Flexible working as a woman in medicine
Dr Maeve Tierney is a National Adviser to the Hospital Food Group Expert Panel and also works part-time as a consultant gastroenterologist. She recently completed the Royal College of Physicians Emerging Women Leaders programme. Read about it here:
What do you do?
Maeve: I’ve been working as a hospital consultant for about 2 years. I’m a gastroenterologist, so I look after bowels and livers and problems with those sorts of areas.
Why do you think flexible working is important?
Maeve: I’ve got a small child and another one on the way, so for me it’s really important to have some time at home. My Trust has been really supportive of that. At the moment, I primarily work four days a week, which works well for me. My husband is also a doctor and works four days a week as well.
I think several years ago, that would’ve been really difficult to do in medicine. Doctors were expected to work full-time and squeeze looking after their children in around everything else, but that attitude has really changed.
It can still be improved. It’s very difficult to take an emergency day off because patients have appointments and procedures on fixed days. But within the limits I have, I think it works really well.
What is the Emerging Women Leaders Programme?
Maeve: The NHS is a huge organisation, and there are many leadership roles available. Although things are changing, there are far more men in the leadership roles in medicine than there are women. That’s why the Royal College of Physicians started their Emerging Women Leaders Programme.
The programme is about gaining the confidence to be a leader, and using this confidence to apply for leadership roles. It’s about thinking “I am capable, and I should be going for it, what’s holding me back?”.
For me, it was confidence and the programme was very helpful. I met loads of other women in similar positions and we learned leadership skills and how to improve our confidence to make that next step.
How did you become a Hospital Food Group panellist?
Maeve: Through the programme, I shadowed the hospital’s Chief Executive. A couple of months later, she sent me an email about the opportunity to apply for the Hospital Food Group Panel. She thought I’d be a good fit as I specialise in nutrition and help patients who are being tube fed return to a normal diet.
I thought, “I need to put my money where my mouth is!” and applied. I got the role, which was exciting and unexpected! On the panel, I work alongside catering staff, nurses and dieticians, to review and improve hospital food on a national level in England. It’s a good outcome for me and the programme itself.
National Work Life Week
National Work Life Week is an opportunity for both employers and employees to focus on wellbeing at work and work life balance. Find out more about National Work Life Week.
What is the government doing?
The Government has announced plans to make requesting flexible working a day-one right. We have opened a consultation to reform flexible working regulations and change default working practices.
This will include introducing a day-one right to one-week’s unpaid leave for carers balancing a job with caring responsibilities.
The Government has also worked with the Flexible Working Taskforce to produce advice for employers and employees on the practical and current legal issues associated with hybrid working (a mixture of workplace and remote working). The Taskforce will continue to help the Government properly understand the profound changes in working over the past 16 months — and promote flexible working as we build back better from the pandemic.
Types of flexible working include:
- job sharing: two people do one job and split the hours
- part time: working less than full-time hours (usually by working fewer days)
- compressed hours: working full-time hours but over fewer days
- flexitime: the employee chooses when to start and end work (within agreed limits) but works certain ‘core hours’, for example 10am to 4pm every day
- annualised hours: the employee has to work a certain number of hours over the year but they have some flexibility about when they work
- staggered hours: the employee has different start, finish and break times from other workers.
- working from home: it might be possible to do some or all of the work from home or anywhere else other than the normal place of work
- phased retirement: older workers can choose when they want to retire, meaning they can reduce their hours and work part time
