To feel part time workers get a raw deal when it comes to progression

[shouldbesleepingnotscrolling]

I went part time after I had my first baby, my employer that I have been with for nearly 10 years wouldn't let me reduce my hours in the current role where I had a small team I managed, so I had to take the only position available in a different department, not managerial but same pay, pro rata'd.

I have since not had any opportunities to use previous transferable skills, promotions or go back to managing, job sharing will not be considered with other part time members. Even when I have been putting in extra hours and taking on additional work and responsibilities.

So I thought Id look outside the company, there are barely any part time roles available that aren't entry level, most are MW. Ive contacted local recruitment agencies and searched online.

My options seem to be stay in a job with no progression or recognition or take something on less pay at entry level with the hope there may be a chance to progress eventually.

My AIBU is to think there doesn't seem to be any decent opportunities for someone willing to work hard with good experience or am I just doing something wrong?

Generally speaking, part timers in senior level roles start full time and then cut down. You usually have to put in the legwork to prove yourself at that level before you get to reap the rewards (IE going part time).

I agree, to be in a senior role and part time you have to put in the work to get there but I feel like although not senior I did put in the work and have continued to do so on pro rata'd hours and pay. But after several years I still cannot change roles into a different area or develop professionally at all. I feel stuck unless I move down in pay or position.

ive worked FT since having two kids and I’m now in a fairly senior position in a bank and can now think about cutting hours. The legwork and financial sacrifice to get there has been pretty full on at times but worth it to get to that level of pay.

i think you tend to have to do that to get the rewards - rightly or wrongly

Could you increase your hours?

how many hours do you currently work and what could you feasibly flex up to?

It really depends what you mean by part time. I have had progressed whilst being part time but it’s been more like 80-90% FTE, and it mostly happened after my kids got to school and so I was able to stretch over the whole 5 day week. I’m currently working full time as I’m studying but might drop my hours back slightly when I’m done with that. But fwiw, I think there is some sacrifice needed to progress and being close to or at FT is one of them.

Currently Im doing 24 hours but even that is tight to get back for school and nursery pick ups. DH does some school runs so I can get in early and finish later on one day.
When DD is in school it should be easier to increase hours but even then she would have to do after school clubs every day and I feel it a lot at her age. Im just a bit fed up of having no options without putting kids into full time nursery and after school clubs every day but I suppose that is the sacrifice.

Plenty of career progression for p/T in the NHS in fact in my team there’s re more P/T managers than full time staff

Ive tried looking in the nhs but cant find anything thats not entry level or with specific requirements such as nursing experience etc.
The frustrating thing is my managers know I have no options to move so can keep asking me to do extra work/unpaid hours.

Can your DH do more at home/with the children so you can work more hours?

My career has progressed since having DS but that's because I work full time and have a DH who facilitates this. He also works full time but we make sure we share childcare related responsibilities.

We also use before and after school clubs which DS loves. We currently use them 3 days a week but DS would go every day if he could!

It's the same in any industry. You've got to do FT first while progressing.

Easiest solution is for DH to a stint at part time, you get a new full time role with progression. Why have you allowed only your career to a take a hit?

Last two jobs I've applied for have been full time, but in interview I've asked if they'd consider employing me part time (4 days). Both did and I got both jobs. Might be worth a try?

I don't think part time managerial roles work in most professions. We recently had a manager who had to leave because they just couldn't carry out the work on the hours they were doing, and that person was doing 30 hours a week - it just wasn't feasible, especially as a people manager, you ideally need to be more available to your staff.

I think going part-time means you usually have to accept that you won't be progressing at the same rate as your colleagues who work more hours than you. As you said above, that is the sacrifice.

I'm totally stuck where I am. I went pt after dc1 and it seems that unless I want to go full time again (I don't) there are no openings at my level. Tbh I've made my peace with it now, but it's taken 10 years and a few frustrating job interviews to get here.

They do and as PPs have pointed out you usually have to be FT when you're in the "climbing the greasy pole" phase of your career.

It is frustrating: to be fair I can see how, optically, its very difficult for young, FT workers to swallow the fact that someone who works fewer hours is being promoted faster than them, however competent, so I understand how employers find it hard to justify promoting PT workers at the same pace as FT workers. It takes a very progressive workplace to do this.

But as with so many things in working life, if work were distributed more fairly between the sexes across paid and domestic work when children come along you'd find far more men wanting to go PT and you could bet your bottom dollar that would change things.

If men routinely had to go PT to do more childcare and were finding themselves being discriminated against in the promotion stakes they would kick up an almighty stink about it in a way women for the most part don't. The reason men don't usually need to is because in the vast majority of cases the woman will take the career sacrifice (thus damaging her own earning potential) and go PT so the men can carry on tearing up the career ladder.

