Careers supported by part-time work – Katie’s Story

Can you tell us about your decision to start working part time?

After my PhD, I’d worked full time for five years at the Institute of Physics. When I had my daughter, I decided that I wanted to return to work, but I felt part time was the right thing for me. I loved being a mother, but I had also loved my work and wanted to continue with both. Part time was perfect.

How easy was the transition from full-time to part-time?

I was disappointed with my employer’s attitude. They did not want to think about part time, or any kind of flexibility.

I’m not one to give up. I’d been a student at Surrey University. I basically went back to my contact in scientific marketing there and said “Here’s my CV. Any chance of a couple of days work?” I started working freelance for a couple of days a week and thoroughly enjoyed it.

How did that change?

My personal life became very difficult, and I had to leave my relationship with the father of my child when my daughter was still very young.

I needed my job, both financially and to keep my sanity. It was the one constant in my life. It gave me a sense of purpose and a reason to continue. I continued to work in marketing and also picked up one day a week with the Daphne Jackson Trust.

Can you tell us about how part-time work became a gateway to full-time work?

As my daughter got older, I phased marketing out and gradually increased my hours at the trust to four days a week.

I was then offered a permanent work contract which was good and bad. I took a massive hit financially, because I made more money working freelance. But, as a single parent, it was a trade-off with the security of paid holidays, sick pay and a permanent contract.

Then, in 2011, I was offered the role of chief executive on an interim basis and went back to full-time working.

How did part-time work help you during difficult times?

During COVID we were sharing a house with my parents. Five days into lockdown, my mother had a stroke and broke her ankle. This was quite traumatic, and then she developed dementia.

Living with and caring for my mother became extreme, alongside my role at the Daphne Jackson Trust, it began to feel like I was living at work, rather than working from home. I was literally doing nothing except work and care and in 2022, I had a breakdown. It coincided with my mother being placed in a care home because we simply couldn’t look after her anymore.

I was off work for four months completely. Then I had a phased return, working part time again for a period as I was recovering. Our board of trustees was hugely supportive.

I’m back now to full-time work but I could not have continued my career if I had not been able to move between part-time and full-time work.

How have your experiences affected your attitudes to part-time work?

I strongly believe that if you’re in a position of leadership, you must be honest about your personal circumstances. I think there is a perception that if you’re in a senior role you don’t have problems, that you don’t get to be senior if you have these problems, so I believe in speaking about my experiences, they have shaped who I am and also my view of how I run my team of staff. I run an exclusively part-time team. All 14 of the staff at the trust, apart from me, are part time, so it’s really shaped my views. It can be tricky, but it can also be extremely rewarding. I think it’s important to plan carefully and to understand that people have a lot going on in their lives outside of work.

Should this approach to part-time working become more normalised?

I think there is still a view that part-time working indicates that you have less commitment. However, I don’t agree and as a people manager, I will always consider how I can make a flex or part-time work request work, and I would love to see this be the norm.

There are drawbacks to part-time working. It can alter time frames on projects, but we plan accordingly, and I don’t over promise on a project. Forethought and planning are key.

How do you help others into part-time work as CEO of the Daphne Jackson Trust?

The trust helps scientific researchers back into work, via fellowships, following career breaks for family, caring or health reasons.

Daphne Jackson was the UK’s first ever female physics professor and a lovely lady. She was a mentor to me when I did my degree.

She started the fellowships after bumping into one of her old research students in a supermarket. The woman was stacking shelves despite having a PhD and a promising scientific research career. She told Daphne, “I took a break to have my family and now I can’t get back in”.

Daphne thought this was a waste of talent and decided to do something about it. She devised fellowships that would allow researchers to work part time after taking a break to have a family, care for relatives or for health reasons. We’ve taken Daphne’s legacy, and we’ve developed it.

What impact has working part time had on your health and wealth?

I think health-wise, the ability to work part time allowed me to continue in work and grow my career while also looking after my mental health. It allowed me to retain a sense of my identity through my work because my career is a huge part of me and what I do, as well as allowing me to be a positive role model for my daughter.

And wealth-wise, as a single parent, I would not have been able to manage without being able to continue in a professional role part time. And the key word there is ‘professional’, unless we have more people in senior roles talking about working part time, it is never going to become the norm.  I think a wonderful lesson to have come from the pandemic and rapid rise of home working is that anything is possible if you want to make it possible.