To think if you want to work pt you may as well burn your qualifications

[Metoodear]

Having a chat with dh in the car that whatever field your in barr social work and nurseing as a women if you want to go full time

You may as well bun your qualifications because your pretty much going to be unable to find somthing with out taking a demontion or to get the summer off

I have friends who have degrees in mandarin,physiology I had a friend who worked as a high flyer Manger who had to resign as they wouldn’t allow PT work none of my friends work in their degree field because they can’t get the work pt

I myself have had to turn two jobs down one paying 25k and the other paying 28k because they wouldn’t allow PT work

I now earn 700 per month and work 3 days a week

It might just be that in your specific sector there are no pt roles but there are sectors where it's different.

In my job I often have to exchange emails with people who work in university administrative/managerial roles and I estimate about half the people who I correspond with have an email "signature" that includes a general notification of part time hours eg "I work Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays" or whatever. These aren't junior/unqualified people.

I have a friend who is a school SEN specialist and wants to work full time but none of the schools have sufficient budget to pay for an SEN specialist full time so she has 3 part-time jobs that are each 12 hours a week.

I'm not familiar with your particular field op but I suspect that the thing about qualifications in the area of childhood studies is that getting the academic qualifications is much less important than getting the practical experience and a part time worker is only going to accrue experience at half the rate.

By the way @Pompom42 In the end we agreed to 3 shifts per week total 21 hours. They aren't paying me a good hourly rate because of this. it's illegal to pay part time staff less than the same role would be full time. Unless by going pt there are particular accountabilities and decision making powers that are removed from your job description then they owe you the higher wage and you can sue for it. Is there anyone else being underpaid like this as it would be easier as a "class action" ie everyone together.

I work with a number of businesses and professional firms and I'm finding it's becoming the norm to do part time hours, even at quite senior levels. In almost every case, the employee has been with the organisation for a while.

So yes - agree with Caitlin hard to join PT but seems to be easier to negotiate hours once you're in.

I work PT and don't have any qualifications.

I do unskilled work though and I enjoy the flexibility and that I have decent family time. From what I see in a lot of skilled sectors people who work PT often end up doing extra work to catch up and may as well be doing FT.

My organisation are very flexible. I work FT but could easily drop to PT if I wanted. I tend to do 3 days from home but sometimes 5 if the mood takes.

We recently needed to recruit someone PT to cover a specific project, it was specific days and hours because of this, these were listed in the job advert. We found at interview virtually everyone wanted to negotiate the hours, and we couldn't. There may have been scope in the future to change the hours but not at the time of interview. It was incredibly frustrating as it was such a waste of everyone's time.

I've found this previously when recruiting to part time. The specific hours the organisation need don't tie in with what the prospective employee wants.

We've also had people ask for term time only which we can't accommodate due to full time staff already having agreements in place (usually the same 2-3 weeks off over the summer, particular half term etc.)

I've worked part time as a teacher for 5 years. I am about to go full time in September and my husband has been granted 4 days a week. He is an Engineer in a reasonably high up position and a number of workers, men and women, in his company work part time including very senior people. There is part time work out there but often you have to be full time first to cut down.

Both my other half and I work with lots of part timers. To be honest neither of us like it as working with job shares or worse 'pure part timers' never seems to work as well as one person working all week.

Most seem to have been full time until having kids then have reduced hours.

I do 3 days in a professional role but I do tend to pick things up on my non-working days and find it quite hard to find a food balance. Realistically I’m trying to do a full time job in 3 days and I’m now on the ‘mummy track’ where it’s clear I won’t have the same opportunities for progression. When I go for something else I won’t get 3 days again so I feel a bit trapped. I would love to work 3 days for a long time but I don’t think it’s realistic unless I stay where I am forever.

Part time teacher here. It was a nightmare to get part time hours agreed. I had to push push push. I had to drop all responsibility also. Could have carried on as head of department but doing the whole role for half the pay.

Back I didn’t take time off though, that wasn’t my situation (which I’m not going into here as it’s a bit outing). I did manage to get a part-time job when DD was 3 which was perfect for 2 years when I got made redundant. And now . . . nothing.

And the OP isn’t just about asking for your hours to be PT in an existing role.

The other thing of course is that because of this situation people get trapped in their jobs, they don’t move on because they can’t, because they know they won’t get the hours. I wonder how many people are doing jobs they don’t want to, don’t like and don’t really care about because they know that they’ll lose their hours, or their holiday allowance if they move jobs.

I think the sector you work in makes a big difference. 10 years ago I could go back part time even though I had a very specific skill set that wasn't easily replaced. Still very few people I know work part time in this line of work (DH does similar job). Employers are not that willing to be flexible.

