Tips for negotiating PT hours after mat leave?

[ICanSeeTheShardFromHere]

Posted this in chat too, for traffic.

I'm in the middle of sorting out my new PT hours for going back to work after mat leave.

I have to say how I think my new hours will affect the business and what things I can put in place to minimise these effects.

I'm a bit stumped. Whenever I start to write my answer, it just reads like I'm building an argument against them giving me what I want.

I really don't know the best way to approach the conversation. If you've been in a similar position, how did you go about negotiating it?

Hmmm. The business side probably needs the most attention so can you think about how you can work differently to ensure there are no issues? Not all of these will be relevant but things like working differently with a team that might pick up some slack, effective communication so there is no confusion about what you are/are not doing, giving a slightly different focus to the role so that you can be efficient in part time hours... I've recently done similar and also included the fact that I would be able to manage the DC more effectively (check ups, appointments, general child admin) with a non working day, this protecting my working time as far as possible.

(Thus protecting, not this protecting)

I think you need to be clear what you're offering:

Are you offering to cover the same workload for less pay in return for being allowed to work more flexibly? Eg do you have the sort of job where you can log back in after childrens bedtime etc?

Or will the business realistically need to allocate some of your work to colleagues or recruit additional staff to cover some of your full time workload?

Obv it's more attractive if you offer the former rather than the latter provided it's achievable.

Are you client facing, or do you have deadlines to meet? These I think are the hardest to prove won't be an issue.

Mine was agreed on a 3m trial basis. I have worked my arse off to ensure there wasn't anything that was my fault but realistically ny colleague has picked up some slack. I think the trial basis gave my boss the confidence to try it, because he knew if it didn't work he could say so.