Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Mary Reed

Personal Experience of Working Part Time

I have had to make a choice between my career and being a mum, I don’t want to go back to work full time because I want to be there for my children (aged 2 and 7). I am a researcher based at a university, I have a hand to mouth existence, various short term, fixed term projects and am now frantically trying to find work before my current contract comes to an end. I am treading water career wise and have taken a pay cut with this current job, because it fits—allowing me to work from home and organise my own working day. I am pretty much forgotten about by my employers as I get the work done to a good standard, the sadness for me is that means I am not really developed or given new opportunities which was a big feature of my pre-children full time job where I was promoted often. I am trying to be creative with how I work and have even set up my own limited company to do consultancy work related to research. My ambition has been diluted by having children, and my main concern relating to work is getting the mortgage paid, but I am still really interested in the work I do and am very engaged (which is hard to maintain when you don’t interact with other team members). I just can’t compete time wise with colleagues who go for the career, these people work all the time, morning noon and night. What is frustrating is that I am good at my job and can achieve so much in part time hours as I am more focused. I did have a brilliant boss who recognised my ability first—and not just how many hours I could work, but she was a one off and since then I haven’t met that flexibility. The irony is I worked my socks off for this boss and would do anything to produce good work for her and together (although both part time) we achieved so much. It is frustrating—I am happy to sacrifice anything for my children—but it is like Caitlin Moran says; women in their 30’s are at their prime, confident etc, but taken out of circulation due to having children. I would love for both me and my husband to work flexibly (and so would he) but he works in a traditional industry—joinery where it wouldn’t even be considered. I also have many talented and clever friends who have totally opted out of jobs market to stay at home, because they are scared of doing the juggling act; it just seems such a terrible waste.

14 November 2012