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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not want to give someone on my team part time hours so they "can recover from the weekend"

149 replies

ljwales · 15/04/2015 17:24

I've got a member of my team who wants to go part time, single and late 20s and no children. He's put forward a proposal that includes wanting more time to relax after busy weekends and to go away on more long weekends.

I can't legally stop this as people of the same role do it part time, but aibu to think this isn't very professional?

OP posts:
Pico2 · 15/04/2015 22:03

I think that you are missing part of the bigger picture OP. You will have to recruit to fill the other 2 days and that will cost. But finding PT jobs can be hard, so you will probably find that PT staff stay longer and reduce recruitment costs in the long term. I have been in my PT post for 3 years and am very unlikely to find an alternative so will be there for years. My FT predecessors only stayed for 2 years. And my employer gets 100% focus while I'm there, I don't spend hours on the internet like my FT colleagues.

MsRinky · 15/04/2015 22:05

I work Tue-Thu and have a long weekend every weekend. No kids, no responsibilities. I do it because I can afford it and I love it. Also, I'm really good at my job, and my employer probably gets as much out of my three focused days as they do other people's half-hearted five, for 40% less money, so they couldn't be happier either.

SASASI · 15/04/2015 22:12

I get where you are coming from OP.

I'm going onto a p/t job share role.

I wrongly assumed from information given that my job share was an older lady close to retirement. She is late 20's no responsibilities mortgage etc & simply wants to work P/t only. Although to be fair it's a decent grade in public sector so £ decent at p/t.

I certainly wouldn't have contemplated working part time at that stage in my life & I'm only doing so now because of DS. But honestly I can't see me working full time again, unless it's the last 10 years or sthing to bump up my final salary pension. If I don't have to, why should I?

I'm going to enjoy my life, my family, my home.

Flossiefloss · 15/04/2015 22:29

Haha he'll soon realise that part-time isn't all it's cracked up to be. I've been working a three day week since I had my son. All it means for me is trying to fit the same amount of work into less hours and for less pay. I end up working at least an hour of unpaid overtime every night and having people tutting at me and looking put out when I remind them that I'm not going to be in the office the next day.

jollydad · 15/04/2015 22:30

I work p/t, 3 days a week. Although I have a DC I can't honestly say that child care issues are the reason I work p/t.

In my last company I had a very demanding role (for me anyway). I enjoyed it for a while but for the last 2 years it felt like it was sucking the life blood out of me. I honestly think another couple of years of it and I would have become ill.

As PP have said you're probably find he's much more productive in the days he is in he office, I know I am. I also realise that I'm very lucky to have landed a part time role (it was advertised as such in the beginning) and its unusual for a guy in my profession to work p/t. That makes me much more loyal and less likely to leave.

Not everybody is career focused and that's not neccesarily a bad thing for an employer. My role is pretty specialised and needs someone with a fair amount of experience to do it, but its not really going to lead anywhere career wise. So it suits both of us at the moment.

I think if the OP does agree to the request she may well be pleasantly surprised at the amount of work and commitment she gets from him over the three days.

SolidGoldBrass · 15/04/2015 23:16

I always heard (having a designer in the family) that design jobs are like gold dust and there are about ten or fifteen perfectly qualified applicants for every vacancy. So if you employ designers and they immediately go part time and no new ones want to replace them, just how shit is your company to work for? Is it really, really, boring design that could be done by a toddler group with some round ended scissors? Do you have horrifically unreasonable clients? Or does your "how dare you want a life, we OWN you" attitude as expressed on here spill over into your dealings with employees?

MidniteScribbler · 16/04/2015 03:12

Good on him. I intend to semi-retire at 50, and plan to spend my extra time sitting on the verandah reading a book. None of the employers business how I choose to spend my time outside of work. I think flexible working should be the norm, not the exception. Life is too short to be a slave to work. Besides, if those that could afford to go part time did so, that would mean more part time jobs available for others.

MidniteScribbler · 16/04/2015 03:12

Good on him. I intend to semi-retire at 50, and plan to spend my extra time sitting on the verandah reading a book. None of the employers business how I choose to spend my time outside of work. I think flexible working should be the norm, not the exception. Life is too short to be a slave to work. Besides, if those that could afford to go part time did so, that would mean more part time jobs available for others.

KatieKaye · 16/04/2015 06:56

I think the person being unprofessional here is the OP.
Sounds like she would benefit from some HR input and maybe training in team management, equalities etc.

ThingummyJigg · 16/04/2015 07:07

Is he using Mondays and Tuesdays to set up his own business, do you think? Or is he just going to sit in his house and count his money? Wink

Lottapianos · 16/04/2015 07:46

MsRinky, you are living my dream. Well, one of them anyway Grin good for you. Very jealous.

