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Yes. At Deloitte, if you go on a fwa, everything is based on your fwa percentage. So if you are at 75%, your hours, schedule, goals, and salary are all 75% of your full time. How you manage your schedule is largely dependent on your team. I have set hours I am available (and block my calendar for “off” times)…though just like in a full time role, I have responsibilities that I can’t fit into my standard workday, so I have flexibility on when I get those done (typically doing extra at night once kid is in bed).
I was told before stating a fwa—it is great that we have the chance to be flexible, but it is a two way street. You also can’t expect to just strictly work 9-3 or whatever schedule you set…flexibility on your side is also needed.
Generally my leadership has been VERY supportive, and I have had a good experience.
Related to comment above—I view my fwa as a year round deal but it certainly ebbs and flows with busy season. I work more in busy season and barely at all during slower times—so my goal over the entire year is to wind up at my fwa % of hours. You just have to watch that because otherwise you wind up being shortchanged on $.
Chief
Consider your current childcare situation and your spouse/SO situation. That may provide some initial guideposts, as far as whether it would work better for you to work shorter days every day, or normal days 3 days a week and take off Monday and Friday, for example. I’m on an 80% schedule and I typically just play it by ear every day/week depending on what’s going on with work and kids (as I’ve always had full time childcare, and my husband has flexibility too, so I didn’t “need” to be super strict with certain times and days). I think my “official” FWA says I’ll work 10-4 every day (and a little on evenings and weekends to get to total hours), but in reality, I end up doing whatever I can/want, and just make sure I end up at 80% over the course of a year. But if the idea of having Fridays off, for example, is appealing to you, you can draw specific boundaries like that.
Disclaimer - I'm not big 4, but I'm top 10 and have had an FWA for 10 years. When I started my FWA, I did 60%. I told my boss I'd like to work about 24 hours/week in slower seasons and 32 hours/week in busy season. Since we also are busy after 6/30, he asked me to include August and September with my 32 hour weeks. Over the years, I've managed it lots of different ways, but always with clarity on my outlook calendar and lots of communication. I'm lucky to have my mom as my babysitter and she's really flexible, so most of the years, I'd plan my schedule before each month started and choose days off based on when my calendar was most open, so the days changed frequently, but I was able to make it to almost any commitment. Many of my clients didn't know I was part-time because I worked around all the meetings. I was just careful to make sure my boss/team knew when I'd be around. Over the past few years, my kids have gotten a little older and I've increased my percentage a couple times - I'm 75% currently. My youngest is off from school on Fridays, so I try to just stick to Fridays off now (though I frequently am online for at least a half day to give me more flexibility the rest of the week). And when he's in full-time school next year, I'm hoping to shift to working everyday while they're at school and not as much once they're home for the day. Like others have said, flexibility goes both ways. Sometimes I work a 50 hour week when its only supposed to be 36, but then I can steal a few hours back on a slower week sometimes. My agreement is reviewed on an annual basis, so I keep track of it through the year to make sure I land as close as I can to my 75% agreement in total (and related charge goal). If you decrease your hours, make sure you offload some work accordingly. You absolutely should not be expected to maintain the same workload with fewer hours and pay. It's not always the easy road, but it's absolutely the reason I've been able to stay in public accounting.
Chief
The managers I now that have flexible work arrangements work 20-30 hours a week and their changeability goals are based off that so they essentially have less clients or play a smaller role on a larger client. But from my experience it is difficult to take large portions of the year off as a manager.
With that said I’ve seen associates do similar except they will only work certain months of the year and have significant periods of time off. Generally aligns with busy season for additional help although they may not work busy season hours.