Work party

[esme19]

My work place are having a party in a few months time during the working week on a day I do not work. I work part time.

I knew this event was coming up and spoke to my manager about it and said hopefully it won't be on this day as I'm not the only part time member of the company but it is.

I can't change my days around due to childcare.

Everyone will be given 5 hours out of work to attend.

How is this fair to employees that work part time?!

I feel like women are punished for being part time due to having children!

They can't change the party date for one person, and you can't change your childcare - what can they do?

Do all the part-time workers in your team have the same day off?

As a part timer myself… YABU. Not everything can be set around your schedule. As long as you’re allowed to attend if you can, you really can’t make a fuss without looking a bit silly.

Yes this ^^

You are allowed to attend, you cant sort childcare that isn't your employers fault.

How does it fit with all the other part timers?

As there are months to go could you find some childcare?

Can you arrange additional childcare for a couple of hours extra so you can attend?

What about the part timers that it then doesn't suit if its changed? Women are not punished. Is your child's Dad around? It's no different to it being a Saturday evening and you still can't get childcare. That's not being punished. You must have known you didn't have any childcare options before deciding to have children?

I do have childcare options hence working part time. I have a commitment on that day for my child that I have to attend.
The point being they could've have done it on a day of the week every member of staff works.

They could have.
They should have.

Any D&I training says to do this so not to alienate people with commitments on other days, ie some religions couldn't do a Friday due to prayers.

They haven't accommodated you.

Personally I'd make my manager aware I was disappointed not to have been included and leave it at that.

Is there a reason they haven’t done this though? Lots people on annual leave or work meetings that can’t be missed?

So it's not because that's a non-working day as such - your child has a commitment you can't miss.

I'm not sure it's realistic for a company to find a date when everyone can definitely attend for things like that.

People have different non working days. People might have annual leave booked. Even full time workers might have an appointment of commitment they can't get out of.

I haven't been able to attend occaaional work parties for some of the above reasons. Staff attending get that time of, I haven't. That's the deal, it's really not the end of the world.

YABU.

Just one of those things - someone else could be on annual leave or off sick etc. It's not about five hours off work, it's about the social event together.

No day of the week would be ideal, as you have to assume a work party will not finish at the same time as a normal working day.

I agree with an expression of disappointment and nothing else.

Well you have a few months to organise something if you really wanted to go.

No it's a day I don't work anyway but if I can't change anything around so that I can as I have somewhere I have to attend. You're missing the point of the thread.

This comes across as somewhat entitled.

Are you annoyed you're missing the party, or annoyed everyone else is getting five hours off that you aren't?

Behave! It’s a fact of life that sometimes you miss out on things. This doesn’t sound like a campaign against you or against part time work. Sometimes you just have to suck it up.

Or should I be asking my company to change the date of our summer party next year since it clashed with my birthday this year and I couldn’t go?

This makes it sound aa if you’re annoyed they’ve picked a day where you have other plans- it’s not necessarily about the part time thing?
if you didn’t already have a commitment that day, then would you be able to swap your shifts that week so you could attend?

Unless I’ve misread that, it kind of sounds like “my friend is having a birthday party on Saturday night and I can’t make it cause I have other plans, and she won’t reschedule around me, and now I’m mad!”

I feel like women are punished for being part time due to having children!

Well that's quite a reach isn't it.

So your place of work are having a party and you're angry that they won't arrange around not only your schedule, but also your child's? You're being ridiculous and I hope you don't embarrass yourself talking like that at work.

So presumably other PT workers can swap their days too?
Are you sure there's a day everyone works?
Maybe it's not practical to use a day everyone is in for the party?

You aren't being punished for being a woman or having children. Presumably some of the other PT workers are men? Some don't have children?

I get the disappointment - I work PT, as does my whole department, and we often miss out on some of the "work treats". But they also do plenty we don't miss out on. And some of the FT workers do miss out on when they end up working off site.

But it's not being punished for being a woman or a mother

That's life!

They can't keep everyone happy!!

It happens. I missed the works Christmas lunch for a decade or so because it always coincided with DD's schools end of term activities and I always went to see her in whatever it was. Went for the first time the other year. It was nice but nowhere near as brilliant as it has been in my mind all these years. FOMO is real.

I wish my life problems were like this.

Behave yourself - not everyone who works part time has children for a start and you can never please/suit all staff. All the whingers like you are what made my workplace depressing!