Am I mad for considering this?

[KurtCobainLover]

I currently work 15 hours for a week writing grant applications and managing budgets. Prior to a breakdown I also did client facing work with challenging young people and their parents which I loved but after the breakdown I took a step back.

A couple of months ago I applied for a job with another charity working with young people and parents affected by domestic abuse (something which I have lived experience of). I think I could be good at this and I’m ready to go back to client facing. This job is for 20 hours. I’ve been invited to interview tomorrow.

Am I mad to think I could do both and work pretty much full time? Some of the work from both charities could be done from home and I could work flexibly in the evenings and at weekends to keep up.

It would take a lot of juggling but I think I could manage providing my existing manager would allow me to flex my hours which I think he would as long as the work gets done.

Financially it would allow me to reduce my dependency on benefits which can only be a good thing.

20 hours isn't full time, it's part time, 3 or 4 days depending on your hours. Sounds like an interesting job opportunity best of luck, getting an interview is really good in my opinion, they must have liked your application 😁 Good luck.

35 hours a week is less than some full time employees work so I'd suggest you could do it providing there is sufficient flexibility. That's the tricky part. Good luck.

I think so in theory so long as the days/hours don't clash?

Yes 35 hours a week for both sounds doable! My colleague does similar but it had to be signed off by HR as it was a clause in the contract to have one job only.

I don’t think trying to mix your days and workload flexibility would be easy (I’ve done it with different clients and projects as one paid job and it can be tricky due to different demands) but if you agreed say Monday & Tuesday working one job and Wed-Friday in the other I think it would be fine and sets clear boundaries that you’re working your hours for each. You also need to check that both employers will allow you to work for other people.

I suspect you'll be asked how you'll manage conflict of interest. Have an answer ready for that.

Otherwise, in my opinion this role is well suited to 2 part time jobs.

Thank you. I spoke to my current manager today and he’s happy for me to work flexibly as they don’t want to lose me. His only caveat is that I still go on our yearly residential trips with young people so I’d need to take annual leave from the other job for this.

I think I can do it working two long days for my current job and then splitting the other over the remaining three days. I’ll have to discuss at the interview how this could work.

There won’t be a conflict of interest as they are in different locations serving different areas.

I’ve been re-reading the job description and making sure I can give examples of where I’ve met each point and am feeling quite excited now!

I had a serious breakdown 5 years ago which is why I’ve only been working part time so for me the fact that I feel able to go back up to almost full time is huge for me and gives me the sense that I’ve finally recovered.

15 hours is only 7.5 hours a day, that’s not a long day, it’s a perfectly normal working day.

I guess for me it seems long as at the moment I work 5 hours three days a week.

I think the roles could be done together, but the big issue is this from your OP: Prior to a breakdown - basically what matters is you, how far past the breakdown you are and how you are feeling now.

Juggling two part time jobs can be harder than one full time role and it sounds like emotionally demanding work given your emotional connection to the subject matter.

Don't bite off more than you can chew, but if you are feeling ready, you can give it a go.

Edited to say - I just saw your update about feeling ready and the breakdown being some time ago - in which case I wish you good luck