Working part time and actually working partime

[Icefoot]

I have a fairly senior job 3 days pw. Salary for my 3 days is £50k to give context re expectations.

The job was advertised as 3 days pw, a decision made mostly for budgetary reasons, my predecessor was full time, although a junior has been appointed to take some of the work load.

I am finding that the volume of work is perfectly manageable within 3 days but the expectations re availability are not. For the last 3 weeks I have changed my days to accommodate important meetings, which I'm happy to do with enough notice. Yesterday at 4pm I was asked to do a meeting at 2pm today, which I've said no to. It's a non working day and I have plans.

This morning I have numerous paniced texts about how urgent it is to get this arranged. It is, I've been trying to get a date set for about 6 weeks, but no one else saw it as urgent until something happened yesterday.

I'm not due back in work until Tues, so I've said that's the next say i can do and whilst no one has actually insisted, they don't like it.

AIBU to try and protect my part time hours, even though it's a well paid job? The PT working wasn't for my convenience (although it does suit me), they chose to appoint PT. I'm happy to be flexible where I can for things that are unavoidable, but I don't want it eating into my non working days on a regular basis - if it does that I may as well work FT

Yanbu, stand your ground. They are taking the piss. I am part time too and very occasionally I have moved things around to attend meetings on my non working day. I get that diaries can be a nightmare. I make sure I take my time back though.

If it's becoming a regular thing I would get ahead of it by saying you will be invoicing them at your consultation rate for time you're required on your non working days.

Decide on an hourly rate and then put it to them.

I think with senior and well paid roles it's expected there to be some out of hours work, within reason. But it sounds like they've taken it too far.

If they want you available five days then they need to pay you for it IMO.

I work part time and I was quite accommodating at doing meetings on my non working day at first but then realised i was my own worst enemy and it began to be expected. Now I just say no sorry it’s my non working day and I have plans.

Yes I always take the time back and everyone says I should, but that's why I now have 3 consecutive days of unavailability. Taking the time back creates its own problems.

Yes you are absolutely within your rights to refuse to make short notice changes.

It may be worth asking to meet with your line manager to re-assert your boundaries on flexible working. It sounds like you are already willing to be quite flexible so they really ought to be grateful (though I suspect theey won't be).

They're happy for me to take the time back and probably, they'd have paid me for today's meeting, but that's not the point. I can't be available at the drop of a hat on my non working days.

Protect your boundaries. You're paid for set days so their options are arrange the meeting for your working day or pay you overtime.

My work kept scheduling a senior meeting on my non working day. Apparently it was impossible to move it.

I kept coming in for it, but I had to pay our nanny to cover me at home. I was especially angry when they cancelled the meeting at last minute (costing me a whole day of the nanny's time) and rescheduled it for the following week (costing me another whole day of the nanny's time). No apologies for the change or thanks for making it work yet again.

I was sick of paying to work.

That was the tipping point for me and I told them I was only to happy to come in, but I would need the company to reimburse me for the nanny cost- and she had a four hour minimum.

Suddenly they managed to move the meeting.

Companies take the piss if you let them.

I think they probably would have paid for today's meeting if that was the issue, but I have plans I can't don't want to change.

Unless it's a genuine emergency, swapping your days around like that doesn't do anyone any favours in the long run. Stick to your routine days, and everyone will get used to it.

@Icefoot

Fair enough too. I hope you push back on them.

I meant to charge them a consultation rate - a rate far higher than what they pay you as an employee. It would give a financial disincentive to the company to schedule things on your day off, if it is cheaper for them to schedule it on your employed days then that's what they will likely do.

It's also a reminder to them that your time is YOURS to distribute and it has value. They're not entitled to it for free.

Good luck

Don't go in, don't set a precedent. Set an out of office on your email and don't check on non-working days. Put your working days in your email signature so that they can't say they didn't know. Block them out on your calendar.

You take a pay cut to work part time and have that time off.

I used to swap my days but I don’t anymore. I need to protect my days off or I burn out. They should have hired someone full time if they wanted someone to be available all the time. I also completely recognise what you are saying about things becoming urgent when you’ve been pointing them out for weeks!