This is one of the major things holding women back from advancing in the workplace. And one of the many reasons why the last frontier in promoting equality between the sexes isn't so much hiring more women, its getting men to do more domestic and child-related labour.

Same! I did manage to get an interview which was advertised as ft and they said they could try and work it out, the interview went well but they came back and said unfortunately they couldn’t accommodate pt.
I think Im just getting to the stage where I have to accept it for now until my kids are older. Its so demotivating at work tho, its not just the money/position, Id like something new that I can learn and develop in.

You have a husband. Don't sacrifice your career over his unless you want to. Let him go part time for a while.
All women in marriages need to do this
If they want careers. If a couple has kids they should share the load, not the workplace so to speak.
I sacrificed my family time for my career, which I'm now glad of with older more expensive kids, but it wouldn't have been possible doing part time hours. It just isn't. And it would be the same for men. They just aren't usually part time workers because most couples decide between themselves that the mother takes the hit! Which is absurd really. I put earn most men now and certainly all the men in my company.
Women need to insist in equality in their relationships as well as their work! Therein lies the rub!

Why do you have to accept it?
Has you husbands career taken a hit after having children?

I could have written this OP. I've been in my role for 14 years in a really niche science dept. Went part time 7 years ago after first was born as couldn't afford the childcare on my full time wage- I was the first to go part time in the department ever.... This year I finally had enough of being denied the opportunity to progress simply based on hours so I started to look elsewhere. Secured a different public sector job but frankly didn't want to leave the one I loved so I decided to fight.

A more senior post came up and I applied- was told that part time wasn't an option so I contacted the union and HR and sought advice. Funnily enough the words indirect sex discrimination really seem to focus a manager's brain and make flexible working a bit more feasible. I've now secured a permanent contract part time doing the job I love. Without going for the job and asking the awkward questions I wouldn't have got it.

Do you have a HR dept? A union rep? Look at ACAS, the flex appeal campaign (ran by motherpukka) and apply for jobs regardless- even if they say full time. Ask the awkward questions- what percentage of workers are full time/ part time in your organisation? How does that break down into sex? Fight them. It's the only way that they listen. X

You don't have to accept it! Go full time and make DH take the part time hit.

Why do women trash their careers to protect the big man jobs?

It can be very difficult having part time managers for junior staff. I work in a company that’s very big on promoting women into senior positions, which means a lot of them are mothers who work part time. I think the ones who work 80% of full time hours are fine, but the senior PM on my current project only works 3 days a week, and one of those is short hours. Our work is entirely client-based, so when she’s not working if the client has a massive problem or needs something urgently, the rest of the team have to make senior-level decisions in her absence or involve other staff who are not working on the project to approve budget changes etc. which is pretty rubbish. I think there are some instances where part time working doesn’t fit with the actual job.

You are totally NBU. people are assuming you're at a high level and then you can cut your hours. What about those who didn't get to a senior level before having children. I earn less than 30k and had my children (twins) at 32. I had to go part time because there was a total lack of affordable, good childcare. I didn't plan for twins. Trying to work full time around baby twins would have left us with a deficit as well as sacrificing my mental health. It's 2022, even though pretty much everyone in my industry works remotely the majority of working patterns are still firmly fixed at 9-5 Monday to Friday. I'll tell you who that working pattern suits - men.

I'm applying for new jobs at the moment and on linked in if i search jobs in my industry i get 245 results. If i search the same thing but select part time/job share i get 2.

It's 2022 and companies still look around all wide eyed at how they've got a gender pay gap. Well, this is why. If companies can allow women to go part time at senior level, then it should be even easier to do it at my level. It's indirect discrimination because the majority of part time workers are women.

That's before we even get started on my colleagues attitudes towards me. They fully expect me to complete as much work as them and view any slight concession i get, such as slightly less work, as evidence that I'm not working as hard as them. Regularly have to defend myself in team meetings while my manager sits and watches.

DH already does a 4 day week but he really cant reduce any further, he is earning a lot more than me so we would have to take a massive hit financially whilst I got any career movement going.
I dont think I realised when I went pt, how difficult it would be to keep a career going. I guess I thought it might just take longer to progress/find new positions but not that Id be stuck completely.

This is where a job share would work - there is another part timer at the same level of experience as me and we could easily cross over and take 3 days each but Ive raised it and its not being considered.

It's not her fault though. The company have evidently decided that the "cost" of her working part time ie your other colleagues occasionally having to help out, is reasonable. It's not her working part time that's the issue. The issue is her colleagues attitude towards it. What would you do if she was on annual leave?