like you can't be honest about what you're doing.  I told my boss I needed a day to take my kid to the doctor and go to the grocery store and return library books, because the weekends were too short.  Now when I get a call about a work emergency and there are kids in background, I don't have to fudge things.  I can just say "do you need me to look at that now, or can I log in during naptime?" or "wait, let me turn on Dora so I can focus on your question" or whatever.

Thank you.  Your advice is really helpful, and I think would go over well in my workplace. 

jeffsjayme

Yeah, they don't care why you want part-time, unless long term it really benefits them like "I'm going part-time so I can be your researcher", which it sounds like it will.  But they also know you could get your education, then leave their company.

You need to approach it as in "You pay me less, but you still get a good employee who can do x,y,z and here's how we can make it work."

For me, I put together a proposal of about how many hours I wanted to work, what I thought I could continue to do, how the other things I do could be done by someone else/another department and 5 proposed schedules.  My boss and I went over them, made some changes and agreed to a trial.  For me, I also felt I could keep my same required duties, but the "extra credit" stuff I was doing to help another team had to get dropped.

I asked for a 3-month trial where we could make changes at that point, but that my expectation was that this was permanent.  I also stressed that I knew I had to be flexible and there would be random "have to join a conference call from home occasionally" kind of things.

cindybaf

Well, when I got pg, I proposed going to three day weeks and met a lot of opposition. I was given a three day week every other week schedule for when I returned from maternity leave, working four days the other weeks. My days are LONG (10 hours), so I was working 40 hours on my 4 day week schedule. Anyway, I did my modified schedule for the four months after my return from mat leave, and went through and measured my production. I basically wrote a proposal asking to stay on the 3day/4 day week schedule instead of going back to four days every week permanently, citing that I already had shown I did as much work if not MORE work in the fewer days per month. That said, I wrote the proposal also including some of the specifics of my situation, the fact that my daughter needed physical therapy and such. I don't think you should leave out that aspect of it, sure it doesn't mean as much to them but it will help you get some kind of empathy if you cite you want to spend as much time as you can with your young child. The verdict came out in my favor, and it was a SURPRISE to everyone I work with including myself but they asked me to work 3 day work weeks. I was over the moon, and so thankful to my bosses. Now I work one day less a week and have kept up my productivity level. I've even lowered their overhead since my direct coworkers can use my day off to do other tasks in the office that would have required hiring someone else to do.... I'm much, much busier the days I am here, but it's nice because I feel like my days away from my daughter don't go by wasted sitting around.

NYBrideInWI

Obviously each of our situations is different - but I disagree with the PP who say your employer won't care that you want more time with your DD. Mine did. I wrote a proposal to go part time when I returned from maternity leave with LO#2 and was very upfront that I was requesting a modified schedule to allow me more time with my family and better balance my work and home responsibilities. I'm an engineer and my company is large (several thousand people) but had not had a part time engineer before. 

The reason for my request IS important to my company because they want to keep me as an employee. Am I replaceable? Sure, but there are costs involved in hiring new, including 6 mo training for new hires, so they were willing to take a chance on me working part time. I've been in my position for almost 7 years and am respected in my field, which I think helped to get the approval. 

Good luck!