Katie Hogue

I work on average 25 hours in the office (onsite) each week where I perform the COO role in the business that I co-own with my husband. The hours I work onsite, flex up and down by about 20% according to our family and business priorities on a weekly basis. However, of course being a business owner I'm available 7 days a week for urgent needs and part of my brain is often thinking about work.

To be honest, the word part-time hasn't been part of my thinking or in my lexicon. There are hours that I'm available to internal and external parties, and there are hours that I'm not available. Currently 33% of our current workforce works part-time. At times it's been even higher than that, so this isn't anything out of the ordinary at our organisation.

In practice that's no different from a full timer who might have commitments during their working day or week for e.g. a schedule of 1-2-1 meetings with their direct reports or they are on a flight. I don't publicize or discuss my hours; in fact, it might not be even apparent that I work "part-time". I am a person doing a job and I am completing that job using my own unique working practices - which is a certain way, on a certain timeline using certain resources. That’s it.

I find it works well for me to have a fixed schedule that I adhere to every day which is 9-2pm M-F. I find I am able to work more productively this way rather than working longer days across fewer days as I know some prefer. This routine also provides continuity and predictability for my team. They know when I'm available to them and when they may need to wait until the next day if it's not urgent.

If I'm not in the office but I see something urgent on an email (external) then I pass this over to my husband or I call the person and set up a meeting or another call for the next day. This means my 10-minute drive to and from work is well utilized and you might also spot me pushing a pram to my son's daycare pick up talking on the phone as well. Once I'm home and into Mum mode, my focus is away from work until my husband comes home and then we will talk about work but we set a boundary of non-work talk after dinner so we can disconnect and connect on a personal level.