Negotiating a part time role - any advice?

[Bouj]

I am in the process of negotiating returning to my old job on a part time basis. They seem very accommodating and I've got the feeling the ball is very much in my court. This is great, but I'm not entirely sure what to ask for(days, conditions etc) and wondered if anyone had any advice. Is there anything you wish you'd negotiated for beforehand or did so successfully? I'd like to make the most of the situation, but have abosolutely no idea where to start! I also haven't got a clue about part time childcare so any advice at all would be appreciated!

[Northerner]

Bouj - I don't know how many days you are planning on doing but how about starting slowly and then try building up your days if you feel that you can. I came back to work 4 days a week and due to various isues found it rather difficult to cope and asked my employer if I could reduce to 3 days a week to which they agreed. However I did feel like a bit of a 'failure' and in hindsight I would have been better starting at 3 days and increasing to 4 if I felt I could manage.

Ovbiously when negotiating days/hours etc it is a good idea to stress that you will always endeavour to organise appointments doctors/jabs/dentists etc on your days off.

Working part time was the best thing I ever did. I feel I ahve the perfect balance for me!

Good Luck!

[oliveoil]

Try to get full days and not mornings or afternoons, and try and get your days in a block if poss ie M/Tu/W and not day in/day off, makes your time off seem to last longer (!?).

I finish at 4pm and this works really well as I am home for tea/bath etc. If I finished at 5.30pm, I would be flying in as she was being put in her cot. .

No help on p/t childcare sorry, have accomodating MIL.

Can I also go off the thread slightly and say round of applause for all the f/t mums? I have just done 4 weeks covering hols and am knackered, fed up and a grumpy old cow, no idea how you manage to do it all (as the book says) clap clap clap clap.

[kayleigh]

I did 4 days a week after ds1 and then went down to 3 days after ds2 which I find to be just right.

After doing 3 days for a while I realised that on my two days at home I was checking emails at least once a day, sometimes answering them and occasionally taking/making calls. I then successfully negotiated to be paid an extra half day per week for the "work" I was doing at home on my two days off.

My company has been great about my arrangements, and if I need to swap working days because of childcare issues it has never been a problem.

In my opinion if you can be be as up front as possible when you discuss your arrangements and advising what may happen (eg you may occasionally have to swap days, you may occasionally need to work from home) they are more likely to accept your proposal as it will be obvious you have thought it through.

[Metrobaby]

Make sure you also confirm the hours that you will be working per day (you may want to different hours in order to have time to pick your baby up from childminders/nursery.

Also ask what they are doing about Bank Holidays too. When I went part time (3 days per week), I had 60% of my pay, holiday entitlement and bank holiday entitlement too. If you have 60% of your Bank Holiday entitlement this may mean you either have to work an extra day, or even get an extra days leave in the year - depending on the days you are in. If you have extra days leave due to Bank Holiday I would just confirm whether you can either add it onto your holiday entitlment or whether you want to take it on the same week as the Bank Hol.

Northerner's idea of building upto days slowly is a good idea too - but if you do go down this route make sure that they will give you the option to increase - if thats what you want.

[aloha]

part time childcare is no harder to find than fulltime IME. I have a part time nannyshare (found through Simply Childcare which you can contact via the net), nurseries and childminders also usually have p/t places. My friend recently did this and she too works on days off so wishes she'd negotiated a higher salary, not merely a pro-rata rate. She is going to ask for a payrise after six months to reflect the fact she is doing 80 - 90% of her old job at around 60% of her old pay! If you work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday it's best because on weeks with bank holidays you only work two days. Friends who work part time retained their full holiday entitlement and took bank holidays off as normal with no obligation to make them up. 3 days is also good for me, but I'm my own boss so quite often work in evenings too a bit.

[sis]

From others on previous threads on part-time working, I would suggest that you DON'T say that you will always be contactable on your days off and or will swap your days around etc. If you must offer some flexibility on your part, restrict it to swapping days round subject to being able to sort out the childcare arrangements.
It is nice to hear of employers who are open to part-time working

[kayleigh]

sis, I wasn't thinking about swapping days for the employers benefit !! I have never actually been asked to do that. I was referring to occasions when I have needed to swap my working days around because my either my childminder has needed me to or I needed to arrange child care when she has been sick/holiday.

I actually found I have been better off working weds/thurs/fri as opposed to mon/tues/weds. Because I don't work bank holiday mondays I get a pro rata amount of extra days depending how the bank holidays fall over my working year. This year I got 2.5 extra days. This means I can take the days when I want to and not just beacuse it's a bank holiday. Somebody out of work told me this was european legislation for p/t workers and I had to go to HR and ask about this. They knew about it and were quite happy to sort it out for me, but it wasn't offered when I originally went part time.

[sis]

Sorry Kayleigh, I wasn't referring to your situation, it is just that on previous threads on this subject some mumsnetters have said that they find they don't have any freedom on their non-working days as they keep getting calls and asked to do work on these days! I was just trying to warn Bouj that, with some employers and colleagues, you sort of need to make it clear that your non-working days are just that - NON-Working!

sis

[bossykate]

hi have a look at this thread .

good luck.

[Bouj]

Thanks all for the advice - luckily I don't have to make a decision straight away, so can really get my head around what I want out of it. I would ideally like to only do two days a week but would consider doing two one week, three the next... I had thought I'd not want to do the days together but do think now it will make my time off seem shorter! Thanks again - hopefully I can strike the perfect balance!!