Sleepless Night. Have I done the right thing? Talk to me please.

[Myfellpony]

I am a company accountant. About 5 years ago I asked if I could go part time - 3 days a week. It was agreed, and a third person was brought into the team to work 5 days a week, to do the work I no longer had time to do, and to take some work off the second team member in order to ease her workload.
this worked fine after a few teething problems. I work full time on the weeks when either of the other two are off sick, or on holiday. In 2019, I worked 6 months full time due to one colleague being off sick long term.

Anyway due to COVID (!!!?????) our business is doing extremely well, the workforce has actually doubled and we have had to rent extra premises to cope with the work.
Every department has employed extra people except the accounts teams.

On Wednesday, the director told me to go home and think about my salary, in other words he was offering me a pay rise.

Yesterday, he came to discuss it with me. I told him that my job now needed 5 days a week and I am trying to do it in 4 ( I bring work home with me and do half days on the two days I don’t go in the office, sometimes I also have to work at weekend too). He knows I do this.
I totally threw him though, by saying that I didn’t want to go back full time, that I didn’t want to bring in another assistant below me as it would mean giving up the part of my job that I like doing and leaving me with the part that I don’t enjoy doing.

So basically I have talked myself out of my job .

He was basically speechless and is thinking about what I said this weekend. From his point of view, he was offering me a pay increase and I have basically almost told him I’m leaving!

I don’t want to leave, but I really can’t cope with this stress much longer. I could afford to leave (just) and my husband would be pleased if I did, but I would be bored if I did nothing all day, and I really don’t want the stress and hassle of looking for another job.

I am now wishing I hadn’t said anything to him, and just negotiated a pay rise! I have no idea how we can sort this out now.

sorry for the long post, tea and biscuits available for anyone who got this far

 

[Kite_Rider]

Blimey what a pickle! I guess you need to go and speak to your boss and explain exactly what it is you do want? You don’t sound sure about exactly what that is yourself though so that’s probably the best place to start.
Also just to say, being made redundant was one of the best things that happened to me, I can honestly say that not working is brilliant and I am never, ever bored, to be honest there are not enough hours in the day still, all I’ve done is fill me day doing all the things I always wanted to do but never had time while I was working so don’t see being out of work as a total negative.
Good luck whatever you decide and I’m sure your boss will understand, he obviously wants to keep you if he’s basically saying name your price.

 

[chunky monkey]

Well if your taking work home, I would stop that for starters. Maybe your not getting enough time to switch off from your job. Are you being paid for taking it home. You dont have to answer that. Just putting it out there.

Telling your boss you dont want the pay rise is not telling them you wish to leave, although it seems these days anything you say gets taken the wrong way. Been there myself and had things twisted.

Think you do need to work out how many days a week youd like to work, and maybe offer holiday cover. Apart from the bit when you covered long term it sounds like you were happy with this arrangement.
If the company really does value your services they should still give you a pay rise, especially if they are doing well currently but equally a good company should work with you on finding someone to cover your hours or the work you are taking home.
If the company arent prepared to get someone else, then ask yourself if the job is too much for you. If it is then probably time to walk away.

 

[Jane&Ziggy]

It's rotten to be in a complicated situation like this. I feel for you.

I am not sure from what you said what you would really like as an outcome. From what your boss said to you, it's clear that they value you and realise that you are working harder than you are paid for. I think that if you get back to him quickly you will be able to undo things if you want to.

What if you leave? Anyone with your accounts experience could easily find another job, organisations find it hard to recruit good reliable professional staff. So it doesn't have to be the end of your working life.

If you want to stay, how many days a week do you want to work? Make it easy for your boss to say Yes to you. Think about what would make a good solid workload for the number of days you are prepared to do, and then go to him and say, "You caught me on the hop last week. Of course I don't want to leave, but I don't want to increase my hours, either. What I want is to do 3 days a week and cover x, y and z in those days."

I suspect that it might help to sweeten the pill if you add, "Of course I'll be happy to step in for holiday and sick cover, and I'll support anyone new you bring in to do a, b and c (the bits you are doing at the moment but don't want to do in future)".

With a following wind this will enable you to have a proper negotiation about what you do, how long it takes and how much they pay you for it, so you end up feeling valued and energised rather than stressed and exhausted!

One last thought - you are fretting over it this weekend. He might be too. If you have his email or mobile number, it might be a good idea to drop a message to him saying "I don't know what came over me, you took me by surprise, could we talk about it on Monday?"

Good luck, and let us know what happens.

 

[Huggy]

I can't really add to what everybody's said - they obviously value you, so enlarge on how you want things to progress, but stick with what's best for you. I can also say, that I am never bored, now I've retired. Could we use the extra money? Of course we could, but for my wellbeing, stopping work when I did was essential. I hope you can reach an agreement that works for you.

 

[Jessey]

Crikey, the only thing I’d add, if you don’t want more hours, or to give up the work you enjoy and to have to supervise an assistant, could they get someone to do the bit you don’t like and you just stick with the bits you do in the assistant position? Same money, same 3 days but less work kind of thing.

