How to talk your boss into working part time

[Holicent]

You know how you've been saying that you'd like to work part-time? I'm here to tell you that it's totally possible for someone as productive as you.

Here are some tips:

1. Say something positive about yourself in your interview. You can talk about things like how much of a problem-solver you are, or how much value your skills bring to the table.

2. Show them how you'll handle the work with a couple examples of what you've done in the past (so they can see that this is not just hypothetical).

3. Make sure that when they ask for details, you're willing to give them everything—including any additional information they might need on top of what they get from your resume, so they know exactly what kind of person they're dealing with and will be able to trust their decisions accordingly.

You can ask for a specific amount of work that can be done at home—the more specific, the better. This will help your boss understand what kind of impact this change could have on his business.

 

[Etini]

In some organizations, no matter what you do, you would not be permitted to work on a part-time basis. The reason is that there are so many people out there that can fill your position and offer the option of full-time availability. It is hard to get a part-time work basis agreed upon in certain jobs. Job descriptions that are being performed by anybody are difficult to negotiate a part-time working arrangement.

However, with jobs that the specialization in that field is scarce, they can easily let you work part-time knowing that if you decide to leave, it would be hard to find a replacement. Take, for instance, a school, it is difficult for a social studies or health education teacher to work part-time. Simply because just about anybody can undertake those jobs. But for subjects like phonics, mathematics, and other subjects where personnel are scarce, they are given concessions to work part-time.