Being flexible outside of working hours - any advice?

[OverlyFlexible]

I am a city solicitor and have gone back to work 3 days a week on fixed hours. Obviously the flexible arrangement means a salary cut - here, 50%. So, the "deal" is I work 21 hours per week (and am paid on this basis) and am required to be flexible in terms of picking up work/emails on the days I don't work. I have been told that any bonus paid to me would take into account any extra work I do - but bonus are entirely discretionary and it will not be a straight reimbursement.

I am generally very happy with this arrangement and feel I'm quite lucky my firm is prepared to accommodate it.

I would like views from other people on the "being flexible" means. At the moment I work at least 26 hours a week. (Easy to know as I have to record time.) I check my blackberry probably at least once an hour on the days I do not work. I generally do 1 - 2 hours work on the weekend and work while DD is asleep on my 2 "off" days or once DH comes home at night (both on my "off" days and on the days I'm in the office).

I am beginning to feel this is a bit much "flexibility". Plus I don't think the additional hours will be truly paid out via any bonus (i) because the economy is not great so bonuses will be reduced (if paid at all) and (ii) because when you look at my hours compared to full time hours they are small - but full timers get paid the "work 24/7" salary while I get a salary based on a fixed hours arrangement.

How do people who work in similar environments manage this - what could I do better? How do you say no to taking on work without looking like a shirker/unhelpful? How do you manage junior staff who work with you and are doing longer hours than you? - I do feel guilty when I see someone working on a matter with me is in the office late.
Or am I just being moany and this is simply the price of being part time?

I have always understood that I would do more than the 21 hours (and I'm fine with that), but I'm heading towards doing an extra day's worth and beginning to feel that's a lot.

Thanks for any suggestions - and for reading this essay

[rookiemater]

Hi, my normal response would be to say not to work on your non working days but as a city solicitor I guess you are a bit more high flying than myself

Perhaps what you need to do is work out how many unpaid extra hours you would have done or would be expected to do if working f/t and see what proportion this works out as a percentage for you as part time. TBH working 26 hours and getting paid for 21 hours, if there is an expectation if you were F/T that you would work long hours doesn't sound too bad, maybe you need to get a bit more disciplined about only checking the blackberry once or twice a day and making people aware that this is what you will be doing.

About junior staff working longer hours than you, afraid as a part timer it is just something you have to get used to by remembering that you are paid for your expertise and when you were more junior yourself you probably put in the hours to get you to where you are today.

[pippylongstockings]

I think being p/time you have to be prepared that it will be unfair with work hours as any extra you do will be not appreciated in the same way due to the nature of your work environment.

I was a bank manager - and have done plenty of years of long hours. I now work in the same environment but p/time. This week I have been called in on a Saturday, worked a whole extra day but have still been berrated by my boss for poor performance by the team on my watch! I cried.....

But it is the environment - it hasn't changed but I have!

[SmileyMylee]

I used to have a similar job - contract for 21 hours but expected to keep up with e-mails, conference calls etc on my days off. For this flexibility I received a pro-rata salary (i.e. 3/5)

However initially it never worked in practice as I regularly logged between 45 and 60 hours on my timesheet. The issue was that I was still expected to do the same amount of work as a full time person (although not 'officially'.)

For example a project would be sold requiring a full time resource for 10 weeks. I would be identified and sold to the client. People would then realise that I work 3 days a week. However I would still be expected to do what the full time resource had to do in 10 weeks and so I just had to work longer hours and try to delegate as much as possible.

After a few months of this I discussed this with my line manager. She agreed it was unfair that I did a full time job on a part time salary but we agreed that just working my contractual hours would be unfair to all the other people who had to work over their contracted hours as this is standard practice in our industry.

We agreed that she would look at the average number of hours that a full time person would do (so a 35 hours a week employee on average would do 15 extra hours) and this would be prorated for me. So I would be expected to on average do 9 extra hours. If I was regularly doing more than this then I could take the equivalent time off when things were not so busy.

We reviewed it regularly as people worked harder I also had to work longer hours and vice versa.

I felt that this was fair and on the whole it worked well and I didn't feel as resentful.

[littone]

I work as a business consultant and have returned on a 4 day week though agreed to be flexible where business required it. I think you need to get out of the habit of checking the crackberry every hour (do clients really expect a response that quick?) and just check during your baby's nap times unless you are expecting anything important. I check email(depending on what time my DS wakes up!) first thing in the morning, during his after lunch sleep and when he goes to bed at 7pm. At first I was like you checking more often, but on a working day I can be out on client site all day and not have the opportunity to check until lunch or after hours so they are used to this. I also resist the urge to reply to every email and only reply to those that cannot wait until the following day. With regard to conference calls - I don't know how old your little one is but at 20 months mine wants my full and undivided attention and I could not do a conference call without a babysitter! I only participate in conference calls on my day off if they occur during his sleep or in dire emegency in which case I have to arrange a babysitter. I make it clear people can call but they will hear my son in the background. I decided there is no point me having the day at home if I am going to spend most of it working unpaid - my child isn't benefitting from that.

[ABetaDad]

Overlyflexible - As others have said, your time limit will not be respected. People will call you at all times and expect you to respond.

I know a high flying woman that does this arrangement and she always says they take advantage of her. I know another woman who was at home and heard a knock on her door which she answered to find a car waiting outside and a type written demand she come to the office immediatley even though she had two kids with her.

If you can avoid it and work full time I would hire a nanny.

I wish it were otherwise.

[notsoclever]

My experience of working part-time was that it was as much about what goes on in your head, as the practical issues about days, hours and minutes worked.

When you work full time, with no dcs, you can work all the hours that you want (or feel under pressure to do). And that means that you can also think about work, and be pre-occupied by work issues 24/7 (if that's what you want to do).

