Explaining a gap in employment

[Anonymous]

I'm struggling with the wording for this. I don't want a prospective employer to think I left the job on bad terms, as this is not true. But I also don't want to over-explain the complicated situation because I'm afraid that will sound defensive.

Here's the situation:

I worked FT in an excellent position and made fast progress to a high position in my organization. I had a diverse range of responsibilities that included both a writing component and an administrative component.

I got pregnant and knew that although I loved my job, I wanted to stay at home with my child as much as possible. I negotiated a change to a PT position where I only worked in the office once a week and for about 10 hours total each week. This was done on very good terms with my boss, and I thoroughly trained and prepared my replacement before leaving.

After a four-month maternity leave, I started working PT. I worked about 10 hours a week like this for about a year, and my responsibilities were entirely focused on the writing/communications component because I wasn't there daily to manage the administrative component I used to do.

I focused on one particular aspect of our communications strategy that could be handled mostly from home. When my childcare situation changed and I wasn't able to come into the office as regularly, I ended up working almost entirely from home and during "off times" (evenings, weekends). My overall number of hours dropped to about 5-8 hours per week. I did this for about another year.

At that time, there was a decision by the program funder to change the communications strategy in a way that would eliminate the aspect of it that had become my entire job. My contract was written as contingent on funding (the same as all contracts at my employer), and so they gave me about a month's notice and basically laid me off as a result of loss of funding for the things listed in my job duties. Although sad, I was comfortable with this because it had become increasingly difficult to work so few hours and from home, so I was really disconnected from the office and what was going on. My boss was very friendly with me about it, and it was not a matter of me being let go because of poor performance, although I was told that they wanted to hire someone FT and more junior to me (basically so that they could pay them less and get more work out of them). I think this was a smart decision on the part of the company, as they really did need someone FT in the office to respond to things more quickly. But as a result, I wasn't even offered the option of going back to FT (which I wouldn't have taken anyway) because they only had the funds to hire someone more junior than me.

Sorry for the long explanation. This is exactly what I don't want to write on my job applications now! I'm applying for PT jobs, so the PT aspect shouldn't be odd to any prospective employers. Any help with wording for why I left that job?

[Anonymous]

You don't need to go into all of that explanation.

You transitioned from a full-time position to a work-from-home part-time position for family reasons/obligations. Eventually the company's needs changed, and they wanted someone on-site in a full-time capacity, which didn't work for you at the time due to family obligations.

(You don't have to tell them that they didn't offer you the full time slot. You wouldn't have taken it anyhow, and honestly, you have no way of knowing that they didn't offer it to you *partly* because they didn't think you were interested.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to go into all of that explanation.

You transitioned from a full-time position to a work-from-home part-time position for family reasons/obligations. Eventually the company's needs changed, and they wanted someone on-site in a full-time capacity, which didn't work for you at the time due to family obligations.

(You don't have to tell them that they didn't offer you the full time slot. You wouldn't have taken it anyhow, and honestly, you have no way of knowing that they didn't offer it to you *partly* because they didn't think you were interested.)

OP here. Thank you! I love how you worded this.

My only concern is that I suspect they will contact my former boss, who I plan to list as a reference, and I wasn't sure how she would explain my reason for leaving. I thought it was possible she would talk more about the elimination of the duties (change in the communications strategy) and was worried that might make it seem like I was framing things in a false way. Then again, now that I think of it, I don't think it would seem that odd. I'm over-thinking it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to go into all of that explanation.

You transitioned from a full-time position to a work-from-home part-time position for family reasons/obligations. Eventually the company's needs changed, and they wanted someone on-site in a full-time capacity, which didn't work for you at the time due to family obligations.

(You don't have to tell them that they didn't offer you the full time slot. You wouldn't have taken it anyhow, and honestly, you have no way of knowing that they didn't offer it to you *partly* because they didn't think you were interested.)

OP here. Thank you! I love how you worded this.

My only concern is that I suspect they will contact my former boss, who I plan to list as a reference, and I wasn't sure how she would explain my reason for leaving. I thought it was possible she would talk more about the elimination of the duties (change in the communications strategy) and was worried that might make it seem like I was framing things in a false way. Then again, now that I think of it, I don't think it would seem that odd. I'm over-thinking it.

I work in communications so over communicating is something I find myself doing alot (hazard of the job?). I love this wording, and I think if your former employer speaks to your performance, there isn't alot to worry about. You were full-time and had a child putting you at part-time (and variations on the theme). That situation didn't work any longer for the company, which is why you are looking. I think it makes sense.

Off-topic: do you find alot of part-time jobs in the communications field? It's something I have considered (not in the near future), so just wondering what is out there etc.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I can't say that I've found a lot in communications. I've been doing some freelance writing, which is very PT and self-driven (which gets exhausting but is fun).

I honestly haven't looked into too many jobs -- this one just sort of fell into my lap and seems really interesting -- but I suspect that there should be a number of situations where you could get a PT or consulting gig writing/editing annual reports, newsletters, etc., for organizations. The problem is that I'm not sure the PT work would be long-term. At least that's been my experience. Even the PT position I had that was long-term ended up being cut because they wanted someone FT. Sigh.