Celebrating women, Mums and flexible part time working.

Women · Mums · Not 9 to 5. 

Mum Zone

My small business is entirely run by women and we are all Mums.  There are 5 of us and we all work part time. Our day is probably not considered a ‘normal’ working day, something that I used to apologise for. There is often no-one in the office after 3.30pm and that used to make me think that we weren’t a proper company.  Now I know better.  

I now no longer feel the need to apologise to our courier company that our office closes at 3.30pm or that I don’t work on a Friday afternoon as the kids finish school at lunchtime. ‘Lucky you’ people said.  Yes, I agree, lucky me. I have chosen to work around my family and as a result, I’m 100% focused whilst I am at the office and let’s face it, we all know that your best work is done late in the evening at home or in pyjamas on a Sunday morning.  My business is growing and that’s because I’ve got an awesome team who work like demons. It doesn’t matter that our day is morning heavy, it doesn't matter at all.   And if you added up all the hours that we actually work on the business, I'm guessing that none of us would be considered part time.

Guilt Free Zone

The bonus of a company run by multiple part time workers is that the hours we work fit around our family life, that’s why we are working those hours. This means that the office is a guilt free zone.  We are not sitting here thinking we should be with our kids. We have chosen to work around our family and therefore when we are here, we are happy and productive. We barely talk about the kids except occasionally to relay a story of a particularly spectacular tantrum or an epic fail on a Birthday cake or forgetting to collect a child from a party.  We laugh a lot then we get our heads down because we don’t have long before they are home from school, so we can drive them around to activities and attempt to remember to pick them up again.

Child Free Zone

I am proud that I’ve created a fun, inclusive, stimulating environment for other women who find that home life and looking after a family is great as PART of your life but not the whole thing. I offer them flexibility in a local job and in return, they offer loyalty and hard work and much to giggle about.  We all love our jobs. Isn’t that awesome?

Being a Mother is not the only identifying label that I want to live by.  I love being a Mum but I also love working. Does working mean 9am to 5pm?  No. Working is creating and you can create at any time of the day, not by hours that a man in a suit set some time ago….  

Part time working works.  If your employees are happier, more relaxed and more productive, it’s a winning situation for all concerned.