Asking employer to reduce my full-time working hours

SheepDogWolf

Hi all,

I have a 39 hour permanent job. However I have started up a small business which I do in my spare time. This business is starting to pick up. However I could do with working 1 day less in my current job to be able to meet the demands of my other work.

I have a great working relationship with my employer. They are very approachable and understanding in general. I am dependable and they are happy with my work.

How do I go about asking my employer without causing a fuss? I have a fear that it will not go well as they might think I am on the way out of the business. However my other work will never be a full time position but having 1 day a week at it will mean the world to me.

The other business is not in any way related to my current full time position or role.

Any questions or advice much appreciated

F1ngers

Can you work your 39 hours into 4 days, 3 x 10 + 1 x 9?
Would they be amenable to that?

SheepDogWolf

F1ngers wrote: »

Can you work your 39 hours into 4 days, 3 x 10 + 1 x 9?
Would they be amenable to that?

Im not sure if they would but its an option. However I have an hours commute to and from work every day and kids etc so for me personally it would not be ideal.

OMM 0000

I am a manager and I would be fine if an employee approached me about this. However my team are software engineers so I don't really care what hours they work or where they work, as long as the job gets done and the quality is high.

Can I ask what you work as?

suilegorma

What ages are your kids? You could potentially take parental leave and maintain your childcare arrangements.

skallywag

I think a key point will be how much your reduced contribution is going to effect the overall picture. Do you think that your boss is going to be fine with having ca 20% less output from you? Would there be someone else in the team who has the available capacity to compensate this ca 20%?

I would be wary of any type of arrangement where you essentially commit to delivering the same as you do now but through working less salaried hours. Such situations may fine in principle, but very often lead to very stressful situations.

Gavin "shels"

Possible to work at home? Maybe try doing 3 full days and 2 halves (at home) which will rule out the commuting time, etc... so they will still get the full benefit of having you available 5 days.

tookotook

I was in a similar situation, and ended up working 3 days per week for my employer and the rest of the time on my project. It worked well for the first month but my situation wasn't properly communicated to my colleagues by my manager. I ended up with a backlog of work from Monday and Tuesday (bug fixes, client issues, unplanned tasks) it was like I was constantly firefighting for the 3 days, plus I had my planned work to get through. I had my colleagues message me on slack, WhatsApp etc on my days off. In the end I couldn't stick it and went full-time on my project. Once you take a step back it's likely your employer will also start looking for your replacement. But if you can make it work, and establish some ground rules (like I didn't) then it's an option.

daheff

can you not do it at the weekend if you only need 1 day? Or are you then working 2 weekend days already?

If so, be careful as you may run into issues with the 'rest period' clauses in your contract.


Think of it from the company's point of view...why should they give you part time? they will lose a days work from you and wont be able to replace it with another employee

Kuva

Guy in my place did this, nice lad but he wasn't the quickest at the job, a month later he was fired with reason given that he'd inquired about leaving, illegal - so off to a solicitor he went, win win case but he just wanted the job, ended up dying in an accident after. Company was delighted.

TallGlass

Kuva wrote: »

Guy in my place did this, nice lad but he wasn't the quickest at the job, a month later he was fired with reason given that he'd inquired about leaving, illegal - so off to a solicitor he went, win win case but he just wanted the job, ended up dying in an accident after. Company was delighted.

Wow, sounds like a great company to work for. Delighted someone died in an accident!

RoboRat

I work full time and I have my own project and like yourself, it is taking off but not a viable full time alternative.

I had considered going part time but I figured it would be a non runner as I was senior management and didn't have enough hours as it stood.

I opted to make changes to my own business to make it work better - I was working after work and at the weekends and it began to take it's toll so I looked at how I could streamline the company and minimise any tasks that could be outsourced. I ended up moving the stock to a fulfillment company who managed the inventory, shipped the orders and I have to say, it's been fantastic. I also schedule my marketing through Hootsuite, I still do about 2 hours at the weekend but it's very manageable and since I made these changes, the business has become profitable as before there was so much mismanagement that stock was not being paid for... now it's all P/O's and payment before collection and everything is managed.

MarkR

Your contract mention anything about working outside of your company?

H3llR4iser

I would say it depends on what you do and what your specific position in the company is. As a manager I'd be in a bit of a tight spot if one of my team members asked to work a 4 days week - but that's because it's a software dev team that works on the basis of sprints, backlogs and tasks lists - which means it's always running near capacity.

Having suddenly 8 "man-hours" (buzzword alert) missing from the schedule would be a problem: it's enough to put a strain on an already stretched team (including the person taking the short week, he/she WILL be trying to compensate, likely resulting in burnout) and at the same time it's not enough to make a case with the business about needing additional resources...without the obvious answer being "get rid of 4-days-weeks girl/guy and hire a full time person!", of course!

However, other areas or roles don't usually work quite so tightly and there may be room to wiggle about - we have a couple of PMs who chose to take a slight pay decrease and a 4-days week to be more with their kids.

If your manager is as reasonable as your infer, just have a chat with him/her and explain the situation - make sure to specify you like working with them and want to continue, but would also like to explore this opportunity given by your project. From there, you can explore possible solutions. I know I would personally appreciate this approach if I was your manager

Kuva wrote: »

Guy in my place did this, nice lad but he wasn't the quickest at the job, a month later he was fired with reason given that he'd inquired about leaving, illegal - so off to a solicitor he went, win win case but he just wanted the job, ended up dying in an accident after. Company was delighted.

Oh my, I feel bad about this but...one has to wonder about the..."accident"!!!

MarkR wrote: »

Your contract mention anything about working outside of your company?

Excellent point...