AIBU to think that part time/flexible working shouldn’t hold you back in the public sector?

[MissB83]

To prevent drip feeding I work 4 days a week, 2 from home, in a public sector role. It is the kind of role that you can do at home or in the office, and most of my full time colleagues work 1 or 2 days a week from home as well. In my case I have a small child so it helps with childcare and avoiding time spent commuting instead of working.

However I was told off the cuff by a senior manager that working part time/from home would mean it took me longer to get up to speed with the team's work and would also slow down promotion prospects.

If a workplace offers a flexible working policy in the first place does this seem fair? Or is this discriminatory? (Possibly indirectly as more women are part time?)

Any thoughts?

It's true sadly just no one usually admits it!

My work have part time positions at higher grades that they then add stuff on to make the role full time 🙈

I actually asked to come back 2 days in the office and 1 at home, wasn't allowed. Had to be in the office 3 days for "meetings" even though I don't have meetings everyday. The same manager then reduced her hours, had 2 half days but still "works" 5 days per week but 1 of those from home 🙄

I used to work in the civil service and in my experience promotion was mostly just a bit of a numbers game i.e. the people who applied for the most jobs at the level above got promoted the quickest.

Unless this manager ends up on the panel when you apply for your next role, I wouldn't really worry about one throwaway comment. (And even if they are on the panel I still wouldn't worry too much as there's so much emphasis on fair competition and recruitment has to follow a particular process).

In my experience it was easier to get a part time/flexible role in the civil service but I don't think it's because they're any more enlightened than other employers about productivity vs presenteeism. I think it's because a) they know the salaries aren't as good as in the private sector so they need to find other ways to compete, and flexible working opportunities are a good way to attract/retain employees and b) thanks tk cost saving a lot of departments just no longer have the space for everyone to come to work and have their own desk every day, but that's a bit of a rubbish message to give to staff so instead they present it as an "opportunity".

Whereas I realise anecdotes don't equal data, it isn't my experience that you can't get promoted in the public sector if you work PT or if you wfh on a regular basis. I work PT and wfh a fair bit and am a senior grade, as are many of my colleagues.

However looking after a small child when you are supposed to be working, would not go down well with me if I were your manager. If you are working, then childcare arrangements need to be in place, wherever you are working - in the office or your home office.

@BackforGood I think you've misunderstood my OP. I would never work from home with my DS there. He is at nursery on WFH days. However my commute is 2 hours each way so if I WFH on those days then I can actually do more work because I don't have to stop earlier to pick him up from nursery by 6pm.

No bother @missb83

Oh, right. Apologies.

Sadly, too often on here there are posters who seem to think it is acceptable to claim to be working whilst looking after a baby / toddler / small child, and it really gets my goat as it is because of people like that, other, genuine people then get prevented from being allowed to wfh.

I apologise for misinterpreting your OP. As you were

@BackforGood oh yes that annoys the heck out of me too. I wouldn't even try to turn my laptop on with my feral child in the house!

I have to say though in my experience, I've rarely seen it work well when a manager is part time managing full time employees (unless they job share) particularly if it's "lower" down the scale. I think full time employees need full time managers unless there is a good system of alternative contacts.

@namby take that on board but funnily I was thinking about that last night. I've got a full time manager now and it can take a week or more to hear back from him on an email (it took nearly 3 weeks once!), but when I had a manager who was 3 days a week she always got back to me the next day she was at work... go figure! I think it depends on the efficiency of the person.