How I make it work ….. The mum working part time in recruitment

This is the second in our series of blog posts where people tell us how they make work and life work for them. This time we talk to Joanna Thornton, a mum working 3.5 days a week in recruitment.

Photo by William Iven on Unsplash
  1. Tell us about yourself and your family

My husband and I have two young children; a 4 year old girl who is about to start her first year of primary school and a 20 month old boy.

2. What work do you do?

I work in recruitment. I am part of the team of Directors in an executive search and interim management firm working with public sector clients.

3. What is the best thing about your current situation?

Having worked for my company for a number of years and been successful in my role, I have been able to negotiate a good level of flexibility. I currently work 3.5 days per week including some time spent working from home. I am fortunate that the company as a whole has a relatively flexible working culture compared to some others in the industry, so it is quite common for parents (and not just mums) to leave slightly early to do pick ups. It is also acceptable to work from home for part of the week or work from home to attend a meeting at your child’s school etc. The flip side to that is that in a client driven role, where we often work to tight deadlines, sometimes we all inevitably work outside our working hours because we have promised to deliver a piece of work. The company has a ‘grown up’ working culture though, and it is not a culture where you are expected to be at your desk all the time. As long as the work is being delivered effectively, the company is supportive of flexible working and the reality is that the flexibility works both ways. Although working 3.5 days a week is not the norm, expecting to work in a flexible environment where people are open about having caring responsibilities or other commitments is, which I find helpful. I regularly meet a lot of very interesting and talented people in the course of my day to day work, which is very motivating.

4. What is the hardest thing?

During busy periods it can sometimes be challenging to fit everything in. It is perfectly possible but does not allow for much ‘slack’ . At times, I have found saying no to things I feel I ‘should’ be doing but can’t do quite difficult. This might just be needing to dial in to a meeting from home when I would prefer to be there in person, or waiting a week or two to be able to meet somebody because I am only in London on certain days of the week. I make sure I do everything that is business critical and so in reality often the things I feel bad about not doing are actually not vital and I have realised that mostly this is self-imposed pressure and things can be worked around. At first I found it challenging to move from working 5 days a week with no time constraints to having to plan my working week incredibly carefully. However, second time around I have found it easier to manage as I am more comfortable setting boundaries. I still make sure I offer flexibility back to my employer (e.g. I have changed my day off to attend client events on a Friday and I do pick up urgent things during my son’s nap time on my day off) but I do my best to make sure I only pick up things if they really can’t wait.

5. How do you make it work?

Ruthless prioritisation of my work diary, clear communication with team members, being in regular communication when working at home so that I am still ‘present’ as far as the rest of my team are concerned, focussing my time on the elements of the role that only I can do (business development and networking) and delegating appropriate other tasks to members of my team when I need to. I cram a lot in to my working week so my diary is often full of commitments and I therefore sometimes have to catch up on emails in the evenings and save thinking or planning time to the commute. My husband and I split the pick ups and drop offs between us. We both have to talk regularly about our work commitments and anything that might take us away from home or evening events etc to make sure that the other one can cover the logistics. Having found brilliant childcare that we and our children are very happy with helps enormously! Since returning to work after my second maternity leave, I have also been very careful to build in small windows during the week to do something for myself like yoga and running. I didn’t do this first time around, but since deciding to make sure I take a small amount of time for myself I have found that it has helped me to relax and switch off and I am then better able to juggle everything.

5. What advice or tips would you give to someone else in a similar situation?

Have a clear plan about how you are going to be successful in your role on a part time basis. No matter how flexible your company is, you may well find you are still doing your old full time job but on a part time basis so you will need to have a plan for what you want to achieve and what you can realistically let go of. This will mean that you will need to learn how to say no (in a nice way of course) when necessary — I found this hard at first. It is also worth bearing in mind that the reality of part time working in many industries is that you cannot switch off from work on your day off. You will need to have a plan about how to manage this. For me personally, I have realised that although I need to check my emails and take the odd important call when I am off with the children, I make sure that do not get sucked in to replying to emails (particularly internal ones) unless it is something absolutely critical. I do feel fortunate to have a good level of flexibility and think that companies who do not offer this to working parents are really missing a trick. In my experience, employees who work part time often work incredibly extensively during working hours and therefore can deliver excellent value for money for their employers.

Thank you so much Joanna.

If you have a story like Joanna’s that you would like to share please let us know.


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Making your work work for your life. Championing the benefits of flexible working and a positive work life balance.

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