Working part-time - the reality

[sazzerbear]

Do you ever get the balance right working part-time? I try and work as efficiently as I can but always feel there is some sort of leakage (having to work a bit earlier of later here and there), fretting about what is or isn't happening when i'm not there and being put under a lot of pressure by the powers that be because I do fewer hours (ie their expectations). Is this just it now?! Moan over (was up at 6am, not good on Mothers Day!)

bump

Guess it not ever perfect for most people but striking some sort of balance that keeps most people happy at least some of the time.

i went back to work 3 days a week after mat leave and job shared (was most the most awful experience as my job sharer was completely inept and managed to fuck off everyone who worked for us in our team and a lot of the people we do work for internally). She left. I now do 30 hours (more than i really want to do) but am able to get my work done in that time with the support of a great team. I get one weekday with DS, as well as weekends, so in my mind have an ok balance. I couldn't afford to work less than 3 days so that's not an option.

What expectations do the power that be have of you? Can tell us more?

I guess it's a bit of adjusting, me having to get used to doing everything in 19.5 hrs pw not 40+ (as in the old days). Also their expectations from me and my job sharer who are "one" person per week not "two". In these hard times everyone is up against it!

I work part-time and feel very isolated when I am back in work, not knowing what's been going on whilst away is the big thing. No problem with job sharing as I don't need to.
Do find the pay I receive and what has to be paid into childcare makes it all questionable.

I work part-time but take a flexible approach. WHen I was a full-timer it was a given that I'd have to do a bit of work from home from time to time, so I do the same as a part-timer.

I check my emails on my non-working days and pick up any urgent issues that can't wait. It means that I never come back to 100s of emails and for the most part my clients don't notice that I'm not about.

I try to appear completely flexible and make sure that I attend conferences, away days and senior management days, especially when they fall on a non-working day. People then tend to cut me a bit of slack when I have to re-arrange things when my children need me. I also find it helps to send the odd late night email or be seen in the office a bit later from time to time.

I have to put a bit more effort into building relationships as I'm not around so much, but the work I do lends itself veyr well to part-time working.

I work 3 days too and I am constantly exhausted. Work is never quite out of my mind - I have stopped checking my work email on non-work days to try to solve that problem - and I feel guilty leaving my son (especially now he cries 'no mummy, mummy no' as I get ready to leave. I feel like my life is one long list of chores to do when I'm at home and I don't enjoy the time I have with my son as much as I did when I was full time at home on M/L. I feel very guilty about feeling this way, particularly since my husband looks after my son when I am at work and so I don't have to leave him with a childminder or nursery. However, the reality of that is that I feel I have to look after him in all of my time off as I know that my husband is really doing more childcare than he would ideally like so that I can work. I feel at the end of my tether with it and I don't know what to do.