 

[Myfellpony]

Thank you for the kind thoughts and messages. My head is spinning.
I don’t want to leave
I don’t want to work more than 3 days a week
I know my boss doesn’t want me to leave, and he will bend over backwards to do what he can for me to stay, so that goes in my favour.

the easiest solution, would to be to get an assistant to take work off me. That is also the cheapest solution. However, that means I would have to pass over the day to day ‘bookkeeping work’ which I enjoy doing, leaving me with the boring reports, tax work etc.
My ideal solution would be to bring someone in above me, to do the ‘boring’ bits, but there wouldn’t be a full time job, and the cost would be much more for the company.

When I first started there, it was a small company, and I did the full job myself, working a 5 day week, but I very often left at 3.30 on a Friday with a totally clear desk. That was perfect for me. As the company has grown, we have had to take on more staff, and I can’t remember the last time I left early because there was nothing to do.
I get paid for any extra hours I do, but only at normal rate, as was agreed when I went part time.

I’m not expecting to get much work done on Monday until we get this sorted!

 

[PePo]

Is there a chance there's not a problem? It doesn't sound like anything has been agreed - just an informal chat and you've both aired your views.

If you really don't want to leave and equally don't want to go F/T then you may have to stomach the assistant, but it doesn't sound to me like your job won't be there - just a compromise around the tasks involved day to day.

 

[MrA]

I don’t want to leave
I don’t want to work more than 3 days a week

I would be exactly the same given this situation, I run things over and over in my mind trying to find the perfect solution. If possible I would just emphasise these points and see what they can suggest. Can you split the boring jobs half and half with anyone else as a compromise? Best of luck getting it sorted and try not to worry about it too much tomorrow, easier said than done though

 

[Mary Poppins]

Why do you think you have told your boss you want to leave? I read it as you told your boss that you don’t want to return full time and that you don’t want to give up part of the job you enjoy. Therefore you want to stay part time, work part time hours and do the enjoyable parts of your job. You are clearly stating what you want. I wonder why this feels that you have done something wrong?

 

[Kite_Rider]

Can’t you share the work with someone else, like a job share? That way you’d get to do the parts of your job you like as well as the ‘boring’ stuff and so would the other person, ok your boss would have to pay the other person a similar salary but I can’t see why that wouldn’t work for you?

 

[chunky monkey]

How far away from work are you, or does it entail a long travel. I know you say you dont want full time. But if you were able to do the bits you like which mean you need to work over 5 days, could you suggest still working 5 days a week but just work 9am till 1pm or 2pm. Its not worth it if travel is an issue but could it be an option.

 

[Myfellpony]

Whilst I haven’ ACTUALLY handed my notice in, I’ve basically said that one person could do my job by working 40 hours a week, something that I don’t want to do.

If I stay on, then he has to pay me for 24 hours a week, plus someone else 40 hours a week. It’s not possible to job share. The extra person would need to be at least as qualified as me, and needs to be there 5 days a week. At the minute I can pick up emails from home, check bank transactions etc, but some ‘urgent’ things are having to wait until I’m next in the office, because I can’t access the correct system from home.
To give an example, a colleague emailed me on a day off to say that she thought a supplier had been paid incorrectly. I was out all day so didn’t pick the email up until after 5 pm. It was too late to ask her to cancel the payment ( which she is able to do) so I had to drive into the office on a Saturday morning in order to cancel it, because I don’t have the correct access from home. It’s a thirty minute drive to the office, so over an hour of my time to do something that could have been done in 5 minutes had I been in the previous day. As it was ’only’ and hour and not a half day I didnt claim any pay for it. My fault I know, but try to keep track of all these little extra jobs I do on my days off would be a nightmare. My extra pay is only claimed by the day or half day worked, not by hours.

 

[Skib]

One of my family also wanted to work part time and found she was expected to do full time. She negotiated 3 days in the office and 2 at home. Post Covid, most of the time she does all 5 days from home. However in the past with young kids, she has had a 3 days job share and made it work. It worked because both of the 3 days sharers were working at the same time, one day a week.

The big difference between her and you is that she was the main wage earner. Her family depended on her earnings.

You really need to be clear in your own mind what you want and then ask your employers if you can have that.

 

[Kite_Rider]

I still don’t understand why you couldn’t job share, if you both did 20 hours each with maybe an extra hour to handover? There’s no reason to think that someone else as qualified as you wouldn’t like to work part time too? But I guess it isn’t as simple as that.…. Anyhow, only you can decide what you really want to do.

 

[Mary Poppins]

Whilst I haven’ ACTUALLY handed my notice in, I’ve basically said that one person could do my job by working 40 hours a week, something that I don’t want to do.

If I stay on, then he has to pay me for 24 hours a week, plus someone else 40 hours a week. It’s not possible to job share. The extra person would need to be at least as qualified as me, and needs to be there 5 days a week. At the minute I can pick up emails from home, check bank transactions etc, but some ‘urgent’ things are having to wait until I’m next in the office, because I can’t access the correct system from home.
To give an example, a colleague emailed me on a day off to say that she thought a supplier had been paid incorrectly. I was out all day so didn’t pick the email up until after 5 pm. It was too late to ask her to cancel the payment ( which she is able to do) so I had to drive into the office on a Saturday morning in order to cancel it, because I don’t have the correct access from home. It’s a thirty minute drive to the office, so over an hour of my time to do something that could have been done in 5 minutes had I been in the previous day. As it was ’only’ and hour and not a half day I didnt claim any pay for it. My fault I know, but try to keep track of all these little extra jobs I do on my days off would be a nightmare. My extra pay is only claimed by the day or half day worked, not by hours.

