Being a high performing part timer

I work in a very high commitment organisation. For many people, working long days or taking work home is a regular part of life; this isn't necessarily a negative, as it mainly stems from a strong belief in our direction and potential as an organisation, and the sense that we are all working together towards the same success. This is increasingly common for organisations and I have no doubt that many others share the same experience.

Working in this kind of environment, it's very easy to equate being a high performer - i.e. consistently contributing above the level of competence/effort required for your role - with putting in extra time. Before going on maternity leave, I wouldn't have particularly challenged this thinking. On returning to work, for 3 1/2 days a week, I feel differently about it.

I should explain, first, that I love my job (and I'm not just saying that because most of the company are on Twitter). I love it even more because I've been given the chance to return from maternity leave to a promotion, and am still able to aim to progress in my role & career on reduced hours - something which isn't always easy despite all the progress that has been made in protection against discrimination. Although it has been hard to adjust to leaving my daughter in nursery, and balance all the practical elements (see last post!), I've never doubted that this is the right thing for me to do...I know it wouldn't suit everyone. I am as committed to work, and to doing a great job, as I ever was.

However, it looks different now. I have the obvious practical restraints - nursery pick-up is non-flexible, so I can't drop everything and stay behind for a last minute meeting or to finish something off. I can take work home - but if I do, I will be failing to do something at home that needs sorting out. It can be done for emergencies or times of extreme pressure; it can't be a normal way of life. From the outside, I now look like one of those people who work their contracted hours and not a moment more, and I don't like it! This has led me to consider what high performance actually is, and how I can achieve it within my practical constraints - also, in my role in HR, whether I can help others to assess it!

So, taking long hours out of the equation, I think high performance involves:

• Pushing yourself to achieve more, or a higher quality, than is strictly "required" for your role
• Identifying and implementing (as far as you can) improvements or changes, rather than blindly doing what you've always done
• Embodying your organisation's values, whatever they are - one of ours is pace, so I'm focused (for myself and my team) on delivering information, change, advertised vacancies, feedback...whatever is required...at a pace that matches the way the rest of the business work.
• Being one step ahead - understanding your role to the extent that you are able to pre-empt potential problems, and you can contribute, at whatever level is appropriate, to decisions about your team's direction
• Looking for extra challenges...
• ...and never just passing time till the end of the day (except maybe the day after the Christmas party!)

This has taken me ages to write and I've had to think really hard about it, because the attitude I'm trying to describe is difficult to define. I think someone who consistently over performs at work will be doing the above unconsciously - it's just how they "do" work - so it isn't something that usually gets put into words.

I'm not suggesting this just applies to people who work part time - just that it may need more careful consideration in our cases, as the high commitment/performance is not as visible!

What do you think? Is it even a valid question? I'm happy to be disagreed with. I also understand that many people don't particularly strive to be a high performer...work is about providing for life outside, and progression or approval at work are not as important to everyone as they are to me...we all need to do what suits our temperaments, life stage and current needs!

Why wearing two hats?

The title of this blog, "Wearing Two Hats", is of course based on the multi-tasking involved in being a fairly new parent, and also holding down (and enjoying!) a challenging, absorbing job. I won't pretend to believe that I'm the first person to draw this parallel, but you have to pick a name from somewhere.

I've always wanted to believe that there aren't too many fundamental differences between men and women, and their roles. I was helped in this belief by having parents who had a pretty equal split when it came to domestic chores, and a husband who does pretty much all of our cooking, although I wouldn't say we have an equal split on other areas of domesticity!

When I was on maternity leave I knew that the domestic balance would change, at least temporarily - after all, I was in the house 7 days a week; it seems fair that I would do the majority of the housework etc in this time. When I went back to work, that balance changed again, and we got a cleaner - the house still isn't particularly tidy but it is at least clean.

This is all fine. The thing which I have struggled to process is this: once you have had a child, you can't get away from the fact that men and women have different roles. The traditional female role doesn't necessarily have to sit with a woman, but it does still tend to be the mother who reduces working time or gives up work entirely. For me, this took the form of realising that, by default, my life had changed fundamentally, far more than my husband's. He has a job which involves travelling; if he has a late meeting, or a conference which involves an overnight stay, or a meeting which involves a very early start, he books this in without checking with me. The assumption is that I will be available to look after the baby, take her to nursery etc. My job doesn't involve travel at the moment, although it has in the past, and may again in the future, As and when it does, I won't have the luxury of booking travel, meetings etc without checking his availability to do the nursery pick up.

The point I'm trying to get to, and I don't feel that I'm making this very clearly, is that although new parenthood is a massive change for men, the rest of their life tends to stay much the same - they only have to wear one hat at a time. For me, and most people that I know well enough to talk to about it, the motherhood hat is firmly fixed on my head; I put other hats on over the top, and hope that I haven't left too much of the other one showing.

A couple of examples...

 - We're going out for the evening. I organise the babysitter, get the baby ready for bed and settled in bed, wash the bottles, and somewhere amongst that get changed. Martin gets home from work, changes, and is ready to go out! I'm a mum and a...wife going on a date.
- Our morning routine - I get up and ready for work while a barely-conscious Martin looks after the baby. I then get her dressed, take her down for breakfast, sort out her stuff for nursery, try and eat breakfast at some point, and get us both out of the house on time. This is the same, regardless of whether Martin has to leave before me or is working at home...I'm always a mum and a...commuter.

I'm not actually complaining about this, by the way; we've settled into a routine that works for us and gives the baby some consistency. It just is a fact of life that my day to day mindset is always, now, affected by parenthood - I'm always "a mum and a...", and never just "a...". Perhaps others organise themselves differently, but I think the mindset is the same for everyone. Whatever else you're doing, somewhere at the back of your mind your brain is thinking about baby logistics. It's essential to do that to care properly for your child but it does create an extra pressure, and I don't think men are affected in the same way. I think I've accepted it now but it took me a while!

Welcome!

Since having a baby just over a year ago, I've kept thinking about starting a mummy-blog. I've resisted until now, for two reasons, or possibly three! Firstly, until July, I've spent the last two years writing a blog about the book list I was working through, and one blog seemed like enough. Secondly, there are so many people out there writing about parenthood, and I didn't particularly feel qualified to add to it. And finally...who has time?!

So, what's changed? Obviously, I finished the list - I will still blog about books from time to time but at the moment I don't have the time or the energy to read much and when I do, to my shame, I'm reading very few books which I care to write about (or confess to reading...). Also, life has changed - I didn't have particularly strong opinions about any of the issues which "mummy bloggers" tended to write about in the first year of parenthood, or didn't want to get involved in them...however, now I've returned to work, I'm starting to work through other questions and issues which I feel more strongly about and therefore feel I have more valid comment to make. I still don't have time, but have been inspired to make time by the "I'm a mum and a..." theme that the brilliant website http://www.storyofmum.com/ has recently been featuring.

My posts will probably be quite random, but I'm anticipating that they will generally be around the themes of gender, multi-tasking and, quite possibly, making life up as you go along!

First proper post to follow.