In this episode, I speak with Claire Campbell, CEO of TimeWise, about the increasing popularity and benefits of flexible working patterns. We discuss the resurgence in interest in part-time work, driven by the pandemic's impact on our values and priorities, and the barriers and stigmas that still exist. 

Claire provides valuable insights and practical tips for professionals aiming to progress their careers while working less than full-time, including ruthless prioritization, setting boundaries, maintaining career progression focus, and finding sponsors. 

We explore how organizations can support and benefit from offering flexible work options and the importance of being willing to experiment and adapt to new working patterns.

Speaker Links:

Part-time Works Podcast Series: https://timewise.co.uk/podcast/

Website: https://timewise.co.uk/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-campbell-fcipd-a627461/

Learn More:

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my Life Satisfaction Assessment. It's a 30-minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you down. I call it Derailed and it's a fabulous place to begin a joy-at-work redesign.

https://www.midlifeunstuck.com/derailed

I had a big question I needed an answer to, and I

knew exactly who could answer it.

Claire Campbell is the CEO of TimeWise, who work with companies to

design flexible working patterns that suit both company and their staff.

Our careers span decades, so our careers have to suit us across

lots of different phases of life.

When your children are young and they need you.

Or your parents get old and they need you.

And what about when we decide to also focus on other priorities in life,

like a major sporting challenge or a creative side hustle, or traveling

the world to see your grown up kids?

My question for Claire was, can we work less than full time

and still progress our careers?

Let's dive in.

claire, how common is part time working?

I think it's more common than people realize.

It's around one in four people currently work part time, and that's

over 8 million people in the UK.

It is quite gendered.

There's around 38 percent of women work part time, only about 14 percent of men.

But from our own question of time research, over 40 percent of managers

and professionals would like to work part time at some point.

So it's often something people do through a particular period in their life and

then they might change their hours and people want that flexibility to, yeah,

be able to work part time for a period and then perhaps go back to full time.

And with longer working lives, I think there's a there's increasingly a demand

for that opportunity at some point in their career to work part time.

And it feels like there is some sort of movement

that's happening in the world here.

And why is it that the four day week, working less, work time

reduction, all of that stuff.

It just seems to be coming more and more common.

Why are people so interested in working less?

Since the pandemic has really focused attention back to

being, back to health, back to the importance of having time at home, time

with the family, time doing hobbies, something you enjoy, keeping fit.

And I think all of us over the pandemic period.

really valued some of those aspects of life.

And it's really died the agenda.

And we've seen that in, all the stories about poor mental health of

the nation right now and a desire again to bring wellbeing back to the floor.

So I think that this is why we're seeing that interest in working less.

Technology should give us the tools to have more flexibility about

where we work, when we work But it's not always used to enable that.

And I think there's a great opportunity actually to use technology to enable

people to work more flexibly and work, different ways, different

hours and still deliver a great kind of service to their organization.

I get it.

And let me ask you a little tricky question.

I worked four days a week for about eight years of my career.

But I want to understand, is there still a stigma attached to working less?

The phrase, and I'm doing the little fingers, inverted

commas, just working part time.

Is that still out there in the world?

We did a survey last year a piece of research for

question of time to look at part time working the people's experience

of it, people's perceptions of it.

Sadly, some of those stigmas are still there.

There were still about half people thinking that career progression would

stall if you were a part time worker.

So that's disappointing, but I think it's not.

It's not necessarily evident when you see how many high

profile people work part time.

More people are willing to tell their stories about how they're

juggling careers and family.

And that's, again, men and women now talking more openly about the juggle

and still managing to take high positions, progress their careers.

So there are still barriers, but I think the world is evolving, becoming more

flexible and that's really helpful for anybody who wants to work differently.

And if someone is working part time, what are your top tips

for continuing to progress a career whilst working less than full time?

We've just produced a great podcast miniseries, a quick plug for

a part time works and podcast, and that's profiled 12 stories of people who have

thrived in their careers whilst working part time for a range of roles, range

of backgrounds for a range of reasons.

But some of my favorite tips from that series there's something about

being ruthless in your prioritization.

If you are a part time worker, if you know you have limited hours,

focus what's on really important.

Think about what 20 percent of your work you could probably just, park for

now and focus on what really matters.

There's an important one about setting boundaries deciding what your boundaries

are, because not everybody's boundaries as a part time worker will be the same.

Some people don't mind checking their emails in their non working

time, but others, they need that break between work and home.

Decide what your barriers are and make sure protect those.

Thirdly, really important, don't lose sight of career progression.

I think, there's this nervousness sometimes if you work less that

you can't fit in that extra project or that development opportunity

or the chance to go to that event.

It's still really important.

So you need to maintain your interest in your own career progression.

And lastly, I think, it matters for anyone who wants to progress, but

finding your sponsors, finding your champions, the people who are going to

challenge you to give your best, who will champion you becomes even more

important if you're working differently, having someone in your corner willing

to back you and make sure that, you are grabbing those opportunities.

I think that becomes really important.

Absolutely agree.

Ruthless prioritization.

I wish I had a little bit more of that when I was doing it.

And my final question for you, Claire, is how can organizations help support part

time and other types of flexible working?

I think firstly recognize its a great opportunity while there's

this huge demand for part-time working, only 12% of jobs currently reference

the opportunity to work part-time, so we know about part-time working.

We know about one

in four people work part time, but only 12 percent of jobs mention it.

And even other types of flexibility rarely mentioned in job adverts.

So if it is something that you can offer as an employer, it's a

great opportunity to attract some different talent to your organization.

Secondly, I think it's about bringing it up proactively with people, checking in

on their well being, checking in on their working hours and their working patterns.

Life changes, needs change, so keeping it a live conversation so

people feel comfortable to talk to you about what they might need by

the way of adjustments to their working time or their working pattern.

And thirdly, I think it's just about being willing to

experiment and give things a go.

And whether that's a, a big organizational change like embracing a four day week

or changing flexibility or offering, or just for an individual who'd

like to work part time and you're not sure it will work, just try it.

Just give it three months.

You can keep it under review.

You could tweak it, you can change it, but why not just give it a go.

Often the commitment you get back from that individual and to repay the trust

that you've put in them really matters and they will give you 120 percent.

Thank you so much, Claire.

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy my Life Satisfaction Assessment.

It's a 30 minute program where I guide you through a deep dive into 10 areas

of your life to assess what's bringing you joy and what's bringing you time.

I call it D.

It's a fabulous place to begin a joy at work redesign.