to think that work is being difficult?

[marjolaine]

I went on maternity leave last Sept and while DS was only several weeks old he got very ill and ended up in hospital in intensive care. (He's ok now luckily but it has been a long, hard road.) Partially because he was so ill (almost died twice) and I feel lucky to still have him and partially because I don't want to leave him, I met with work in April to discuss my return and said I wanted to do my job part-time. I handle the HR issues for my department of a larger organisation and do confidential/personnel secretarial work for three bosses. They said it has increased in busyness since I was doing it and it needed to be done full-time. I then asked if I could do it as a job share, and they said, "we don't see how it can be done as a job share". Then I asked if I could return full-time and use accrued holidays to work a part-time week, then when the holiday was gone to reassess (to see if I would reconsider pt over ft, to see if I can do the job pt or not etc.) and that was rejected also. All of the options I have requested have been granted for other people (doing other jobs), so they haven't been out of the blue or unheard of. The boss I was speaking to has two other positions I have a choice of doing- one as a PA and the other as receptionist. I don't want to do PA work (different from my secretarial responsibilities, and besides the job will be too busy for pt), and I feel reception work is a demotion from my current position.

Who is being unreasonable here- me or work?

If they are correct that the job you are going back to has to be full time and isn't suitable to split as a job share, then I think YABU. It's understandable that you don't want to go back full time, but you'll probably have to compromise to do it.

It really gets my goat when people say a job cannot be done as a job share - particularly office based roles. Why not? Surely if you handle HR issues you should be able to swing this in your favour? You may have to compromise a bit but I would stick it out for the job share - offer to do it on a trial basis first.

I appreciate you probably wont want to say but we need to know what your role is to decide.

well if they are happy to do this in other situations it would lead me to believe that they believe the job needs to be done full-time and if that is the case then yabu.

Forgot to mention that part of my uni degree is in HR, so I have an interest there.

foureleven: I mentioned that "I handle the HR issues for my department of a larger organisation and do confidential/personnel secretarial work for three bosses." Or do you mean more specific than that?

Originally my job and another job was done by one person, then when she retired they gave a part of it to someone else (pt) and the rest was my job. I don't see how it can't be done as a job share. For example: if I place a recruitment advertisement, why can't the other person collate applications? If the other person does the paperwork for a new starter, why can't I do the induction? etc.

I think maybe what level you are makes a differnece.

How many days do you want to work? Only if you want three it will be hard for them to find someone for just two..

mayorquimby: the other people they have allowed to do this don't work directly for them. Two of the bosses in particular have been unpleasant about pregnant members of staff ("that's what you get when you hire women"; "taking unpaid leave for her daughter? Uh you can get unpaid leave for anything. I want it for my cat!"; when I told one that I was pregnant she said, "oh I thought so, either that or you were pms-ing") so I feel it's personal.

I'm not an HR advisor or anything, just a secretary. It's pretty entry level stuff.
I said I would be happy to do two or three days, whichever was easiest for them.

oh... based on new evidence they are well out of line. Do you have a union?

I thought they had to give serious consideration to your request and give good reasons why it won't work. I can understand why doing the job part time won't work if it is now busier than before, but not sure why a job share won't work for them (unless they don't want lack of continuity?). Another option could be compressed hours? My friend works full time but jammed into 4 days (involves a couple of hours a night at home).

I work part time and was the first my boss had encountered - she was sceptical but also then really surprised at how well it can work.

Here is a really good resource, written from business point of view but very detailed: Business Link Guide

Oh god they sound like stereotypical male bosses who want their secretary to be at their beck and call all day every day.

I know plenty of people who work 2 days a week so think it would be easy to find someone to job share with. They need to think of the positives ... when one of you is on holiday for a week ... they still have the other of you there for part of the week. Ditto with sickness.

If I were you, I would formulate a formal request (as contained in the business link guide) and ask them to reconsider and state why and how you think it would work. Make it formal so if it turns nasty, you at the very least have done everything correctly and followed the correct process.

they have to give good reasons why it wouldn't work, but to be honest you would find it very difficult to fight them on it if they are determined. I applied to return to my job as an administrator part-time and was refused......the reason i was given was that the work load demanded a full-time person and they wouldn't consider a job share because of continuity issues etc etc.

TBH I think you are just going to have to count yourself lucky that they have offered you an alternative position to return to and either accept that or look elsewhere for a part-time position that suits you.

Of course if you really feel that strongly that they are being unfair you can appeal their decision. Also contact ACAS for some advice.

Thanks for the link, wishingchair.

Another option I asked to be considered: when they said it was too busy to do part-time (which is fair enough, I accept that), I also asked if I could work two days a week to be equivalent to two full-time people instead of one part-time and one full-time as it is currently and that was also rejected.

I have a meeting scheduled for Friday with two bosses and someone from the main/org-wide HR. I expect the reasons they will give are the ones mentioned here, needing a full-time person and continuity issues. I don't think I would really fight them on it, as even if I won it would be too awkward to then go back and work with them. My problem is that as they are refusing every compromise I come up with, it feels like they don't want to work with me (to find a solution) at all.

actually they are only obliged to consider part time /job share etc they are under no obligation to do so whatsoever sorry

That's true Maddy, but since they have other part time workers and job sharers in other teams, they need to state why this situation is sooo different.