Any Architect Moms Out There?

I'm not an architect mom or working mom. But I do know what your life looks like. I was an interior designer in a commercial firm before staying at home. It was clear to me that I could not have any lead roles and be part time because you are expected to be available to all parties involved during business hours. Anything short of full time was an assistant position. I really don't know how working moms do deadline based project management positions (and as you are witness, few do, it really is not a mom friendly career in my observation). Its very demanding. I would say seek out a smaller firm, but this is no time to be rocking the boat in this industry. If you are willing to take a pay cut, your request sounds reasonable. But some bigger firms are really inflexible and conventional. When I went to a mid sized family owned firm, I saw a lot more flexibility for the employees. I know one working mom who was a project manager who got her time cut to 4 days a week to ride out the slow down. I know there are firms who will do it. Unfortunatly, if they are cutting hours, they' re not hiring. So you, like many other moms will probably need to white knuckle it. You could always rep product if you want more flexibility.

I don't know if I can help, but I am temping at a firm in TX called Architect Search. I believe they do some work nationally. Feel free to contact us www.archsearch.biz

Good luck!

Being in your position, no, you cannot work part time. Not as a Project Architect.
Unless you are willing to demote yourself and take other lesser positions.
And sure, even if they let you, yes, it will impact EVERYONE on the team and in the office. And the Owners. And they will need to reorganize their facilitation of projects etc.
It doesn't matter if no one else there is a Mom with kids and they are all white males with housewives. The firm, if they let you do this, they WILL hear it from the other employees and the firm will have to address this.

The Owners run their business. And this is the way it is.
You know other firms that have Mommy friendly schedule... so why don't you apply there? The firm you are in, is not conducive to that nor changing the entire firm's protocols.
If they do allow you to do that, and you are there for 4-8 hours less a week... then that typically causes a domino effect onto the other people. You are the Project Architect, but you will not be there. And even if you believe that projects you work on can be double-teamed... why should the company pay for that/the extra hours/billing/employees? And would you expect the other employees to like/enjoy being slammed with double work loads? To cover for your not being there?
And what about the Clients? You will not be there. Will they be satisfied with that, when they call for YOU and you are not there?

You need to find a position, that is more to your liking.

I used to work at an Architectural firm.
The Project Architect, worked a ton and at times, 7 days a week.
Everyone worked, tons of hours.
Including the Owners.
But times are hard now in that industry.
Slow.
Firms need all the projects they can get.
If business is lagging at your Company and/or elsewhere, there are not many options.

I'm a consulting engineer - close enough! love those good ol' boys.....grrrr. oh my, I just looked what part of the country you're in - might be a tough road to go down in St. Louis - I started my career in KC - my those Missouri boys are set in their ways! And they sure don't understand why you aren't barefoot at home in the kitchen! ok, maybe I'm being a little harsh, I left KC in 1995 - maybe it's gotten better.

I have been part-time since my first was born (he turns 11 next month). I was 30 hours for the first 3 years. then I was 8-10 hours, more as needed. both of those were with the same firm in Denver, with headquarters in CA - so they were pretty flexible. just switched jobs in January (still in Denver) - now I'm about 15 hours per week. I also know a number of people who do engineering part-time; most at 24-32 hours per week.

I gave up on being a project manager about 2 years after going super part-time. I just wasn't in the office enough to argue/maintain resources (drafters , young engineers, etc) on my projects. however, at 30 hours/week it was very, very doable to be a PM - I was co-project manager as the lead firm on a 100 million dollar treatment plant with a 7-firm consulting team. and the client hired me (oh, sorry, the firm) again - so they must have thought it was working!

here's your arguments back if you want to fight for it:
you will be in the office no less than any other senior person. seriously - senior architects/engineers aren't in the office more than 20 hours per week anyway! so, where's their reliability? wouldn't a set, shorter schedule actually be easier for everyone?
clients are already used to calling your cell. if that is a problem then forward the office phone to your cell.
you are already uber-organized. meaning - you are perfectly capable of planning your work out over the next few days so that you dovetail into your resource work plan (i.e., drafters, etc.) I'm going to guess you already do this.
will everyone else want it? who knows? the firm that I was with when I started down this part-time road had flex time for everybody. we had people training for triathalons and major bike races. we had people who went part-time for a semester or two to tackle a tough graduate course. etc, etc - it wasn't just the moms. but guess what - EVERYBODY was happier and felt more appreciated because their individual needs were recognized and taken care of. it does require good communication skills from everyone involved!
EVERY project should ALWAYS be double-teamed anyway. uh, have they heard of client service? Long before I got married and had kids, I ALWAYS made sure there was at least one person on every project who knew as much as I did - you could get hit by a bus tomorrow! Plus, if you're indispensable, you can't move to a really cool project or get promoted!

Its worked very well for both firms. I'm willing to take my hours up/down so I can take on extra work when things get busy and then drop back down - less need for the lovely hire/fire that happens frequently in our industry.

I'm sure you're wondering...if I'm not doing PM work, what am I doing? Senior technical resource type stuff. I'm the go to for the young engineers. I do a lot of QC review. I take bits and pieces of projects that can be parceled out (I.e., a pump calc, water quality calcs, etc). basically I've acted as an extension for a couple of PMs so they can work 50 hours rather than the 60+ expected in our industry.

this is doable. but it's tough in a lot of firms in our industry. and you can't walk away - more than a year away and you have to start at the bottom again - goodness gracious - you'd think they could figure this out.

you have to be very, very good at saying "no" in a way that doesn't sound like you're asking for anything special. if you keep your workload at 30-32 hours, everyone should be well served - including clients. and you will need to stay flexible - I've always been available for meetings outside of my "normal" hours if it's really needed.

good luck.