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I remember when I graduated college and started working as an engineer. At that time, my mindset was that I would be working full-time for at least 30 years until it was time to retire. I had no issue with that, because that’s what everyone did….right? Today, I want to share with you that 11 years into my career, I have made the decision to transition from full-time to a part-time position at my company! Why? And how?

This post details the steps we took to take this from dream to reality!

The Dream

I want to start by mentioning that I’m not going part-time because I don’t like my job, or because I’m dissatisfied with what I do. You may hear those reasons from some who also scale back their work. No, I truly enjoy my secular job – in fact, I’m passionate about it. I like to immerse myself in data management and project timelines. Working with a team, finding solutions to problems, and the feeling of being productive are all things I have come to truly appreciate. Despite that, there is another work that I love the most – the ministry of teaching others about the Bible. It has been a goal of mine since I finished high school to do this “full time,” or, at least 70 hours per month. To be honest, for years I thought this goal was going to be impossible to reach that’s why I had made peace with the idea of working full time until retirement.

So that was my why. As we move into the how, you’ll see that a big part of making this Dream a Reality was arranging our finances.

The Steps to Make it a Reality

Now, how was I able to go part-time in what we call a “corporate America” company? For the most part, part-time work in the engineering field is not very popular. The work tends to be demanding, with tight deadlines, requiring “around the clock” support. These salary-based positions may pay more, but it’s in exchange for working longer hours often necessary to meet deadlines. Despite that, a part-time opportunity was made possible for me. There’s some definite spiritual preparation involved, but here are the financial and secular factors that I believe helped me to achieve this:

• Live within your means. As a family, we created the right financial circumstances for this to be possible. Going part-time for me meant reducing my salary by 40%. 40%??!! If we were living above our means, any reduction in pay would be an immediate crisis! Instead, by living within our means, working less became a deliberate move to buy out more time for what we love. To even begin to tackle this question – can we afford to work less? – you need a clear picture of your finances. We had been analyzing ours, paying off all our debt over a few years, and because of that familiarity with our numbers, knew we could make this work. It’s just income minus expenses. Now there are sacrifices – it means you have to say No sometimes, or Not Right Now, to all sorts of offers or potential expenses. At first it may feel like a rude awakening, but it gets easier.
• Be a good employee. As mentioned earlier, I do enjoy my job, therefore I worked really hard at it and became a high performer. When possible, I went the extra mile to prove myself valuable. I pride myself on being loyal, reliable, hard-working, and fun to work with!
• Develop a relationship with your manager. I shared with my manager both my career and personal goals. I felt very comfortable talking to her not only about my work but also about things that I do on the weekend in my free time, and things that bring me joy. When the time came to talk about this, she was not surprised to hear why I wanted to go part-time, and she wanted to fully support this decision. I know that the relationship we developed was key to me getting that needed support.***
• Put yourself on the other side. I understood that in order for the deal to be made, both parties had to gain something. At the end of the day, the business must continue to run – how would it work if I wasn’t there for part of that time? I made it clear that I would be flexible, and that I was fully committed to my responsibilities at work, even it it meant occasionally working longer. This involved a conversation on defining those responsibilities – at the end of the day, what does my position need to accomplish? Once you can assure your company that the work will get done, the hours in which you do it become less important. (Simple…but not easy!)
• We had a Plan B. What if I sat down with my manager and she said no? What would I do then? I had to be prepared with my response to a potential rejection.***

Our New Reality

Now, after 11 years of working full-time I finally start my part-time job. This marks a new chapter in my life where I now have 4 days per week to spend doing the work that makes me the happiest. This means I can dedicate the other 3 days per week to my secular work, which also makes me happy and I enjoy. I traded time, changing the pie chart of my hours per week that we talked about here.

We are proud of challenging ourselves and our view of what is a “normal” work-life. This article talks about actual steps, but they’re just not possible unless you first, as a couple, take the time to dream of what you want your future to look like. So take the time. Dream. Make plans to take that dream to reality. And then put in the work to get there!

***If you are interested in learning specifically how the conversation went with my manager, or to learn more about our Plan B, let us know! We would be more than happy to share the full story with you.