Managing part time worker

[MrsandMrsSmith]

I've was told yesterday by HR that when a team member returns from maternity leave in May, she will be working two days per week and that will continue for at least a year.

Prior to maternity leave, she was working four days. On her day off, I or other team members would have to pick up her work. We're in project management so sometimes things can't wait, so I dreaded her day off because of the extra workload.

When she went on maternity leave, senior leadership decided we wouldn't recruit any cover. So for nearly a year, her work has been covered by the existing team and a lot if it has fallen to me. I'm burnt out.

I have been looking forward to her return and the opportunity to reduce my workload to a more manageable level.

I imagine management have agreed to two days working as in their eyes we've managed without her and financially it makes sense for them. But what work can I even allocate to someone working so few hours? The kind of work we're involved in can't wait for the days she will be in.

Has anyone got experience of managing someone in what needs to be a full or nearly full time job when they work such few hours?

You have to let stuff fail

• X will deal with that on Tuesday when she is in
• I can only do xyz today so that will have to wait until tomorrow
• I am not aware of the details regarding that, X will assist next week on her return

How is she "of little use" for 2 days? You have too many tasks, you've been managing for several months to complete them and now you have someone who can do 2 days worth of those tasks.

Give the PT staff member a clear project. If anyone asks you to work on it when they're not in, push back and say that's XXXX's project they'll be back on Tuesday. If it has clear deadlines that are missed, record it but don't jump in.

For the other work, when you're over capacity go to your manager and say we can do X or Y - which do you want us to proceed with? Record what you can't do and the outcome/ what you've missed out on. Do this for 3-6 months then use the evidence to put a case forward for a job share for the PT person. This will probably be more appealing to senior as its not a FT salary. Also in my experience as a manager, a job share is preferable as when one is on leave the other is still around that week.

I'm not a people manager but I've managed several projects. I've also worked part time and various numbers of days. 2 days is almost half the week, there's absolutely no reason why any good manager can't find enough tasks to delegate for those 2 days.

I guess you can just assign some of you tasks to her while you're in, so your workload should reduce from
Where it is now as you'll have help
For two days? Treat her like
A pa?

It is the 'who is doing the other 3 days worth of work?' that is the issue here.

It's not just about the quantity of tasks, it depends on the nature of the work. I used to jobshare and it worked fine, but our job was very much a reactive one – picking up the phone and emails and dealing with people coming to the desk. Most tasks were 'in the moment' and sorted out in minutes, or one day at the most.
The OP's work doesn't sound like this.

The same people who've been doing it up to now. I'm not arguing that more staff might well be needed but saying that 2 days a week is of no use isn't helping the case.

What sort of projects does your team manage and what PM methodologies do you use?

This would be fine in my team, the team member plans the time accordingly and others in the team only need to pick up slack in an emergency (rare) as the part time worker is a good planner and PM. We do tend to run standalone projects though, so minimal dependencies on wider projects which is much easier. A week long task just takes three weeks for this individual. Plan that in and if senior management have an issue, they can provide more heads (they soon decide it's actually fine)

That’s, er, helpful.

The OP has been a "team player" by proping up the business need by being FT+ ×/mat leaver role on the same T&C of her FT role and screwed herself over in the process. She and her team have taken over the mat leavers role and basicly made that role redundant.

From senior management piont of view the mat leaver is now adding in extra capacity to the team. Cheap hoilday cover and busy time cover with an ee who is experienced in the team and the role

OP has more man hours at her disposal so as manager it is up to her to use them..I don't know the details of OPs job otherwise I'd find tasks she could be doing to free up some of OPs time.

This isn't a new person. This is the reduction in hours for the duration of maternity leave and for the next year. This means less woman hours not more.

I’d put together a job spec for a job share for her, send it to your manager and ask for approval to recruit. Or go through all projects and ask what can be delayed if it’s really not achievable.

Can she work 2 days over 4? So 4x0.5 days?

You don't need tips on how to manager a PT'er, you need to be less capable.

Your senior management don't think you have a resource problem because you've been knocking yourself out covering your colleague's work. Stop doing this! You need to demonstrate that this cannot be done by failing to do it.

Surely as her Manager it should have been you who considered the flexible working request as she would have needed to put in a request to reduce hours.
In terms of managing her id redistribute her work across the team or get those hours a k filled if possible.

It’s likely to need a few things.

1. Start to get more realistic about what actually can’t wait vs feels like it can’t wait.
2. Look at what work across the team can usually wait. Invoices and reports often being good examples. Look to redistribute work so the stuff that can be done anytime gets disproportionately allocated to her.

Have a conversation with your manager about how you adjust what’s done to match capacity.

It might be reducing frequency of some reports. Or mandatory training. Or pausing starting anything new til a slot opens up from finishing something.

What word(s) would you use to replace man hours?

An improvement on what they've had for the last year though. And as OP is her line manager then she needs to sort it out. Making out that there's nothing she can do for 2 days is ridiculous, when she's been complaining about her absence on mat leave.

This isn’t really about this person. It’s about the management’s unwillingness to provide enough working hours for the work. You will need to become extremely assertive and give them a list of things and ask which should be deprioritised. It’s really hard. I’ve had my department decimated and I don’t find it easy. But when I made it their problem and not mine (aka work didn’t get done as opposed to my home life!) it’s amazing how they found the will and budget to recruit!