To work 3 days but it not damage your career?

[NattyBeaker]

I've a lo and I'm currently working 4 days which is great so far, I can't see it affecting my career. But I'd love to work 3 days maybe next year, just for one year. Lo is just so much fun and I'd love to hang out with her more just while she's so little. Have a great career and want to study more and eventually move up / on to manage a team.
I've heard women saying it's hard to balance family and careers and now I realise how true that is. I want it all! I've studied, been promoted, worked abroad etc to get where I am. Thinking maybe I can relax on that front while baby is little, just for a short time, and get back to it in a couple of years? Any success stories with this? Not sure why I'm asking as women do it all the time. But women do many things and the full implications are rarely understood until it's you!

I worked 3 days a week after having my first baby (he’s 12 now) and I work something like 30 hours now across 4 days.

My career has probably been affected a bit but not significantly - I earn more money part time than I did full time, have lots of flexibility and have developed professionally.

I had always expected to be back to full time by now but my boys have significant additional needs so this balance I have found has been essential.

Someone in my team does 3 days. It’s definitely holding her back. The routine stuff forms a bigger proportion of her working time, which leaves less time to spend on more interesting tasks and projects which would aid her development. In an ideal world, when she went from 5 days to 3, that proportion of routine vs interesting would have stayed the same, but it’s the routine that is critical, and not enough of it could be re-allocated to accommodate her request. It was discussed in detail during her flex work request meeting.

When I was at the same stage I worked 4 days per week and it was much easier for me to progress and have a good balance of tasks.

It really depends on the industry. Wouldn't make significant difference in mine.

I had 4.5 years out of the workforce then returned 3 days a week for about 7 years. Yes it probably held me back but to be honest I’m not that career driven anymore. I do sometimes wonder where I could be now. I’m an IT project manager. I want to change into a less stressful role not add more stress by moving up the ranks.

I work 3 days per week, have a preschooler and one at primary. It has affected my progression but I think that is partly because I find the children much more interesting than my career now, whereas before pt I would have spent extra time reading industry news, pro bono etc - which is the bit that really affects progression I find. However with my preschooler going to school this year I am really glad of the time with little DC & I am in a really different place than if I had not worked through these years. What are the things that really affect progression in your area? Could you schedule evening time on the days you are with DC for your own career progression if you went 3days pw? Not possible in all areas I know!

I don't know about your career it would depend on the industry but it will affect your pension if you do it long term (which is something I hadn't taken into account )

I work 3 days per week, it has absolutely stalled my career. I am reasonably senior and PT roles at this level are like hens' teeth (my post was reduced from a ft one when I returned from mat leave), so there's no scope for movement or promotion unless I step back up to full time.

It really depends on the industry and career. Same as a PP for me it would because my 3 days would be taken up with the business as usual tasks with no time to do the more interesting stuff; but this will differ. If it was for a short time and you had the choice to increase days again when ready it'll make less difference I bet.

Depends on the role. As a PP pointed out people in our department who go part time end up being the ones who don't have time to do the project work. They have to do the day to day stuff and they all tend to get a bit bored.

I went down to 3 days after maternity leave and back to full time just before youngest started school.
I progressed quickly once I was back to f/t but couldn’t have done my current role or one before it p/t as it just wouldn’t work.

I’ve worked a mix of part time hours over the last 4 years, it’s definitely holding back my progression.

I think I could have progressed with 4 full days, if I’d had the ability to occasionally stay late or pick up work again in the evenings. So almost full time hours but into 4 days.

But at a mix of 3 long days and 4 days 9am-4/5pm I’ve been continuously overlooked for promotion. Instead less experienced staff are getting promoted and then passing the tasks they aren’t experienced enough to do well onto me.

But I’d say it depends on industry, the level you’re at, what’s in the pipeline for the business over the next 12months, and if you plan on taking another maternity leave.

Got for it OP. Your little one is only little once, whereas your career can be caught up on any time in the next 10-20 years.

I have really good experiences of working part time and it actually enhancing my career. I was given the more exciting things because i didn’t have all the time and the more boring stuff was passed down the line.

If more people worked part time then this wouldn’t be an issue. We should normalise being more flexible than we are.

I work in a female dominated profession where it’s very normal to work part time, it’s very industry dependent I think.

Depends on industry and the company you work for. I’ve worked 3 days then 4 days over a span of 12 year after my kids were born and managed to keep achieving well in those years which was recognised by the company. There’s no doubt I would have progressed much quicker at full time, I went back to full time a couple of months ago and have just had a promotion. But I wouldn’t change how I’ve done it, my priority has been my kids and I knew I would earn less pro rata being part time and it would pause some step ups but didn’t mean that the step ups would never be there, they just had to wait

@LegoBingo Exactly this.

I do work on projects, but I don’t get to really ‘own’ them. Instead someone full-time with less experience than me is the face of the project and then tasks (they often aren’t experienced enough to do) get passed onto me. But they get the salary, the final say and all the kudos.

Industry dependent but I am about to go from 4 short days to 5 short days because I'm less visible and the needs/wants of the full timers are being prioritised.

My only warning is that I've found, being a part time worker in 2 jobs the last 7 years, that they assume you need those hours so much you'll put up with some BS.

It’s industry dependent and I also think there is a fair amount of luck involved with this sort of thing, with who is coming in and out of your company during a period of time.

My team is 90% women, we all had/have children, and I’m the only one who never went part time and only took 6 months mat leave – and I’m the one who made it to management and now director level. Saying that, if I had also gone past time, it still would have been one of us – unless someone else had come in who was brilliant and full time (hence the luck involved …). In my industry, it absolutely couldn’t be done in 3 days unfortunately.

I do attribute my working full time and having a DH who can go 50/50 with me with the kids (plus a nanny ..), as the reason my career as so far gone so well. The part time women in my company have stalled quite a bit, and all seem to have partners who don’t do much. They can, however, I’m sure, pick it up again in 5yrs or so and do just as well I am sure – but they have to really want it and have the support at home.

I managed to work part time for about 3 years when mine were little and continue to progress quite rapidly, but I still had to be quite strategic about jobs and studying, i couldn't just take the foot off, I was quite early in my career still though. I had to go back full time when youngest was 2, if i hadn't, my career absolutely would have stagnated (only because of my particular circumstances).