Asked to increase part time hours

[GGee123]

I currently work part time 3 days a week managing a team of 11. I have been in the role for 14 years, working part time for 8 of those years. I easily do the equivalent of a full time role, working long days on the days I work, occasionally working on my days off, continually monitoring emails & have never had, to my knowledge, a situation where my working part time has negatively impacted my team who are all performing well.

We have recently got a new Director who wants me to increase my hours, she has said ideally 5 days but would settle for 4. I really do not want to increase my hours, I would struggle with existing commitments & am fortunate I don't need the extra money. Her argument is there needs to be cover at all times & has said she'll initiate a consultation. I'm possibly prepared to work a 4th day til school pick up time but don't believe this will be acceptable.

I've spoken to Acas so I know the facts, but I'm a bit lost on exactly how I should approach this, what I should say or what arguments I should make to get the best outcome. Or whether I should just suck it up & be grateful I have a job!

Why would you not want to be paid for the hours you seem to be working anyway? Surely it makes more sense to do a 4th day and be paid for it and put some firm boundaries in place so you are no longer working on evenings & days off

Can they not advertise your role for the days you don't work?

Job share 60:40 or 50:50 if you dropped some hours?

How did ACAS advise you approach it? Surely they gave you advice on next steps?

Yes - I thought the same. Perhaps you can suggest that to the new director OP? If that was a possibility it would also mean you not having to work on your non-working days - for which you are unpaid, derive no other benefit, including pension... 🌹

The flexibility to be able to have the time off is more important to me than more salary, it's an extremely full on, stressful role that put me in a bad place when I was previously full time, so work life balance & to be able to guarantee I won't be working a 4th evening late & have at least 1 day free is important to me.

A job share isn't an option unfortunately, the role involves a lot of projects etc not feasible to handover. My understanding is the company is trying to reduce & remove part timers altogether.

Acas just told me my rights & facts, ie the company would need to demonstrate I can't do my role in those hours, but I know my new Director is very determined so looking for tips on how to best phrase an argument in my favour.

How long have you been there? You really need proper legal advice. What did ACAS say?

I think I'd start looking for another PT job, because if you do go full time then you'll probably be unhappy but if you stay PT your boss will be unhappy. I have been in your position. I 'gave in' and went FT but hated it.

Could you not even make it to sentence 2?

the company would need to demonstrate I can't do my role in those hours

But the thing is, you can't! You've already said you are working longer hours and on your days off to get things done?

I think I would offer what you have said, work 4 days but with in writing that the fourth day is between school hours.

That's in your favour because you'd effectively not really be working more but would be getting paid more (to reflect what you actually do).

and stop working evenings and on your days off!

She has suggested a consultation... have a frank discussion with her and determine if this is intended to be a meaningful discussion with all options available for consideration including remaining at the status quo.

Work out what hours you are actually doing
Define what full cover means to your new manager
Set out the roles, responsibilities, response times etc.
Are there tasks / responsibilities that might be added to the role?

Can you define scenarios where your presence might be required on your non working days or your input might be required and propose solutions?

Would it be possible for you to have a deputy on your non working days - be prepared for that person to have their eye on your job though?

What about a support position using the budget for your extra two days who relieves you of some of your less skilled tasks / less of the higher level thinking and also implements an escalation process on your non working days whereby you can be contacted and can step in if required, tasks can be directed elsewhere or can be flagged as to be resolved on your return, perhaps committing to a two hour window each day, if required, with two hours notice, on exceptional basis.

It sounds like you believe that she wants 5 days at any cost..

You have done the role for 8 years, part time.. Gently push her to working out what it is that needs to be changed... is it, physical presence at a daily meeting, is it to be available for her questions / actions at short notice, is it to be available for your team at short notice?

How can you prove to her that your team is empowered and that your team can meet her needs at all times?

If OP goes to four days a week then her manager will add an extra 33% to her workload…

Truthfully, I would not want a manager of 11 to be on a three day week either. I think you are in denial if you think this has no impact on anyone else, it simply must do. Either the team themselves who have to wait for you to be in the office to ask questions / seek guidance / escalate to or your manager who presumably has to deal with these things otherwise.

If you don’t want to increase your hours, I think you could try to help to come up with a workable alternative, appointing a deputy or finding a way to job share.

