Sane part-time PM options?

December 18, 2021 1:37 PM

Are there any part-time or freelancing gigs for project managers that do not add 2x more stress to your workload?

The PM job I have right now is like this very apt description here - basically: no authority, but on the hook for everything, plus a lot of other indignities. I've had saner jobs, but that was in the before times - I don't know how the pandemic changed the landscape. The project that is causing me 80% of the stress will be finished in about 3 months, when I go back to a much saner schedule and workload and team.

I basically want more money, but don't want to change jobs - my current employer offers excellent benefits and I love the team I'll be going back to. This is a government agency so there are a lot of rules about raises (schedule, amount, etc), so I'm not going to see a significant raise any time soon. Ideally, I'd get a part-time job or a freelancing gig that IS NOT and does NOT BECOME a full-time job. But all the project management jobs/gigs I can see are full time. If I mention to anyone in my network that I'm looking for a part-time thing, they can't help me - there's such a shortage of people that employers only want full-time people (who'll then be doing 2x the work, because they're so understaffed).

So, is a part-time/freelance PM even a thing? Are there PM-light roles that someone would employ a freelancer for? And where should I go looking for this thing?

posted by gakiko to Work & Money (6 answers total)

For me and mine, I really enjoy doing a hands on job to offset desk jobs and stress. The stress is totally different. I would look for like, factory work, or retail at a higher end store (personally I find both situations very chill and relaxing compared to the stress of Outlook emails)
posted by bbqturtle at 4:07 PM on December 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

In my experience, freelance PM is often more worked hours than a traditional in-house role. I have seen part-time PM roles advertised in the non profit space but I'm not sure how "part time" they actually are. The way I personally got out out of a fully PM role was to move into a more strategic role where I am still full-time employed but have very minimal PM responsibilities because after the initiation phase, the rest of of the work flows downstream to other teams.
posted by sm1tten at 5:32 PM on December 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

Probably not what you're looking for, but you could put together some kind of "How to Be a PM" course and either find a way to teach it on a udacity-type site or market it on your own - or set yourself up as a coach for beginning PMs - though the independent approach can take a long time to get established.
posted by trig at 12:38 AM on December 19, 2021

Where I work, which may or may not be typical of places with PM roles, the main PM is almost invariably a full time position, mostly because it comes with expectations of being able to be contacted at all hours by clients (internal or external), team members, higher management asking about profit margins, etc.

The exception to that which I have seen is when someone is nearing retirement and in a position to say that they will PM a certain project but only that, and only part time. Their seniority and perceived value gives them that leverage and it always seems to work ok.

The part time roles I see are part-time staff taking on task manager and deputy PM kinds of roles -- at least here, those are seen as compatible with someone on a part time schedule. (To be clear, these are all internal staff, just people who are working a part time schedule.)

All of this, though, is assuming someone is part time during the regular working day. I am unaware of any situation where someone would be hired for part time PM work in evenings/weekends so as to work around their main job. In other industries, that might be something that people would do, so don't take this as a statement of "that would never work," just that I have never seen it suggested personally.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:09 AM on December 19, 2021

I'm an IT PM - and no, similar to others don't really know of good options for part time PM roles (all my colleagues who tried that essentially say that they ended up working full time but paid part time). But I am not 100% sure what you are asking in your question - are you thinking of doing something part-time on top of your current role or going part-time in a completely different role?
posted by coffee_monster at 2:12 AM on December 21, 2021

Response by poster: I would like to do something part-time in addition to my day job, when the day job gets back to normal. Based on answers here, I guess this part-time thing won't be PM-ing. (Btw, I'm in EU and with a flexible schedule, so I was counting on the flexibility and potentially the time difference for US/foreign employers to make things work around my day job.)
posted by gakiko at 3:06 AM on December 22, 2021