4 ms·

I'm half-time (18.75 hours per week) but got my job by originally being full-time and putting in a flexible working request - which you have a legal right to do

by jvvw 8y ago

I'm half-time (18.75 hours per week) but got my job by originally being full-time and putting in a flexible working request - which you have a legal right to do in the UK if you have children under a certain age and have worked there a certain period of time. No right to have flexible working granted but if they refuse the reason has to fall into one of a certain set of categories. Obviously not a good way to get a part-time from scratch though!

silleknarf 8y ago
The requirement is just that you have to have worked there for a certain period of time - no need to be a parent [0]. Employers are allowed to reject a request on the grounds of a sound business reason [1] which is pretty broad. [0] https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working [1] http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616 http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616
itamarst 8y ago
This is the most common way for people to get part-time work. Don't even need legal right to do so, though it helps, e.g. I know people who have done this in US where your rights as an employee are... not as good. Here's why: you've been at company for a while. You know the code, you know the dependencies, you know the business logic, you know who to talk to, you know the mindset, you know the priorities. Replacing you is expensive. Even if they can hire someone with same skills on paper, there's a long and costly organization-specific ramp-up for most companies. Thus, a good rational manager (not all of them are, obviously) will prefer to have you part-time than to have you leave. Which gives you negotiating leverage. The longer you've been at a job, the more valuable you are, the better this goes. Even better if it's a tight hiring market, like now. (I write about this at length in my book, Programmer's Guide to a Sane Workweek: https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/. https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/.)

by jvvw 8y ago

silleknarf 8y ago

The requirement is just that you have to have worked there for a certain period of time - no need to be a parent [0]. Employers are allowed to reject a request on the grounds of a sound business reason [1] which is pretty broad. [0] https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working [1] http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616 http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1616

itamarst 8y ago

This is the most common way for people to get part-time work. Don't even need legal right to do so, though it helps, e.g. I know people who have done this in US where your rights as an employee are... not as good. Here's why: you've been at company for a while. You know the code, you know the dependencies, you know the business logic, you know who to talk to, you know the mindset, you know the priorities. Replacing you is expensive. Even if they can hire someone with same skills on paper, there's a long and costly organization-specific ramp-up for most companies. Thus, a good rational manager (not all of them are, obviously) will prefer to have you part-time than to have you leave. Which gives you negotiating leverage. The longer you've been at a job, the more valuable you are, the better this goes. Even better if it's a tight hiring market, like now. (I write about this at length in my book, Programmer's Guide to a Sane Workweek: https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/. https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/.)