Ways to find more flexible careers

[HastaLaVistaBebe]

To cut a long story short.. I am in a stressful senior management role working 80% on paper (and in salary) but 100% in practice. To be fair everyone in the SMT works ridiculously hard so it's not just me.

I'd really like what is probably the holy grail, and move to a job that still uses my skills, is ok pay wise (can take a bit of a pay cut) but gives me back a bit of free time. Three days a week would be perfect.

I don't have an obvious job share partner to hand. Does anyone have any good tips on taking your career down a notch without sacrificing everything? Sites where you can find job share partners or flexible jobs? I am on the 2to3days website but they never seem to have anything in my field.

Have you thought about contract work? Not for everyone but plenty of contractors I know (in areas like finance, IT, projects) work less than full time. I'd also love that challenging role at 3 days a week. I work 4 at the moment but am very strict about logging out when I'm on my day off. I took a step into a more junior role for a couple of years when the kids were younger, but found it equally as stressful as I still worried about the workload/team/deadlines but had less control over my time than I do in a more senior role.

Thank you very much for your reply. I have thought about contracting as it could be a good solution. My worries are that when on a contract, the work might be quite intense, and also I am not sure how much of getting contracts will involve going for drinks / dinners / networking - not a massive fan of all that stuff. But it may be the best option.

I totally agree with you that going for a junior role is not likely to result in less stress or fewer hours...

I wish there was a sort of "dating site" to find jobshare partners. As I think that is the most likely route to a three day a week role at this stage.