Flexible Working
Dr Gary Fowmes, School of Engineering
Gary is an academic with a young family. He joined the SoE in January 2017, as an Associate Professor of Geotechnical Engineering. Previously he worked at Loughborough University for 4 years, mainly full time but in the last year 0.6FTE. Here, he describes his recruitment to School of Engineering and subsequent working arrangements, initially at 0.6FTE.
“I made an initial informal contact with UoW in August 2016, and explained that I was interested in applying, however, due to having young twins (at the time less than 12 months old) was unable to work full time. My contact was immediately very supportive and suggested that this should not be a reason not to apply and actively encouraged my application.
Following my application, I was invited to interview, and I raised the need to be part time again at the end of my interview. Again this was received positively and we had a constructive discussion where the panel asked if I was looking for reduced hours (i.e. a smaller workload) or a flexible working arrangement to facilitate full time. When I was offered the role, the Head of Department made a point of making it clear that the SoE was seeking to be very progressive in their attitudes to supporting people who weren’t looking to work full time, explaining the system that they had in place to request timetabling around such commitments.
Upon starting, I was asked what teaching pattern I would like. As the material I teach involves block modules and field courses, I met with the CEE-Stream management and planned how my teaching would fall throughout the year. In practice, I had some flexibility on which days I can work, but the forward planning, especially by another member of staff made it particularly easy to plan my other commitments.