Radical system change in the workplace

Fun Palaces is a nationwide campaign for cultural democracy with the idea that everyone can shape and contribute to the cultural landscape of the UK.

Each year in the first weekend of October, hundreds of communities make Fun Palaces in their locality – free events celebrating the skills, talents and interests unique to that community. The campaign seeks to remove barriers to cultural participation and celebrate the genius in everyone.

When Stella Duffy and Sarah-Jane Rawlings founded Fun Palaces, they were both working unpaid around many other jobs. In time, they secured Arts Council funding to pay for their work with a small team, each for two days a week.

“All part-time meant nobody got left behind while full-timers rolled their eyes. We recruited parents, people whose chronic health conditions limited their energy, people with too many strings to their bow to want one job. And whenever we recruited – for part-time work with room to grow – we had a phenomenal response from talented, brilliant people who felt pushed out of full-time work.” Kirsty Lothian, former co-director

The glue that holds us together

Ten years on and the way we began continues to reverberate through the organisation. Our core team of five remain part-time and hybrid – with the caveat everyone works on Tuesdays with at least one day a week in the office. We don’t always manage it, but these principles are the glue that hold us together.

Having a fully part-time team throws up challenges. Things can move at a glacial pace, and you can wait days for a response to a question if your working days don’t align. Most of us have felt frustration at some point that an extra day or two together would speed up our impact and achievements. And it can take longer for new starters to settle into their roles, as after a month they’ve only worked eight days, so it takes longer to learn the ropes.

But there are benefits too. This part-time working creates space. When I’m not being the director of Fun Palaces, I write books and teach drama. Some in the team have caring responsibilities, others run their own freelance businesses or are building careers or studying.

“Having part-time leadership roles enables me to take on more responsibility in an organisation and climb the cultural leadership ladder, while keeping time free for creative work and wellbeing.” Former Fun Palaces co-director, Makala Cheung

A radically inclusive choice

My observation of this way of working is that we form a richer team. Instead of our entire focus being on a single workplace, we have time to immerse ourselves in other strands of life and career.

It’s helpful to see these parts of life sitting alongside our work as the Fun Palaces campaign is about building community and having the opportunity to participate in arts and culture. The space around our jobs allows us to do this too.

Even in 2024, it’s women who are the most likely to have caring responsibilities – for children and older relatives. The TUC found one in 10 women in their 30s is out of the labour market due to caring responsibilities compared with only one in 100 men. I don’t think this can’t be addressed without a radical system change in workplaces.

Continues…

Fun Palaces weekend 2023 Photo: Roswitha Chesher

Fun Palaces has also only ever had female leadership: five co-directors to date. Kirsty Lothian, formerly of Fun Palaces, had three children in her time working as a producer and become co-director when her youngest was just one. She says: “Fun Palaces was founded at the same time my first child was born.

“When many of my peers were choosing between career progression or the mummy track, I got to build this incredible organisation with a team of incredible people, all juggling Fun Palaces with caring responsibilities, creative careers and fingers in other pies.

“At first, we were all part time because we only had enough funding for a few days each week, but it was a radical choice too, one of the ways we were trying to reshape the culture sector to be more inclusive and have room for more voices. Being an all-part-time organisation is still a radically inclusive choice. How we divide our time can be so much more interesting than ‘five on, two off’.”

Rest is resistance

Flexible and part-time working supports women and other missing voices into leadership roles. But there’s more. Part time-ness demands we relinquish the urgency of capitalist grind culture – Tricia Hersey writes pertinently about this in Rest is Resistance – and the traditional 9-5, which are the very things that exclude people from leadership roles and the workforce in general.

Working weeks could look radically different from how they do now. For example, waiting a few days for a response from someone, allowing projects and campaigns to move at a slower pace, having flexible working hours where possible, and simply allowing space for things to take longer.

Challenging? Yes, but undoubtedly worth it to make room for more diverse voices in the workplace and space for those who have previously found themselves hitting the barriers and glass ceilings into leadership roles.