Flexible Working

[Workytypestuff]

Aibu to wonder if work might making it difficult to change my hours? I have a baby now, this is my reason for needing to reduce my hours. They are known for being awkward when it comes to pregnancy and childcare.

I have a meeting next week to discuss switching from 5 days to 2 days, I am on mat leave at the moment due to return early next year.

My role is a basic admin role, part time would certainly cause no issues for customers or colleagues, and the hours I have asked for would allow a job share to slot in easily. A job share would definitely be workable, nothing particularly complex in the work that could cause confusion.

I want to be as prepared as possible for this meeting. Does anybody have any tips or experiences to share to assist me in getting what I have requested?

I really need to keep my job, but cannot work more than 2 days. I would have free family childcare on those 2 days, but could not afford to use a nursery or childminder on other days. I would have to resign and look for something else if they refuse, which I really want to avoid!

I just want to ensure I do everything in my power to keep my job!

If you want to do a job share, it will help immensely if you can find your job share partner in advance. So you're not making your company do the hard work of trying to find someone and match you up.

Also helps you in the long term as you can (hopefully) pick someone compatible who won't leave you with a heap of crap to deal with on your days in.

Can you send an email round your colleagues asking who might be interested in job sharing?

Are there really no issues it might cause for colleagues? Nothing about your job that carries over from one day to the next and might be forgotten if you are not there? Try to be really careful about thinking about possible issues, and then saying how you would ensure it wasn't a problem (eg you would write a daily handover email to your job share partner to ensure nothing was forgotten)