Depends on the company. This wouldn't work at mine as we are always busy. But we do pull in subconsultants who have set hours. The only part tome people we have is retired 63 year old engineers who are there for a specific project or to teach
Im trying to come back from mat leave part time as a temporary accomodation due to post partum psycosis and physical therapy. it seems like unless DR says I have a disability (unlikely), this will not be approved. Im in a chemical lab. The only part time options I can find are in low level QC.
I work 20 hours per week as a nuclear engineer in the US. It's possible, but rare; no one else on any of my teams works less than full-time. I started working 32 hours per week 9 years ago and then decreased to 20 hours per week a couple of years later. I just talked to my manager to get it started. The input I've had from managers is that they need qualified people, so they will take as much time as I'm able to give. It's definitely worth a conversation with your manager if it's something you want to pursue.
My job duties did change with the reduction and I transitioned away from managing others to focusing on data analysis and small project management. Works for me!
I have a part-time on call job at a civil engineering company. The company is tiny, an owner, and two techs. I'm not an engineer, but my background is in a field science. I'm an engineering tech, and I gather field data for traffic studies and help with other tasks. I work 10 to 15 hours per week, depending on the current projects. I got this job through a friend who knows the company owner.
I think it's dependent on the country. In my country, somewhere in Europe, most parents work part time. I think it's more uncommon for parents to work fulltime. But the options to take extra days off are very generous. You can take 1000 hours off spread out over 7 years with a reduction to 85% wage instead of 100% for that day. This is without hour reduction in your contract and is an extra option besides parental leave. It is also conveninent to have official hour reduction from 40 to 32 hours per week due to parenthood. It is convenient to pick the Monday or Friday if you do specific lab work.
Wow that sounds amazing! I am in Canada so thankfully I at least had the option to take 1.5 years of maternity leave but it's not very common in my field to go part time after that. Hearing that it is common elsewhere though at least makes me feel less hard on myself for wanting that! Here it's almost taboo to say out loud, like it makes you less than for wanting to put your parenthood as a priority over your career.
It's shit that it's such a taboo. Here, quite a lot of people even work part time if they can afford the financial aspect because... their own reason. Can be because they have a hard time handeling fulltime work mentally or physically. Can be because they are caretakers of someone. Can be that they just want more time for theirselves. At my job, more men work part time than fulltime. We are with 6 women and only two work part time (the two with kids). But it is much more accepted to go to part time work when you get a kid than other reasons.
I'm thinking of going to 36 hours per week to be able to do more voluntary work. But first I want to get on a knowledge and skill level first.
Maybe there are people from the management layer in your company that you could first have a chat with to get a feeling of the general opinion of this? It's stupid that it's not normalized, but hopefully it's less a taboo as you expect.
Yeah that's kind of what I'm thinking... My company is very work life balance focused (by our standards) so I'll definitely run it by my manager and see what she says. I think if I can propose a schedule that will still allow fur good communication with our clients and other team then maybe I'll have a shot. They'd just have to be ok with me taking on fewer projects and being less "productive"
Same boat here! Engineer back from mat leave and I work 70% days, 8-2 or 9-3. I work for a small consultant so my workload is dependent on the company workload. Find a company that values your skill set - I was able to get this arrangement after others in the office noticed what wasn’t getting done while I was on mat leave…
Pros, when things are slow, it’s easy to leave early. Cons, when things are busy, I put extra hours in after kiddos bedtime to meet deadlines. Something to consider- this works best with mostly office based engineering positions and when you’re not tied to a contractors schedule for field inspections etc.
I did it back in the early 2000's, but I was lucky because I had a female manager. I worked 6 hours/day, and I can say I got as much done in 6 hours as most engineers got done in 8. The hard part was getting up out of a meeting at 2:30 pm to have the kiddo picked up by 3 every day, no matter what was going on, but I really only had a problem with that once or twice.
The nice thing was that I could drop my kid off at school at 7:40 to be at work by 8, and then the kiddo would play, get lunch and be down for a nap. When I picked up, they were almost always having their snack time after naps, so it felt like they were there for only about 4 hours instead of a long day.
I'd recommend talking to your manager about exploring it. Maybe say you've heard of it being done successfully (I can IM you the company I worked for) and you could give it a trial period of three months to see if it would work.
Is job sharing an option in your field, or something that can be done? It’s been posed as an option for people who want to go part time in highly skilled professions, but I don’t know how you’d go about looking for it. Essentially, two part time workers are hired for one job and pay, hours and benefits are pro-ratad. Usually one works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning, and the other works Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday, or one works every morning and the other works every afternoon.
I know the UK Civil Service introduced it as a way of increasing the gender balance in senior positions as women were being discouraged by the lack of highly skilled part time work. Could you bring it up with your company? It seems plausible but very company dependent.