I swap my days around to suit me so I also swap to suit them too if I can.

I also charge overtime for anything more than a 5 min phone call.

No point getting extra holiday as being part time I have tons! I never need to use it for say a doctor's appointment as I just move my working day around to fit it in.

I don't actually think that allowed for IR35. You can't do some work as an employee and more of the same work self employed for the same company

I allow some flexibility as I also like to flex work in my favour from time to time. However, I have made it clear that I will simply decline a meeting on a non-working day unless it has been discussed with me in advance.
In this situation, I would refuse to attend. I would also make the point that you have been trying to schedule this for several weeks.

How about a firm email stating that: X,Y, Z are my contractually agreed working days.

Due to me switching days, working additional days (and having time off in lieu because of that) causing confusion, I am no longer going to work any hours/days other than my contracted ones, so every body knows I only work on X,Y & Z days.

Please remember that communication to me about work matters on a non-working day, is the same as me texting/emailing about work matters at the weekend to a Mon-Fri worker and expecting a rapid response; it is an unreasonable request that would probably lead to sanctions from HR.

I would not text a colleague on a Sunday morning whilst they were at church, sleeping or with their family multiple times in order to resolve a work matter; please respect the sanctity of my non-working days in the same way.

You probably can't invoice them but you can just ask for overtime pay at rate x, paid via payroll as normal

Mine just go straight into pension via salary sacrifice

I would never object to someone emailing me on my days off, that would be very odd to request.

No, that's not something a senior professional can send. These people do respond on their time off. The man who causes me most problems is currently in a different time zone and squeezing meetings in in the middle of the night.

It's not about the pay, I get that.

I think you need to have a reminder chat with your line manager about this. Ask for a meeting to discuss. Highlight that broadly, you have always been accommodating in changing days where necessary, and are happy to continue to doing that where you can and with enough notice. Then say that except in a genuine emergency (not one precipitated by bottlenecks elsewhere in the business) you cannot simply drop your non-working day plans.

Then you need to have solutions so, for example, would you consider going up to 4 days a week if they were wiling to pay? Or, if you can foresee an issue because information you have asked for/work you've requested has not been handled on time, do you need to flag this and escalate it sooner to your line manager to deal with BEFORe it becomes a crisis on your day off. or whatever you think makes the most sense.

You need to lay out the flag, while still pitching yourself as accommodating, helpful and flexible.

I'm in a similar role but work slightly more days now. I've been very upfront with work that I will do what I can to cover things on non working days with enough notice (and I do) but that if they need me to be there they have to do it on my working days. It was a tricky adjustment to begin with but a few months in being clear on my boundaries and sticking to them has worked. I did also end up saying it didn't seem workable to do the job as it was and requesting to work an extra day which was granted but I appreciate you may not want to do that due to child benefit cut offs.

Don't do this.

Anyone pt at my firm has their working pattern in their email footer and ooo states Monday is my non working day if urgent please contact xxx or I will respond to your email tomorrow or whatever the next wd is.

Boundaries are very much respected as part of the drive on work / life balance.

I'd be respectfully firm op, you don't need to tell them you have plans it's none of their business just 'it's my non working day I can next attend on Tuesday.

I've found that people will take advantage of you, if you let them. I was in a similar situation and if people know you'll rearrange your days off, take phone calls and answer emails outside of your working hours they will continue to expect you to. But I also found once I stood firm and stopped answering people and wouldn't take meetings during my 'off' time, people quickly respected that and after a couple of weeks it stopped and no one treated me differently and it didn't impact my reputation or job.

Stand your ground. I’m in the same ballpark salary wise. I do 4 days, I don’t ever do anything on Monday’s (nwd), not one email and never a meeting. I don’t care how urgent it is.

Yes, I have my days in the email sig, but they're not always the same because of my flexibility!

Today's issue is sorted, I've agreed to do the meeting after my official finish time but on a working day, which is fine, id do that ifbi was FT. Boss has apologised (and did the running around to sort it out) and told me to go and enjoy my day. It's really one of the board members who is on numerous boards and works all hours in all time zones who causes these problems. It was also the board who decided the post should be PT...