Could you ditch the 30-hour week?
Carleen Frost speaks to three workers who have managed to adapt their job to better manage the demands of family and the office.
Elysha Stephens is a consultant who runs her business part-time from her Central Coast home.
"After Max was born four years ago I had to think about how I would continue with work. With more than 10 years' experience in marketing and communications across a range of industries including IT, development and hospitality, I felt I had some options.
But I also had a very clear picture of how much work I could take on and how I could fit that with my family. I felt I only wanted to start off with one day a week.
I'm in a good position in that I don't need to work so I had the luxury of time to consider the options and spent quite a few months looking for jobs and opportunities that would suit me.
One of the avenues which proved to be really helpful was signing up to CareerMums and mums@work newsletters.
Via those websites, I found a job one day a week asking for someone with exactly my skills and mentioned a work from home arrangement.
I got that job, which started off my freelance career."
Michael Ryan is a lawyer with Corrs Chambers Westgarth in the Sydney CBD. He works four days a week and spends Mondays at home looking after his children.
"With two kids, a one-year-old and a five-year-old, we wanted to sort out a flexible working arrangement to suit our family.
My wife already worked from home and I'm a commercial lawyer in the litigation section.
So now I have Mondays at home and it just gives me that much more time to be with them and help my wife with all the housework.
Having that extra day with the kids is great - just to have that relationship with them, to be more involved with their childhood is important to me.
My daughter started school this year and it meant so much that I was able to take the time to take her to school on her first day.
The flexibility of my job means that even though I don't work on a Monday, if there's something I need to do, I can make arrangements to switch days.
And even from home, it's very easy for me to log on to the work system from our computer; it's just like I'm at my desk in the office.
Of course, our business demands that we are focused on serving our clients but I have found the clients have been very understanding about this arrangement.
I really appreciate that I was offered the opportunity to work this way and it seems to be happening in a lot of places. I certainly think it's a good thing and, where it's possible, more people should take it up."
Tracey Lentell is the general manager of Moorebank Sports Club. Her son Hunter is nine months old.
"I am the boss and report to a board of directors. They are seven guys but they understand that I have been able to create a culture in our workplace that can fit the demands of being a new mum.
In the past 4.5 years that I have been there, I have made the workplace family friendly.
I went back to work when Hunter was six weeks old, initially from home and then part-time at the office until he was three months old. I was back on deck full-time after that and it suits me really well.
Often I will go into the office on a Saturday which allows me to have Monday off and mind the baby while his dad goes to work.
The flexibility of our office culture also means if I need to work from home, I can.
I will also bring Hunter into the club if there is no other option and he takes little naps in the boardroom but I don't like to do that a lot.
All of this flexibility is awesome and I only need to put him in childcare three days a week.
My girls in the office will go above and beyond for me because I will allow them freedom.
They are happy that I let them do the things that make their life easier."
Source: Daily Telegraph, saturday, march 3, 2012
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