Gascoigne, CharlotteKelliher, Clare2017-10-122017-10-122017-10-09Gascoigne C, Kelliher C, The transition to part-time: How professionals negotiate ‘reduced time and workload’ i-deals and craft their jobs, Human Relations, Volume 71, issue 1, January 2018, pp. 103-1250018-7267http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726717722394http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/12619For professionals working in demanding environments, the negotiation of part-time or workload reduction idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) may be challenging, with negative consequences for career progression. Yet there are few studies of part-time i-deals specifically, or empirical studies of their development process. This article examines the process of achieving a part-time i-deal, drawing on interviews with 39 part-time professionals in two organizations, each located in the UK and the Netherlands. The article makes two contributions to i-deal theory: first, it defines the four elements of a new category of ‘reduced time and workload’ i-deal for professionals (perceived suitability of the work, schedule, workload, and career impact); and second, it refines Rousseau’s model of the development process, by adding an initial ‘private consideration’ of options stage, where the feasibility of working part-time is evaluated against alternatives including remaining full-time, or leaving the organization. Third, it identifies as structural constraints two work practices designed for full-time professional work in demanding environments: the routine expectation of unpredictability, and the absence of substitutability in resourcing. Fourth, it shows how, post-negotiation, professionals use informal job crafting, both individual and collaborative, to try to overcome these constraints. The implications for achieving flexible and sustainable careers are discussed.enAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Flexible careersFlexible workersJob craftingJob designPart-time workersProfessional workersArticle17845811