Would any mums who are professionals - accountants, solicitors etc be interested in part time work to fit around school hours?

[justcallmemary]

I see a massive problem in professions trying to get good quality staff at the moment and think there must a lot of mums out there who worked incredibly hard to get professional qualifications/experience but now feel unable to work due to school hours for their younger children. Having several years off work in these roles is not optimal and I just wonder if more women would like to work but feel like it isn't an option. I am not a professional recruiter - I help out with trying to get staff for my accountancy practice and when I mention this everyone seems to think it is just too tricky. I was lucky and had an employer who was happy to keep me doing part time hours so I never stepped away but I know that getting back into work was hard enough after maternity, never mind if this was several years. Anyone have any thoughts? I am based in York but I think this is probably a problem generally.

I know two accountants who work part-time, one self-employed the other with a firm. TBH I don't see any reason why accountants, can't work round school hours. Same with GPs and Dentists.

But nobody ever really advertises for part-time professionals.

Not in the professions you mention but have a professional registration for my role. I would love to do part time school hours, however I'm the only person in my very large organisation doing my role so it's simply not an option, I do a couple of hours short of full time compressed over 4 days. It's not ideal but was the best I could get unless I dropped to half hours and was job share, but that involves funding someone for the other hours and a much bigger drop in pay so not really feasible.

I'm an accountant and never wanted to work part time. Although I'm sure some do.

I’m ACA and do work part time. I’ve worked for big 4 and now a local firm and both have agreed to whatever hours I’ve requested.

But I’ve noticed industry jobs rarely advertise for part time.

Yes, I'm a UK trained accountant (ACA)based in America. I freelance remotely on upwork doing spreadsheet design and occasional accounting work (sorting out incomplete books for example).

I’m a solicitor - I work for local Authorities and this is exactly how I work. I have a set number of hours that I work flexibly over the week. I just mark my diary clearly so people can see when I’m available.

They don’t advertise but in my experience they need staff and so if you enquire and have decent experience they’ll accommodate you.

I think AI is probably coming for these jobs anyway over the next few years.

I think it's so sad that the default option is that mothers take time off work, as stated in the OP and the thread title. Where are the fathers? I get that the reality is that it is mostly mothers who do this, but as long as we accept this as the status quo, nothing will change. Just as we so often see posts on here where the woman says her husband "helps". Nope, he's a grown ass adult who has equal parenting and home responsibilities.

Set up on my own and work for myself so is entirely flexible. Cut out the middle man employer.

I'm Acca and found there are no part time jobs advertised. I would have loved this but the best you can do is get a full time job and then compress hours to create extra time. Also for some roles you are needed all week at crunch times (month end, budget submission) so would need to be super flexible.

I wanted to take the time off work. My City job was insane round the clock international travel at short notice. Sod that. I wanted to sit in the park with my baby.

Agree, and have advised several clients who were struggling to recruit that if they advertised being open to flexible, part time, and/or term time / school hours only they would have people hurling themselves at them. The ones who listened got excellent people coming forwards who were really high calibre who were prepared to work for less than their market value.

I understand what you’re saying but I feel incredibly privileged that I can raise my kids and earn a decent wage.

I can only work self employed/bank staff very ad hoc. I can't find school hours jobs anywhere even minimum wage jobs are not school hours friendly. Apart from maybe the unicorn job of working as a ta/school office. I have a child with additional so would need specialist childcare for wraparound and school holidays. I can't afford that so need to work school hours and term time. I think it's obviously easier to be in a full time job then go to part time hours. I've got no hope needing them from the off. It's just not what employers want. The longer I'm out of full time work or just doing minimum wage no progression jobs the harder it is get out of this trap especially as things get more expensive/landscape changes workplaces change. I can't say what level of care my child will need as he grows up so there is no potential change in sight 🤷🏼‍♀️

Not really sure what you’re asking here. Of course there are probably lots of mothers (and fathers) who are lawyers or accountants and sound like to work part time around school hours but the reality is it doesn’t work for the employer in the vast majority of roles in these professions and that’s why very few part time positions are available. As a client, I’m obviously not going to be okay with my solicitor or accountant being unavailable after 3pm every day, for example, that’s just the reality.

I think it’s much easier to establish yourself in a full time role then cut down to part time.

My work is quite good at encouraging women to apply for new roles - there’s a bit of a disclaimer at the end of each job ad saying that research shows women are less likely to apply if they’re worried they don’t tick all the boxes and encouraging them to have a go anyway, and encouraging job shares.

BUT the onus seems to be on the person applying to find themselves a job share partner and apply together, which I think is a bit laughable - there are case stories of that happening successfully, but what are the chances of finding someone with the same career aspirations as you who’s willing to work part time and opposite hours to you? Quite hard to find I imagine.

Love this x

I was going to write something similar. How is it in this day and age still women who are the default parent and who needs to sacrifice their career because of school hours. I worked full-time during my children's school years and that was absolutely fine. I used before and after school clubs + holiday clubs. I wouldn't have put them in schools that didn't work offer that.

I know plenty of professional women who work part time. It’s the bread and butter of my social circle. The positions are not advertised. When you reach a certain point in your career, you have enough clout that you simply negotiate the job into existence.

I am a professional who was 1 year into a career change when I had to leave my last role as we moved house and I haven't been able to find any job ads for part time roles in my industry. There's no reason why these don't exist, in fact I was pt in my last role but I started full time and had to do a flexible work request. The industry favours younger people who are pre-kids because of this inflexibility until you get high enough up to call the shots, but I can't get there if I can't get my foot back in the door. I'd like to WFH but IDK how you actually work that around school hours when wraparound care finishes at 4:30 here.

What’s wrong with sahm / part time if you want to spend that time with your children when they are young? I would have hated to have battled on full time with a demanding job and missed out. No thanks. Mine are late teen now and believe me when those days are gone they are really gone. Some of my happiest years were when I was off work with toddlers.

The problem is that professional services have clients and clients like to be able to make appointments that are convenient to them - so your sector really makes a huge difference, if business to business then school hours are probably ok but not term time only because you can’t disappear from your client for 6 weeks. For family law and smaller scale accounting you clients often want meetings at the beginning and end of the day because that when they are free - slightly annoying I find (I do accounts and they want 5pm appointments often, 4pm if I’m lucky. As for drs and dentists someone mentioned, part time is usually full days, my gp works one 12 hour day 8-8, and 2 8-6’s yet people moan she has 2 days off! Never met a dr or dentist that does school hours because everyone wants early or late appointments for work reasons