How to approach manager about going part time?

[AgrippinaT]

Any tips or suggestions welcome.

I work 5 days (in education) and I have 3 children. The eldest is at secondary (where I work actually) and the younger 2 in primary.

I haven't worked full time in 10 years so this really was a trial for me. This is a relatively new job; been here about a year.

I would like to be able to take and collect my children from primary school at least one day a week! I feel quite stressed and overwhelmed with the sheer amount of 'stuff' I have to do at home. I miss my day off to get shit done.

I'd only want to drop a day. Any tips to approach my manager?! Generally I'm quite confident with these things, but I hate the thought of letting people down at work.

What’s your actual role? What would be the impact on the business of you going part time?

I'm a cover supervisor. We often have days where we don't have much on though. But obviously the nature of the role means that could change without much notice. We're recruiting another full time CS as well.

Ummm... well if you're going to be "letting people down" then your manager would have to be mad to agree to it.

You need to show them how - from their point of view - nothing will change. How will there be cover on the day(s) you're not working? Recruiting someone else probably makes this easier for you as there will - potentially - always be someone who can cover. The flipside is, if they're recruiting someone then presumably it's because they need more of you not less!

Personally I'd speak informally to my manager about it, and suggest ideas for how it might work, get their input before taking it further. Then I'd be following up with an email to say, this is how I see it working, these are potential concerns & this is how we could address them. That may or may not work for you, depending on your relationship with your manager...

I would open by saying “I would like to put through a flexible working request”. The reason I would keep it official from the start is because if you start with a more informal chat and your boss says no, then you would need to say “well I am going to put through a formal request anyway”, which might feel awkward.

So I would state your intention up front. Raising the issue like that would in any case give you the opportunity to chat about it and you should get some kind of a feel for how it will be received and what any concerns might be so that you can address these in the formal request. The organisation can only decline requests for one of eight specific business reasons so look these u and try to cover these off.

Don’t make the request about your and about why you want it, you are not required to explain yourself and nor does knowing this help the company anyway. Good luck.

Thank you.

We have a great relationship (line manager, team and I), and the school are generally pretty pro family when it comes to work. They promote positive mental health and balance all the time.

I would have to start looking for something part time if the request wasn't granted, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want to lose me (ugh modest, sorry). I do my job really well and make a positive impact on the place generally!

Wish me luck