I [24F] am a Software Engineer at a big company in Australia. I have a flexible contract that I’ve had for 3 years that allows me to go down to 3 days a week during uni term while I finish my thesis. It ends up being part time about 30 weeks of the year. I’m essentially a part time engineer with the capacity to go up to full time when I can.
My boss has started openly expressing frustrations with me being part time. It started with constant comments of “when are you back to full time?” and “how long til we have you full time again?” – which is not a problem for me.
Recently though, he’s started a different tune. Now, in meetings where everyone else in the team is present, he’ll say things like “alright let’s find a time to talk about that. Friday would be perfect, but OP isn’t working that day…….. pause …. so I guess it will have to be next week.”
I have no idea how to respond to something like that. Do I apologise? Do I give him the “only 3 weeks til I’m back to full time!” countdown?
I have offered to listen to recordings of meetings on Thursdays and Fridays, and I always get a catch-up on Monday of what I’ve “missed”, but the comments are getting more and more frequent.
What can I do to de-escalate the situation? (Trying to work full time while doing thesis is not an option)