BlinkAndMiss · 16/04/2015 07:54

OP, your attitude is exactly what's wrong with employment in this country - you expect that employees are your property who will live to work. So what if he wants Monday and Tuesday off to recover from parting, it's his right to have a work/life balance that suits him.

By allowing employees to have hours which suit them you're helping them to be more productive. By criticising and judging part time requests, whatever the reasons, your just winding yourself up. You need to take a leaf out of his book!

hackmum · 16/04/2015 08:20

If he previously worked in a high-powered, long-hours job in the city for five years, I think it's probably the case that a) he's burnt out b) he has enough money that he can afford to take things easy for a while.

I don't blame him for wanting to work part-time - if he has enough money and there are other things he enjoys doing more, why not? But of course the OP doesn't have to accept his request for part-time working if it would be to the detriment of the business.

sleeplessbunny · 16/04/2015 08:31

He is not being unprofessional, you are. His personal life is none of your business.

This attitude from employers to part time working really pisses me off, and does a huge disservice to women as they make up a large proportion of part time workers. A part time worker is just as capable of producing high quality output as a full time worker and should be valued accordingly.

FruitOwl · 16/04/2015 08:39

Good for him wanting to enjoy his work-free time a bit more. I went down to 3 days a week last year after a period of pretty horrendous work-related stress. Was FT in the job for 5 years before that and cuts to the service meant that over time I was effectively doing 2 people's work, and it burned me out completely. I didn't even enjoy my weekends because I dreaded Monday mornings so much. I can honestly say it was 100% the right choice to go PT and I'm very grateful to my employer for giving me the option and, more importantly, not judging me or treating me differently because of my choice. Life really is too short.

mynameisnotmichaelcaine · 16/04/2015 08:47

Good for him! You only get one life.

DrDre · 16/04/2015 09:07

I hope to go part time in about a decade or so. By then I will have worked full time constantly for 25 years (unless I become out of work) and I will simply have had enough of it. My kids will be grown up, I will be financially secure, I will be doing it purely for my quality of life. Hope I don't get labelled as unprofessional when I ask Shock
As an aside, I think that the word 'unprofessional' is massively over used. If you have a difference of opinion at work the 'unprofessional' card seems to get played quite a lot when it is nothing of the sort. My wife is a teacher, and she has seen this quite a lot in her career.

Seriouslyffs · 16/04/2015 09:20

Good for him, work life balance etc
But check the recruitment agencies contract because paying over £10000 for someone who didn't work full time for a year is crap and I see why you're annoyed.

mumeeee · 16/04/2015 09:31

OP I think YABU. He has requested to go part time as he has busy weekends he hasn't said he parties all weekend you have just presumed that. Some peoples hobbies take up a lot of time. He is not being unprofessional asking for part time hours he has every right to do so.

Redcastle · 16/04/2015 09:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DrankSangriaInThePark · 16/04/2015 09:51

So the bit about him being out on the lam every weekend was your assumption OP?

You sound an utterly dreadful employer, for all the reasons cited by others above.

And I'd much rather have a guy on my team who I know is going to pitch up on his set days than someone who is going to ring in 10 times a month because their kid has a sniffle.

(As an aside, do people still really ask those ridiculous old cliché questions at interview about where you see yourself in 10 years time? Really? OP, get yourself updated, please!)

Gubbins · 16/04/2015 10:17

I'm so heartened by these responses. I do wonder if it would be different on another forum though.

The more men who go apply to go part time, the more acceptable it will become for parents and carers to work part time. We will head towards a norm where it is recognised that professionalism is not dependent on the hours you put in but the work you do. It doesn't matter if he wants to play golf every Friday, recover from a hangover every Monday, or leave every lunchtime to care for his elderly mother. Part-time working benefits everyone.

ivykaty44 · 16/04/2015 10:29

Vivalebeaver ......way yo go. I usually do cycle on my time off in the summer as I work part time, with her gym comes into play.

I don't work in a professional capacity but then professional seems to be used for all sorts of occupations now and has become a word that doesn't mean what it used to.

Life though is not a dress rehearsal and I don't live to work I work to live and am not going to set the world alight with a career.

There are a lot of people that are happy with their chosen occupation but don't want to move upwards on a career ladder.

wanttosqueezeyou · 16/04/2015 13:38

Agree ivy 'professional' is used very widely.

FWIW I don't think any of the GP's at my surgery (and it's a big surgery) work full time. I don't think of them as any less professional.

Pico2 · 16/04/2015 15:54

I've heard parents at schools described as "unprofessional", which is bizarre use of the word.