Helping the flexible worker feel integrated in veterinary practice

The Vet Mums community mastermind session, hosted at the London Vet Show in November 2021, featured a packed room discussing the most popular topic of conversation chosen within the 5,700-strong Facebook group. While this article is primarily addressing the concerns of working mothers, many of the points apply to flexible working in general.

Why “flexible” work? The title of the discussion in itself sparked interesting debate.

Originally, “flexible workers” had been labelled “part-time”, which can play to the negative bias with connotations of part-dedicated and part-committed.

Flexible working is a broader term that includes those who work full-time hours, but in a flexible pattern around additional demands of work and personal life.

Currently, only 20% of vets work flexibly, while 62% of employers and 81% of employees want more flexibility in the future¹. While requests for flexible working can be a significant source of stress for employers, and the strategies around implementing such work patterns are still minimally explored in the veterinary profession, adoption of more flexible working opportunities could really help with the profession’s recruitment and retention problem.

Identity

How do you feel about your role? Just. I’m “just” a part-time vet, or I’m “just” a mum. This phrase kept being repeated during the session, highlighting the pervasive and wide-spread feeling of being “less-than” fully dedicated to work.

Many work flexibly out of necessity. For those who become parents, there is often a huge identity shift, especially for mothers experiencing changes in body shape and size, and hormonal and emotional shifts.

For the primary carer, still typically the mother in most families, there is the awesome responsibility of caring for a dependent human being, plus a shift in identity away from the veterinary vocation that defines so much of our lives, often pre-dating university. Parental leave can be a hugely challenging time, mentally and physically. The idea that it’s a long, blissful holiday is often far from the truth. Returning to practice, often with reduced confidence and even a diminished sense of self, is challenging enough. In addition, we have to adjust to practice changes and often a shift in role.

It’s often harder to be involved in practice social events with fewer hours and the additional responsibilities at home. A tendency exists to stop even asking those members of staff who work flexibly, and may leave earlier, to join in after work activities. Plus, a trend occurs where if invitations are turned down repeatedly, we stop asking. It’s important to note that there are seasons to parenting where we may have less time to socialise, but it’s still nice to be asked when we have more free time in later seasons.

Spending less time within any team or doing any particular activity will inevitably lead to not knowing all the details and missing out on things. Simple behaviours such as discouraging social cliques, making language accessible by sharing “in jokes” and disseminating practice news is important. Sharing boards and practice-wide newsletters can help with this.

It is interesting to note that locums felt more appreciated when stepping in, even when offering only short shifts, than employed members of staff working similar shift patterns.

The BVA Motivation, Satisfaction and Retention Survey highlighted a sense of belonging as integral to motivation at work². Common themes emerged during the session around not only the challenges of flexible work, but in particular the sense of feeling valued and appreciated, with understanding and empathy.

How do you feel about your role? Yes, the repetition is deliberate. Aside from the working role, the parenting role can also be a source of challenge. Many mothers reported feeling undervalued, taken for granted and weighed down by shouldering the greater proportion of the mental load, even when both parents are working.

Gender inequalities in household duties, in addition to pay and career opportunities, are still pervasive. The responsibility of being a good role model for children as a working parent was also recognised; however, the pressure to “do it all” was very real, creating pressure and stress at home, as well as at work.

Perception

How do you think you’re perceived? How we feel others think about us is often mismatched with how they actually think about us; however, we’ll never discover this mismatch without dialogue.

We may feel we’re being judged harshly when the judgement comes from within – our perception of what others think of us combined with a tendency to be self-critical. Here again, the dual roles of parent and veterinary professional both warrant consideration. Within practice, attendees felt they had a lack of authority, were overlooked for promotions, were not doing a “full” job and were not “good enough” professionally.

Beyond practice, it was felt there were different expectations placed on a mother versus a father – that they were the “lead parent”. For example, mothers instead of fathers were more often expected to take the day off work to care for a sick child. They often felt that they were not good enough as a mum and didn’t see enough of the children. These statements are borne out by countless studies across sectors, and the gender inequalities were highlighted especially during COVID lockdowns, nicely summarised in an article by Veterinary Woman³.

Pros and cons

Interestingly, within the group of flexible workers, more cons were identified than pros. It is important to remember that flexible working means something different to everyone; therefore, the pros and cons will also be different.

The broad benefits and difficulties associated with flexible working are summarised in Panel 1.

One huge factor is the cost of childcare. Childcare vouchers did not fully cover nursery fees and the subsidised hours were used up within two full working days. I had wanted to work three days per week, but my net take-home pay for one additional day’s work, after deductions, would have been £20 as a 10-year qualified vet. It’s simply not financially viable.

Once children start school, the challenges can be even greater. After-school care is over-subscribed and there are few flexible working options. It is both financially and temporally challenging to work flexibly around childcare. The support and incentives for working families need to be stronger for the workplace, to be more physically and economically viable.

Attendees were asked what helps them feel integrated into practice. Responses included: greater acceptance and availability of varied shift patterns; job sharing and split roles, including for management and leadership roles; staff education on inclusion and perception for working parents; treating everyone equally; change of terminology away from part-time/full-time to hours or rota-based discussion; changing practice culture and staff values; equal investment in career development, such as CPD allowance; having a niche role within the practice, such as a clinical discipline or non-clinical responsibilities; and better support.

Solutions

So, what practical things can we action – today – to encourage, foster development of, and retain in practice this demographic of experienced, talented veterinary professionals – both vets and nurses?

Further, how can we ensure all members of the practice team, from reception and auxiliary staff to management, feel part of and bonded to the practice family? Surely this is a vital priority for all practices in the current climate?

Conclusion

We need to move away from the “us and them” culture when discussing flexible working.

Flexible working needs to work for the individual, for the team and for the business. The first step is to ensure that all team members – staff and leaders alike – are on the same page. This will help shift the conversation away from reactive flexible working requests, and towards a proactive approach the team and business are ready for.