When you work part-time you have to adjust to not only working fewer hours, but also to thinking about work much much less.

I understand what is happening to you, but if you feel the need to check your blackberry every hour - you are not really working part-time at all because your head can not switch off from it. This is not working a few hours extra - this is being on-call all the time.

If you have agreed to work extra hours then do as littone suggests and only check your mail once a day. If you do this once your dc is in bed at night then you know that 'normal business' is over and you can respond in time for business the next day without any issues dominating the time you have during the day. If you feel worried about "something dreadful" blowing up while you are out of the office can you buy a cheap mobile for use on emergencies only. It will probably never be used.

How will you reconcile your new arrangements so that you are not worried / feeling guilty about others who are at work when you are not? You can only sort this out through thinking about it - believing in the valuable contribution you are making during the hours you are paid to work; leaving others to make their choices about how they meet heir work commitments.

Take a look at how some of the other full time staff work. If you (like my SIL) were working 90 hours when others worked 50/60 then there might be more to the issue than just the change to part-time.

Good luck. You have done well to negotiate your contract, you and your DD deserve some good time together.

[flowerybeanbag]

I think Smileymylee's arrangement is the only way to go. If you're doing the same job as your contemporaries, but on a reduced salary, the hours you work should be proportionately the same. So if someone has 38 hours as their contractual hours but actually usually works more like 45 or 50, I don't think it's that unreasonable to feel that someone with less contractual hours should work a similar percentage more.

You shouldn't work more than whatever that figure is though, and you should come to a reasonable arrangement whereby your extra doesn't intrude too much on your life, such as only checking emails at nap time, or similar.

[Squiffy]

well, this is a timely subject for me. We were told no bonuses this year, and that means for me a 60% pay cut so I am now earning less total comp than I did back in 1993. Which is fair enough - I'm in the city and you take the 30 pieces of silver and the risk that these things might happen.

But where I have become involved in negotiations at work is that I worked out that it is costing me more to go into work than I would get by staying at home on job-seekers allowance, and that is because I have to use a nanny and an au pair and a nursery in order to have the flexible hours my job requires (I have to be able to leave house at 5.45, sometimes not get home till 12pm). My basic take home pay after paying for all of this is too little to justify staying at work.

So, I have submitted a claim to the office to the effect that paying me a reduced basic is not compatible with the expectation that I pay increased costs in order to be available during non-contracted hours. I have asked to receive a full basic to reflect that my current hours are still much more more than my contracted full time hours, and have asked that my output relative to my colleagues be measured such that any future bonuses reflect the work performed - I would expect that a full-time person would produce 25% more than me - ceteris peribus - and would thus get a larger bonus based on this, which seems pretty fair.

Will be intereting to see how they respond - I will let you know.

[Enraha]

I feel for you OF. I am also in a demanding senior client-service type job and trying to make 3 days a week work for me and DD too. At the moment, there's a fair amount of overspill into the days off which I find it genuinely difficult to cope with - as DD has reached a stage where she needs hands-on supervision most of the time. I think what has impacted most is losing the 'buffer-zone' I'd become accustomed too where I could finish something off or improve it. I've never been a clock-watcher and have hated the need to get more brutual with my daily routine, so as a result I'm not feeling as satisfied with my work as I once did. I'm also finding the 3/5 salary matter a bit of a bone of contention if I'm spending extra time working or getting unduly stressed when off.

Fortunately I do have a relatively sympathetic employer and have basically told myself that I can take on roughly 50% (with a little buffer) of the volume of what I did before, but with the knowledge that what I do is usually of higher quality and more efficiently delivered than someone with less experience. I'd hope that by letting-go a bit more I'm giving others more opportunities to shine and take the lead.

I've also got some good peer advocates in the business who gently 'tick me off' if they get an email from me on an off day, which helps a bit.

If I'm working on new client relationships, I've tried to be honest up front about availability and always have a good 2nd point of contact, but it doesn't stop me feeling slightly guilty though...and clients' needs certainly don't always fit to the new schedule, but that's true of a 5-day week too

[OverlyFlexible]

Thanks all for your replies - there are some really helpful suggestions here. I think I'll look into the hours a "normal" person does and then pro-rate that for me - that really makes sense to me and I think it's fair.
I do agree though that I need to be a bit less glued to the blackberry and learn to leave things that don't have to be done immediately! I've only been back 4 months and before mat leave was pretty devoted to the job so I think I'm still adjusting to "letting go" a bit.

Squiffy - good luck with your discussions, hope you manage to agree something suitable that you feel happy with.

Thanks for such contructive advice - really, really helpful.

[MizZan]

Don't know if you're still watching but I think this is a very common issue for women in "high flier" type jobs where there is an expectation that you will work many hours over the standard contracted ones. I work in an industry consultancy and recently bumped my time up from 3 days (22.5 hours) to 3.5 days a week as I was always spending more than that anyway.

I am the only person in my group who works part-time, and while my boss is supportive in theory, the reality is that there is no back-up for me if a client needs something and it's the end of the day for me and it's not done. I end up working at home most evenings, often very late, and also end up scheduling extra babysitting hours on my supposed half-days or plugging the kids in front of the TV when I need to finish stuff. It is far from ideal but I see no way to change it, other than to find a different type of work (which I suspect would be very difficult, on a part-time basis and paying enough to cover the childcare and other related costs).

I have no real advice for you other than I agree that checking your blackberry every hour is a terrible idea - though I have to admit in my industry, I do need to check once in the AM and once at night, to make sure there have been no disasters/people needing help etc during the day or previous evening, and clients do call me directly on my cell as they are not generally told I'm part time. Must admit that if I'd had any clue about what my life would be like once I had kids, I would certainly have chosen a different line of work. At any rate I hope you can work out a better balance.