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?

Sorry I should have said. They clearly should be recruiting a 12mknth fixed term 2-3 day a week role for your team.

Firstly you need to be really careful not to “other” her. She’s returning from maternity leave and working part time, presumably due to childcare, so if you treat her differently she could claim that you are discriminating against her.

What processes do you have in the team to deal with handovers generally when people are on holiday etc.? Are there systems or software you can put in place to help allocate work and keep sight of it?

If you are managing projects due you use daily stand ups and sprints? She could take on tasks that are achievable in 1-2 days.

Do you know what two days she is working? Make sure essential meetings are on those days so she’s not left out.

Part time working is very common so I’m surprised it’s causing you so much angst. Assuming she is a good colleague it’s worth being flexible for the few short years she needs to reduce her hours.

The bigger problem of overall reduced capacity you’re going to have to look at either making efficiencies in the work or making a clear case to management for extra resources.

She’s returning from maternity leave and working part time, presumably due to childcare, so if you treat her differently she could claim that you are discriminating against her

But the OP doesn't want to treat her 'differently', she's unable to treat her the same as their colleagues.

Depending on what days she's going to be working, it will often be the case that work allocated can't be completed until well into the following working week, whereas the full timers will be able to do it within the next day or two.

Part time work may be common, but it's not suited to all work places and in many many cases, the gaps are often silently filled by full time colleagues, as is the case here.

firat this is a management issue so make it one

but practically for you managing the team, why cant she be allocated appropriate work? Treat a project as one person - not knowing the industry but surely, we both work in the same folders and on the same documentation so all notes and actions are there for both to be aware of. We liaise by email and spend a minute or two writing a handover email as needed.

I teach and regularly share classes where I see them half the time. We plan the work together and keep each other updated as to where we’re up to. It’s good communication and good practice suggests things should be well documented anyway, most people just don’t because they hold too much in their heads

Thanks!👍

Im sorry OP as this sounds tough but it should be possible to find work for her.
You need to break stuff down into bite size chunks and see what you can allocate.
For example status reporting. If she's working Monday and Wednesday but you normally do status reports on a Friday. Move it to a Monday so she can ask for inputs on the Wednesday and when she comes back on the Monday everyone will have sent them and she can collate and produce a pack.
RAID logs, again this is mostly not time critical. She can manage this, chase updates and so on.
Its obviously a bit more work for you but hopefully you can find some stuff that can be handed off. 2 days is tough though not gonna lie

You went wrong in working yourself that hard to make things work so management think that giving you someone 2 days a week will be a lot less load than now and since you coped then you will feel the benefit

indeed why not wait until you see how things work out ? But stop working extra hours to get things done - email boss at end of day “I haven’t done this as I have timed out - I’ll pick it up tomorrow “