More in Less: The Exceptional Part-Time Employee

When I became a part-time employee I realized I needed to change my day-to-day strategy. No longer would I have 40+ hours a week to complete projects. I now needed to get all my work done in half that time. I soon realized, working part-time is like having a never ending deadline. So, how do you cope with a never ending deadline?

Priorities

Well, the first thing I had to do was realize I was now at the office solely for the purpose of working. In the past, I admit I did a fair amount of socializing at work. Which is fine when I had an entire week to finish my work; now my focus has to be my workload. Socializing is very far down on the list.

The down side to part-time is even if you do go looking for socialization you may find it harder to become involved with your co-workers when you do not see them every day for an extended period of time.

Also, I had to arrange my home schedule so that I could go in early and stay late if necessary. My company is very laid back, but they do expect me to stay and complete a project, especially during our busy time. When you are part-time you find yourself unable to say no to a little extra time in the office, after all they only get you for a few hours a week.

Organization

Second, I had to become super organized. I was always a list maker, but now instead of the "To Do" list being optional, it is now mandatory. I use the "To Do" list every day to arrange my tasks and coordinate my projects.

Something as simple as making phone calls now requires thought, if the person I am calling is not in, will I be at the office when they call back? And if not, when will I next be in to retrieve this information.

With projects, I always have to consider can I get this project turned around before I leave for the day? What if it isn't done at that point, is it okay to hold until I return? For this, I stay in constant contact with my boss. When he assigns projects I immediately ask when he needs them back (if I can't figure that out for myself).

I never imagined I would have to think that hard about my hourly schedule, but I do and it helps immensely.

Your ability to prioritize and organize will go a long way to making you a smoothly functioning part-time employee. Whether you work several days consecutively or if you work every other day.

Multi-Task

Thank goodness women are natural multi-taskers. I mean motherhood is all about multi-tasking! Which is good because in order to get everything done, you will need to become a dedicated multi-tasker.

Now a days, I have at least two things going at once and I rarely eat away from my desk, but I consider it a small price to pay in order to have a couple days off during the week.

Streamline

As an exceptional part-time employee you will find it necessary to streamline everything that you do. From work processes to interacting with your co workers, everything will get streamlined. This is actually the perfect reason to eliminate calling people who only waste your time chit chatting. You can now send them an email to get the information you need, most likely saving yourself a whole lot of long phone conversations.

You will also find that you develop new ways to do routine processes. Being constantly pressed for time makes you evaluate everything. An example, my company has to submit bills to a master billing authority. We used to hand carry the invoices to the central billing office: a large waste of time. Now I run the bills through the scanner and send them via email. A time saver and it also allows me to have electronic copies available in my email, if I need to answer questions remotely.

As a part-time employee you may find yourself working harder than your co workers. You may also become the most reliable person in the office; it is hard to justify missing a day or coming late when you are only there a couple days a week.

There are times when you may feel you will never get it all done. But if you are organized, multi-task and streamlined you can get it done.

I look at each days to-do list as a personal challenge. Can I get it all done? You bet I can!