Exploring, understanding and celebrating good part-time working.
The Part-time Works campaign, brought to you by Timewise and the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, returns in 2026 with a new focus: the role of work and job design in supporting better outcomes for men’s health and longer, healthier working lives.
2.6 million men in the UK work part-time. Many feel they need to stay quiet about their patterns. Yet part-time work can change lives for the better. Making work alongside ‘something else’ possible – health, caring, family needs, retirement plans. We say it’s time to challenge the ‘full-time is always best’ model. For many, the pressure to stay full-time, particularly through hard personal times, can lead to burnout, sickness and eventually dropping away from work altogether.
Professor Rob Galloway
Rob, an emergency medicine consultant, moved from working full time to 3.5 days a week. Choosing part-time work over burning out and leaving medicine for good.
More part-time stories:
After 18 years climbing construction’s ranks, Andy cut to three days a week, and hasn’t looked back: more time with his sons, space to think, and a full tank every working day.
Former marketing director Charles swapped corporate life for the classroom, proving that a part-time career in teaching is not just possible, but very rewarding.
After a seven-year career break, Luke returned to Cambridge as a Research Fellow, proving that part-time academia is not just possible, but genuinely sustainable.
HR Advisor Robert has worked four days a week at NatWest for 14 years, showing that the right flexible working pattern makes a fulfilling career with MS not just manageable, but very possible.
Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement
The Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement is a pioneering think tank with a bold ambition to help everyone achieve long-term financial security.
Discover more: https://www.standardlife.co.uk/centre-for-the-future-of-retirement
A three-part special on caring, work and health from Timewise and the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement.
Episode 1
The needle in the haystack
Searching for a good part-time job to fit with caring needs, and / or your own health condition can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. Hear the experiences of Shaline Manhertz, Erica Fitchie and Rebekah Zammett – who’ve all taken different paths.
Episode 2
How to thrive
How can you maintain and even enjoy work, when you have intense caring needs or a chronic health condition? Sharon Foxwell cares for her disabled daughter. Russ Read-Barrow juggles work with cancer treatment. Mark Webb’s employer re-shaped his role with him, after a life-changing MS diagnosis. Hear their stories.
Episode 3
Expert advice
Are you unclear on your rights in work? Whether you are a carer, or you have a work-limiting illness, listen in for advice from the experts. With Emily Holzhausen OBE of Carers UK, work psychologist Julie Denning, Patrick Thomson of the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement and Claire Campbell of Timewise.
A podcast to explore, understand and celebrate good part-time working – part-time works.
Episode 1
Working part-time in 2024 – a modern experience of part time working, from tackling assumptions to rally car racing.
Let’s build a picture of modern day part-time work. With PR jobshare Sharon Foxwell and Jo Holdom in Devon, and dad Alex Kihurani, in London.
Episode 2
Inspiring bosses: what makes for great managers of part-time workers.
Two managers of part-time workers – who also work part-time themselves – discuss what qualities make for great leaders of people who need time-based flex. With Kelly Keating in Bournemouth, and Andrew Eaton in Birmingham.
Episode 3
Can you work part-time in the frontline? Demonstrating the art of the possible.
Can there be work-life balance in shift-based jobs? Nurse Julie Snell has worked part-time for 25 years. Detective Constable Nisha Chandra is new to flex. The two discuss the nuts and bolts of how their jobs work.
Episode 4
Part-time paths to progression – carving out your own path and making it work for you.
Can you work part-time and shape the career you want? Yes. Sarah Ellis, co-host of the Squiggly Careers podcast and co-founder Amazing If, and Phoenix Group’s Claire Hawkins discuss their own individual career journeys.
Episode 5
Part-time changed the course of my life.
Good part-time working can unlock your life and set you on a better path. Professor Richard Lanyon-Hogg and Dr Katie Perry discuss how part-time working changed both their lives – and look at the incredible talent pool of people who work part-time.
Bonus Episode
Reflections upon the series & part-time work in the UK
Emma Jacobs, Work and Careers writer for the Financial Times is an expert on work trends in the UK. Emma and Claire Campbell, the CEO of Timewise discuss Emma’s personal working style, reflect on the series and look towards the future.
