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What's surgery like?
Organisation
To arrange any form of flexible working, you will need to reach an agreement with your colleagues and HR department.
Preliminary early discussion with Directorate colleagues is essential in order to allow a smooth transition to an alternative working pattern. Organisation of flexible working is much easier in a department where it has already been established, by previous colleagues.
The directorate management team may have concerns regarding how your proposed working pattern will fit in to the pre-existing schedule of services within the department. If you are wishing to change from a full-time contract to a new contract, it is important to be transparent about your activities, and prospectively to collect outcome data, so that any projected changes can be calculated in advance.
Once your colleagues and directorate management are happy with your proposals, then a draft proposal needs to be discussed with the Human Resources department. There should be a dedicated person within each Trust HR, who has responsibility for flexible contacts, who can check the content of the proposal, and any implications there may be with respect to pay and pensions.
Sometimes Trusts will advertise posts that are specifically designed to meet deficiencies in service delivery, and may encourage applicants who wish to work at less then full -time. Trusts who state in their job advert that they welcome applications from those wishing to work less than full-time, are often very amenable to discussions post appointment, to reduce work commitments or adopt unusual working patterns.
It is acceptable to ask for any pattern of working, which will enable an efficient use of time, without detriment to the patient pathway of investigation and treatment. There is, however, no absolute entitlement to change your pattern of work. Most human resource departments will be receptive to any proposals, and should endeavour to work with the aspirations to achieve a favourable outcome.