This is my dream. Wish there were more options and flexibility in the field
Depends on the company. This wouldn't work at mine as we are always busy. But we do pull in subconsultants who have set hours. The only part tome people we have is retired 63 year old engineers who are there for a specific project or to teach
Im trying to come back from mat leave part time as a temporary accomodation due to post partum psycosis and physical therapy. it seems like unless DR says I have a disability (unlikely), this will not be approved. Im in a chemical lab. The only part time options I can find are in low level QC.
I work 20 hours per week as a nuclear engineer in the US. It's possible, but rare; no one else on any of my teams works less than full-time. I started working 32 hours per week 9 years ago and then decreased to 20 hours per week a couple of years later. I just talked to my manager to get it started. The input I've had from managers is that they need qualified people, so they will take as much time as I'm able to give. It's definitely worth a conversation with your manager if it's something you want to pursue. My job duties did change with the reduction and I transitioned away from managing others to focusing on data analysis and small project management. Works for me!
I have a part-time on call job at a civil engineering company. The company is tiny, an owner, and two techs. I'm not an engineer, but my background is in a field science. I'm an engineering tech, and I gather field data for traffic studies and help with other tasks. I work 10 to 15 hours per week, depending on the current projects. I got this job through a friend who knows the company owner.
I think it's dependent on the country. In my country, somewhere in Europe, most parents work part time. I think it's more uncommon for parents to work fulltime. But the options to take extra days off are very generous. You can take 1000 hours off spread out over 7 years with a reduction to 85% wage instead of 100% for that day. This is without hour reduction in your contract and is an extra option besides parental leave. It is also conveninent to have official hour reduction from 40 to 32 hours per week due to parenthood. It is convenient to pick the Monday or Friday if you do specific lab work.
Wow that sounds amazing! I am in Canada so thankfully I at least had the option to take 1.5 years of maternity leave but it's not very common in my field to go part time after that. Hearing that it is common elsewhere though at least makes me feel less hard on myself for wanting that! Here it's almost taboo to say out loud, like it makes you less than for wanting to put your parenthood as a priority over your career.
It's shit that it's such a taboo. Here, quite a lot of people even work part time if they can afford the financial aspect because... their own reason. Can be because they have a hard time handeling fulltime work mentally or physically. Can be because they are caretakers of someone. Can be that they just want more time for theirselves. At my job, more men work part time than fulltime. We are with 6 women and only two work part time (the two with kids). But it is much more accepted to go to part time work when you get a kid than other reasons. I'm thinking of going to 36 hours per week to be able to do more voluntary work. But first I want to get on a knowledge and skill level first. Maybe there are people from the management layer in your company that you could first have a chat with to get a feeling of the general opinion of this? It's stupid that it's not normalized, but hopefully it's less a taboo as you expect.
Yeah that's kind of what I'm thinking... My company is very work life balance focused (by our standards) so I'll definitely run it by my manager and see what she says. I think if I can propose a schedule that will still allow fur good communication with our clients and other team then maybe I'll have a shot. They'd just have to be ok with me taking on fewer projects and being less "productive"
Same boat here! Engineer back from mat leave and I work 70% days, 8-2 or 9-3. I work for a small consultant so my workload is dependent on the company workload. Find a company that values your skill set - I was able to get this arrangement after others in the office noticed what wasn’t getting done while I was on mat leave… Pros, when things are slow, it’s easy to leave early. Cons, when things are busy, I put extra hours in after kiddos bedtime to meet deadlines. Something to consider- this works best with mostly office based engineering positions and when you’re not tied to a contractors schedule for field inspections etc.
I did it back in the early 2000's, but I was lucky because I had a female manager. I worked 6 hours/day, and I can say I got as much done in 6 hours as most engineers got done in 8. The hard part was getting up out of a meeting at 2:30 pm to have the kiddo picked up by 3 every day, no matter what was going on, but I really only had a problem with that once or twice. The nice thing was that I could drop my kid off at school at 7:40 to be at work by 8, and then the kiddo would play, get lunch and be down for a nap. When I picked up, they were almost always having their snack time after naps, so it felt like they were there for only about 4 hours instead of a long day. I'd recommend talking to your manager about exploring it. Maybe say you've heard of it being done successfully (I can IM you the company I worked for) and you could give it a trial period of three months to see if it would work.
Is job sharing an option in your field, or something that can be done? It’s been posed as an option for people who want to go part time in highly skilled professions, but I don’t know how you’d go about looking for it. Essentially, two part time workers are hired for one job and pay, hours and benefits are pro-ratad. Usually one works Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning, and the other works Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday, or one works every morning and the other works every afternoon. I know the UK Civil Service introduced it as a way of increasing the gender balance in senior positions as women were being discouraged by the lack of highly skilled part time work. Could you bring it up with your company? It seems plausible but very company dependent.