Flexible working means that both the employee and the manager need to be creative in finding solutions that work. Perhaps a restructure is needed? Perhaps a job share could work if things were done differently? Just because your job is done in a certain way at the moment, it doesn’t mean things can’t change. That is how companies keep valued employees and move forward. Perhaps you need to think more creatively how to make this situation work for you?

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

Whilst I haven’ ACTUALLY handed my notice in, I’ve basically said that one person could do my job by working 40 hours a week, something that I don’t want to do.

If I stay on, then he has to pay me for 24 hours a week, plus someone else 40 hours a week. It’s not possible to job share. The extra person would need to be at least as qualified as me, and needs to be there 5 days a week. At the minute I can pick up emails from home, check bank transactions etc, but some ‘urgent’ things are having to wait until I’m next in the office, because I can’t access the correct system from home.
To give an example, a colleague emailed me on a day off to say that she thought a supplier had been paid incorrectly. I was out all day so didn’t pick the email up until after 5 pm. It was too late to ask her to cancel the payment ( which she is able to do) so I had to drive into the office on a Saturday morning in order to cancel it, because I don’t have the correct access from home. It’s a thirty minute drive to the office, so over an hour of my time to do something that could have been done in 5 minutes had I been in the previous day. As it was ’only’ and hour and not a half day I didnt claim any pay for it. My fault I know, but try to keep track of all these little extra jobs I do on my days off would be a nightmare. My extra pay is only claimed by the day or half day worked, not by hours.

surely then perhaps the question is why you can't have the correct systems at home that enable you to do what is required? And also given i work in accounts, how much of the stuff is actually urgent i.e. essential rather than just nice to get done but could have waited. the supplier being incorrectly paid could have been sorted out by afterwards or adjusted on another order with them???

 

[Myfellpony]

I am now using this post as a way to sort my thoughts out. You are all asking questions which are helping me with the thought process

Job share is a definite no. Boss doesn’t allow this, problems in the past with one person being left with the rubbish jobs as the other was cherry picking. So I know not to even ask for that.

OK most jobs aren’t urgent, but it is occaissionally leading to orders being delayed, annoyed customers as they aren’t getting a reply within 24 hours etc.
The issue with the supplier was an extreme case, we aren’t talking a couple of hundred pounds, it was £100,000.00 at stake!

I half decided, that if he doubled my current nett pay, I would go back full time. So, he would be in effect giving me a 20% pay rise. (based on full pay, not pro rata).This would allow me to pay someone to do stable chores for me 5 days a week, so all I need to do would be go and ride. The difference in pay would be around what it would cost to get a decent extra person in.

But, the company would only be getting 16 extra hours for that money instead of the 40 hours they would get by employing an extra person.

I think he would go for this, as I doubt there is enough extra work to fill 40 hours anyway..
But, as soon as I realised this would be a possible solution, my brain told me that I don’t want to go back full time!

Im now leaning towards stepping back, and letting him bring someone in above me.

I will see if any of his thoughts this weekend mirror my own and let you know.

 

[diplomaticandtactful]

I am now using this post as a way to sort my thoughts out. You are all asking questions which are helping me with the thought process

Job share is a definite no. Boss doesn’t allow this, problems in the past with one person being left with the rubbish jobs as the other was cherry picking. So I know not to even ask for that.

OK most jobs aren’t urgent, but it is occaissionally leading to orders being delayed, annoyed customers as they aren’t getting a reply within 24 hours etc.
The issue with the supplier was an extreme case, we aren’t talking a couple of hundred pounds, it was £100,000.00 at stake!

I half decided, that if he doubled my current nett pay, I would go back full time. So, he would be in effect giving me a 20% pay rise. (based on full pay, not pro rata).This would allow me to pay someone to do stable chores for me 5 days a week, so all I need to do would be go and ride. The difference in pay would be around what it would cost to get a decent extra person in.

But, the company would only be getting 16 extra hours for that money instead of the 40 hours they would get by employing an extra person.

I think he would go for this, as I doubt there is enough extra work to fill 40 hours anyway..
But, as soon as I realised this would be a possible solution, my brain told me that I don’t want to go back full time!

Im now leaning towards stepping back, and letting him bring someone in above me.

I will see if any of his thoughts this weekend mirror my own and let you know.

bringing in someone above you they then call the shots. you may be giving up your position of power.

 

[PePo]

Perhaps, you also need to consider if you could be more flexible in the tasks? I appreciate they may not be your first choice but if it allows you to stay working part-time, it might be worth it?.

I work for a great conpany who have been happy to be flexible but there are parts of my job, I don't enjoy but part of the mutual flexibility and overall package I get, means I just have to accept it.

Is one of the things to negiogate having system access at home?