It really anyoes me as it's science related and I'm now working in schools where they are constantly going on about the lack of women in science and industry. Well all very good spending years getting them there, only for them to leave when they have families as there is so little flexibly in the system. I know a few mums with science degrees no longer working in their previous roles.

I am aware it has gotten slightly better since I left but still not as good as a lot of other sectors.

I work for a big financial services company and there are loads of flexible hours, part time work options - it's quite the thing currently to encourage diversity and inclusivity and this is seen as one way to do that - for both men and women even in senior positions.

Lots of part time jobs around, but few come with any career prospectives. It's seeing lesser qualified/talented people advance that can be tricky when PT.

I'm a lawyer and work 3 days a week.

FruitCider what do you do in prisons do you work in the OMU? A qualified Probation Officer in the community earns a few hundred under £30k outside of London with banding up to around £35k , that's where the qualification is useful, unqualified probation service officer starts on around £23500. Part time and consolidated hours are very common

As stated upthread I'm a nurse. I do not work in OMU I work on the detox wing. I am paid point 18 band 5.

Amongst the parents of my children’s friends, the ones that have secured good flexible/part time jobs are the ones that worked for the companies before having their children and were able to change their working patterns when they went back after maternity/when the children started school. For anyone else who is looking for a part time job, there isn’t a great lot out there. Everything is advertised as full time and yes, I know that you can request the role to be part time at interview/if they offer it to you, but I haven’t heard that much success for that in real life either(although I know that half of mumsnet has secured part time hours by asking in this way, it just doesn’t seem to work round here).

Depends what you do.

I work 4 days a week with one of those from home. I did go back full time when DD1 was 9 months for over a year, then work agreed to 4 days.

You need to show commitment first then negotiate PT.

I’m a senior manager working 4 days over 5 (mainly around school hours with one long day). Have been working part time for 11 years now in various patterns to suit the ages of my children and have been promoted 3 times.

To the pp who asked how you can be a manger part time, I think it actually helps the more senior you get, because you have more control over your own calendar and I have more competent people to deputise to. Also if I’m in a senior meeting and have to leave I always imply I’ve got another very important meeting, which is more believable now than five years ago! I am now very experienced and good at a niche ish industry, so whilst I’m sure the people above me would prefer someone full time, I’m worth putting up with for my skill set. Plus of course my pro rata salary is lower but I often work from home to finish things off so they are getting good value for money!

I'm a highly qualified law enforcement professional and I'll soon be working part time. Wouldn't be able to do my job without my qualifications. I've found this to be fine in other jobs I've had too...

Don’t think it really dose I think if you already work their and come back after MAT leave then you can get PT it’s unlike anyone on here would get the same role PT afte say 6 years of being at home and no relationship with the company

I work part time as a Government lawyer. Most of my colleagues work flexibly. It does pay worse than the private sector but I find it more satisfying. I don't have the Summer off but in theory I could apply for parental leave

I am in London though. I do have colleagues who commute a long way because they found it hard to find such flexibility closer to home.

I had no problems going part time in my Job. However when I had to move and change jobs I couldn't get anything part time and had to take a caring job just because of the hours.

Even now professional jobs that will accept part time starters are few and far between.

Whether or not managers can be p/t depends on the industry. In some areas managers are “on duty” such as retail where they have to be able to be called on at any time.
In my industry senior managers are not generally on call to staff and are instead working at a strategic level or away meeting funders or policy makers so they do not need to always be present.

I have been PT in my role since I returned from 1st mat leave 10 years ago. I am stuck in the role really, unable to apply for more senior FT roles due to having child with ASD. I’ve clung on to employment by the skin on my teeth at times. No need for me to burn the qualifications as these are still very relevant. I’m in the NHS. Part of the reason I joined 18 years ago was in the expectation of PT after having children (sometimes easier said than done). I haven’t expected term time only/school hours though. And I hung on through the difficult baby and toddler years. I do lack sympathy for people who take years off with little ones then expect PT/school hours/term time only at their previous professional level.

My brother is in HE PT. The role was advertised PT and suits him as he has young DC. Sis in law is in a professional role and left private sector for local authority, again advertised as PT. Her private sector practice employers didn’t get family friendly.

We live a long way from London in an area with low employment prospects but are happy with the work/life balance we have here.

YABU.

Obviously, it's not the case in all professions, but PT is very common in accountancy. Part time, working from home, annualised hours, sabbaticals... flexible working is the norm.

Some roles will never lend themselves to well to part time working, but I guess that's something people don't tend to consider at the start of their careers.