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[quote=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?[/quote]

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