Being treated differently at work- part timer

[ErrinThatsMe]

Does anyone else find this who works part time?

My colleagues treat me differently because I'm part time. It's almost like they are annoyed at me.

I was discussing the upcoming hot weather yesterday and basically got told that it's ok for me as I can go home and cool down. Like I didn't have a right to moan like the others who will be at work all day.

In reality I will leave work to walk and get my dc from school. Then spend the evening cooking and cleaning whilst trying to keep dc cool and comfortable. My full time colleagues will be in an air conditioned building.

Also they don't like talking much to me. ( Maybe I'm boring ?) but I find that if I try to make a joke they don't laugh, yet if someone else was to make the same joke they would be falling over laughing.
No one comes to me for a chat and when I try to engage with others they talk the bare minimum then find excuses to leave.

They make comments like ' have you got time to be stood chatting? Your off soon aren't you? And ' going already? feels like you just got here'

Literally no one has any time for me at work.

I definitely think it's because I only work part time and it annoys some people.

I have worked part time for 20 years since changing my hours after having our kids. Are you new to the office? Are the others younger than you? Their awful rudeness reflects their lack of understanding and perhaps jealousy. Smile and remind them you get half their money and bring cake! They may feel defensive because they see you being more productive then they are! Have you spoken to your manager?

That doesn’t sound nice at all. Can you talk to your manager about it? I think, despite PT workers being pretty common, people often don’t really understand what it’s like to be PT.

Most people in my team are PT at work. Everyone else in my sub-team is. I do treat them differently because they’re part time, but kind of in the opposite way. I really try to bear in mind that I need to take on a greater share of things (simply because I work more hours, of course I’ll need to take the bigger task when the others are 0.6 and I’m FT), to make sure I remember to catch them up at the start of their week, and so on.

Tbh, I actually feel like I’m the one who gets away with not doing much. Hardly anyone is in on Fridays where I am so they are almost always really quiet, especially as all the important stuff is scheduled mid-week to accommodate the PT colleagues. Mondays are usually pretty good too. My PT colleagues get work days that are disproportionately packed with meetings and little time to do anything. I get all the periods of time to get stuff done. So it’s harder for them than me in various ways.

It’s all too easy to assume it must be much easier to be part time, but it’s not as simple as that. I think sometimes people only see the ‘flexibility’ bits but don’t recognise that PT people are only paid for the bits they’re in, often have everyone else trying to compress far too much into their work week, and can start the week already playing catch up with everyone else who has been working while they’ve been off. I used to work in HE and my PT colleagues there experienced being basically expected to do the same amount of work as FT people in fewer days. What had to give was all the things that advance a career (like research) while they seemed to have work days full of teaching, pastoral care and associated admin work.

I don’t actually care why people are PT. Some of my colleagues are PT for childcare reasons, some due to other caring responsibilities, some because of health conditions, some just because they want to be (and spend their days off doing fun stuff). It’s all equally legitimate, frankly. But sometimes people only see the advantages and not any of the trade offs.

Also my line manager is PT. We always need to do a disproportionate amount of chatting when we are both in the office. There’s more catching up required than if we were both FT!

I've been working here 8 years, always part time. A lot of people come and go and it's a mix of younger and older people.

I could sort of understand the newer / younger colleagues being annoyed I'm leaving earlier than them and maybe assuming I go home and have no responsibilities, but the older few have been there a while and know my situation.

It's been this way for a while but only recently it's started to annoy me. It's got to the point I feel awkward saying goodbye as I'm expecting a comment or eye roll.

I used to work full time but because my role was out and about I only saw colleagues on monday mornings and maybe one day a week in between. It was a bit like that at first, and then I started telling people about what had happened on my days out and about and engaging them into stuff, for example bringing in a few plants I had grown and selling for a bargain at my desk.

I feel you get out what you put in.