Prospects as a part-timer?

[PartTimer923]

Has anyone advanced in their career while on reduced hours? I cut down to 3 days following maternity leave. My company say they are open to job share etc, but in practice this seems to be just for entry level/admin jobs, not for any managerial roles. I know one friend at a different company who is a manager on reduced hours, but she was a manager first, then reduced her hours while in post. Everyone else I know that has reduced their hours has then stayed at the same level. Has anyone successfully applied for a promotion while only working part-time?

Anyone...?

I have unsuccessfully applied for a few promotions when working 3 days a week like yourself. I now only look for jobs advertised as part-tine / jobshare / flexible. Not a mixture like I used to. Good luck, keep trying.

All the part time managers I have had have all done 4 days tbh.

I think it's also a very difficult job to do as a share, as I direct report, i can imagine it causing chaos with different opinions to any work related issues, and the potential for unhappy reports to play you off each other.

Can you put together a plan for how the job can work in your company and present that alongside the application? Or try getting yourself a mentor in your company (who doesn't work with you) to work out how to help you make it work with the company culture?

4 days a week - yes, plenty of my friends/colleagues (and me!) have progressed.

3 days a week - definitely a slower progression.

Could just be my sector of course!

I'm 2.5 days a week (spread equally over 3 days) and am now resigned to staying stuck at the level I'm at. I don't think there's a lot of chance of promotion unfortunately. 4 days seems to give you a lot more opportunities.

I have never seen anyone progress or occupy a position of reasonable seniority on three days a week. Four days a week, yes I have seen that.

It's very doable on four days. I worked four days while DC were preschool and progressed. Anything less than that... unlikely. Every choice has pros and cons.

On paper, the company says it is open to job shares at all levels, but in practice, I don't know a single one 🙁

I’ve progressed steadily on 2-3 days. But my company is all part time. And being senior part time feels very hard- but maybe it’s just the seniority that’s hard!

I also know of several job-share pairs who have successfully applied for and got big jobs as a pair.

4 days seems to be possible, any less than that and it is harder to progress

I think it is just difficult to be a manager if you are only there for 3 days a week. You need to have a certain amount of presence as a manager and 3 days is often not really enough.

I think in non management roles it would be easier to progress as part time. That doesn't necessarily mean admin - could be technical roles etc - but I think managers need to be there.

In my job you’d be fine, but most staff are part time and no one wants to be a manager. I suspect that’s the exception though. I do think you’d need to be flexible if only on 2/3 days though, eg keeping on top of emails.

I am currently writing a proposal for my company (small consultancy) on a method to create a successful job share scheme to avoid this exact pitfall of part time working.

I would absolutely love the thoughts of others... have you ever worked in a managerial/senior job share that has worked? Do you have ideas for making a scheme work?

The only job share schemes I have observed put the onus on the employee to find someone who does a similar job who has similar (or opposite) working requirements and initiate the process. That's a needle in a haystack in itself but chuck in the fact that it then leaves very little thought for the comparability of those two people then it's almost doomed from the beginning.

This leaves people who are working part time disillusioned and feeling stuck but also leaves a huge, highly experienced, extremely driven section of potential workforce untapped.

I have been successful working 3 days a week but because my company is very new it has been in a very unstructured way. I earn more money, WFH and have loads of flexibility. I feel very fortunate and consequently want to use my position to open similar opportunities to other women.

I would say that it helps to reframe it. Break down a full time job... You have tea breaks/lunch breaks, probably participate in unnecessary meetings. If you work in an office job then it's not unlikely you do a bit of personal admin on company time, etc.

When you work 3 days most of that disappears and you spend the time much more focussed. I frequently reassure my clients (who always want 5 days) that they are not losing as much time as they think. So sell yourself and sell WHY you CAN do the job in less time.

(If you happen to work as a PM, PMO or in change/transformation then PM me).

@Mortimercat
''I have never seen anyone progress or occupy a position of reasonable seniority on three days a week. Four days a week, yes I have seen that.''

I have worked 3 days a week for about 15 years now and had no issues securing Senior Manager/Head of team level roles.

Part-time workers can't be discriminated against by the way when it comes to promotions/pay rises simply because they do less hours.

They need to be treated the same as full time workers and given the same opportunities.

I'd definitely say it's doable on 4 days, I've successfully applied for steps up and kept my 4 days. And I've seen job share partners get promoted together also, but only after proving themselves at a lower level as a pair.

@Muststopeating that sounds like an interesting piece of work- and I agree that very new companies sometimes have much more scope for building the role round you!
i know the civil service runs job-share “dating” events from time to time, for ambitious part timers to pair up for the long term. I’ve recruited my own job share partner a few times too, which helps- although I’ve always experienced it as “Co” whatever job, so we split the tasks and share the big directional thinking, overlapping for some of our time, rather than splitting the time to have cover every day, which does function differently.