Identifying and celebrating the business leaders who work part time – your help needed!

A guest post by Karen Mattison, MBE, the founder of Timewise Jobs 

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Karen Mattison, Timewise Jobs

Timewise is leading a search to find 50 vibrant and exciting examples of senior level part time working. We are building a ‘Power Part Time list’, that will prove that senior part time working not only can, but is already being done, right here in the UK.

Why are we doing it? Because the perception in the UK of what kinds of jobs can be worked on ‘less than 5 full days a week’ basis, is vastly out of kilter with what’s actually happening on the ground. Thousands of business leaders, are sparking innovative new thinking in terms of People and talent acquisition. Tech giants, law firms and leading financiers are all moving towards patterns of work that involve looking out the key outputs needed first, and how the employee gets there, second.  Look to today’s most-quoted business heroes – Google, Apple, innocent – these are businesses that are re-writing the rulebook, not just on what product can sell, but on how to be the best, and how best to work.

Yet, the stigma of admitting to working part time hours, remains. There are an estimated 650,000 people in the UK who are working in senior level part time jobs. We recently conducted a study amongst people earning between £40,000 FTE and £200,000 FTE. A third refuse to call themselves ‘part time’. A figure that rises to 67 per cent, amongst those earning at least £75,000 FTE. All this, in spite of the fact that 90 per cent say ‘I hit all my targets and enjoy success within my hours of work.”

There is a stigma attached to the words ‘part time’ which generates the misconception that part time work ‘is only for low skill roles’. We aim to bust this myth, via our Power Part Time list. 

We are searching for 50 vibrant, exciting examples of senior part time working, to prove that many of Britain’s leading employers, have already embraced it. Please do help us – there are just 2 weeks left in which to make nominations, and doing so is free, quick and easy! Just visit the page about our search here, email leaders@timewise.co.uk, or call 0207 633 4553 and request a nomination form.
It’s time to get behind the innovators and pioneers who are inventing the next big thing, designing the exception and achieving the incredible – all in part time hours. Help us to celebrate trailblazers, by giving us your own nomination.

By proving that ‘it’s already being done’ we hope to unlock the door, to thousands of women and men with core skills, talent and experience, who simply cannot work, if they cannot work part time. What better reason is there to get involved, than that.