On the legalities, they cannot force you out because they are part time. Sometimes people think that they can make the part timer redundant in order to recruit a full timer for the same role. This is unlawful, you can only make roles redundant if there is a lack or work or a lack of work in a particular location, not because there is a surplus of work and the employer prefers a full time position.

*because you are part time - not they 🙄

If you read the timing on my post you may have realised my post cross posted with OP’s second post.

I was talking about your question 'How long have you been there?' which the OP explains in her first post, second sentence.

Actually job-share is almost always an option.

There is no reason why you and your jobsharer can't work on the same projects or on different ones.

Since you have been working for 8 years with this pattern without any issue about your performance or complaint from your team, this is your establish work pattern and they can't just suddenly ask you to change, as this would equate them trying to change your contract. They would need your agreement. ACAS should have told you that.

Also if you have caring responsibilities/children you can also argue that asking to change your work pattern would put you as a disadvantage and would go into discrimination territory (as women are more likely to have the sole burden of caring responsibility and asking for a sudden change in work pattern that impacts your caring responsibilities would mean you might have no choice but leave your job).

If your company is trying to ''remove all part-timers'' that might backfire spectacularly because these part-timers will often be parents, people caring for elderly relatives (and very likely to be women) and disabled people/people with long term health conditions. So ripe for employment tribunal claims...not to mention that it is unlawful full stop to treat part-time employees less favourably.

it really saddens that we are still in a place where so many employers decide to mess around with and potentially lose good, committed staff because they can never deviate from the antiquated view that you can only do a job if you are full time and glued to an office chair.

I really don't understand why so many are reluctant to accept that flexible working, part-time work, remote working and so on are also perfectly good ways to be productive.

Probably the same employers who then whinge they can't recruit and/or retain staff...

To me it sounds like the ''consultation'' could be the start of redundancy so you need to ask her in writing to clarify what is meant there and get proper legal advice.

^ This. It does sound like you cannot do the job in your current part-time hours and your firm will be able to demonstrate that by the amount of contact you have with colleagues out of hours and on your days off. If you really don't feel able to do four days because of the pressure, I think you'll have to leave. You could argue constructive dismissal but I think it's going to be hard to prove. They could easily argue that the needs of the business have changed and a team manager of 11 who works only three days a week is no longer feasible.

I think I'd simply say "thanks so much for the offer of extra hours, but I'm happy with the hours I do at the moment" and leave it at that. Let her initiate the consultation, it's more work for her.

"I easily do the equivalent of a full time role, working long days on the days I work"

It sounds like you're full time already but being paid to do a part time job

Are they looking at the fact you're sometimes there, sometimes not on your days off, working longer hours, essentially proving it is a FT role whilst pretending it's part time because that's what you're paid as. And then when you decide actually you're going to have your days off, actually you're causing an inconvenience because of the expectation you've set of your part time being full time in disguise.

I had two part timers last year who had been given the working pattern they liked rather than what would work for both sides by the previous manager. They both struggled and ended up working extra hours in secret. As soon as I found out I moved them to a different team (very similar work, with their agreement) and put them into a formal jobshare. Luckily I could solve it that easily but there is a duty of care to staff and that may also be a factor in your director's thinking.

I didn’t read it that way at all, more that the current job can’t be done in 3 days. Which it can’t given that OP is doing so much extra unpaid

That was @Dillya not sure why it didn’t quote

I currently work part time 3 days a week managing a team of 11. I have been in the role for 14 years, working part time for 8 of those years. I easily do the equivalent of a full time role, working long days on the days I work, occasionally working on my days off, continually monitoring emails

so how many hours are you actually working?

You currently cannot do your work in the PT contracted hours though, as you are working longer on the days you are in and even picking up work outside of your contracted hours.

The role clearly needs at least a 4th day.

But you can say that about lots of senior management roles. Most people work beyond their contracted hours to keep up in busy roles. Does that mean companies should increase contracts to 50 hours a week?

OP - I would do as a pp suggested. Explain that you want to remain 3 days per week, as you haven't been made aware of any occasions where it hasnt worked well within the last 8 years.

Then, if she does go through with a consultation and it concludes they need full-time, then you can perhaps negotiate 4 of 5 shorter days - and look for alternative p/t roles if that's not what you want longer term.

I get part timers are rarely desirable in senior or management roles, but for the sake of equality, it's important that all employers do their best to accommodate them.