Is it unusual for someone in their late thirties to have only ever worked part time?

[FullAndHollow]

Just idly wondering really.

A friend of mine in her late thirties has worked for most of her adult life but due to circumstances only ever part time.

I was just thinking I don't think I know anyone else our age who has never worked full time and wondering how common it is.

There does seem to be a bit of animosity from some of the younger generation towards older part time workers though, maybe slight envy?

They seem to imply that they are sponging off the state, when many won’t be claiming a thing due to household income.

It surely comes down to personal choice, whether you prefer extra money or extra free time if you can afford it without claiming anything. Obviously it’s a different story if you are using benefits to fund your lifestyle choices.

I’m 40 and I only worked full time for a couple of years (one of those years was full time plus another part time opportunity on the side that became my current job). I spent a very long time in higher education and then became a mum in my late 20s. I’ve always worked part time from home since then.

Not if they have children really young, easy to see how it can play out.
I'll probably be called sexist but a male in his late thirties never working full time I would find unusual

I’d say it’s unusual. The only person I can think of in this position was married and had her first child at 18. In her late 30s she was working part time (and had 5 children). She is now 60 and has been working full-time for the last 20 years.

I’d also say it was unusual longer ago. My mother, mother-in-law and aunts (born in the 1920s) all worked full time after school/university, as did my grandmothers (born in the 1890s).

With respect, my 88 year old mother had one birth, probably two dozen GP appointments, one hospital admission of one week for sepsis and routine smears and mammograms until she was 87 when she needed a TAVI to save her life. MIL the same age had three home births, a GP visit about every 10 years and nothing until a recent colonoscopy.

They both worked for most of their lives and I suspect will die in credit.

I know one person who has never worked full-time. They are now 62 and had their first child at age 30. University educated.

The only reason for this is laziness and I wouldn’t mind if I'd never heard them whinge about being skint.

If you have children or health issues, no. However, if you don’t have these responsibilities or issues, then yes it’s unusual.

Quite a lot of my generation got married not long after graduating and then had kids fairly quickly. Many only worked part time after parenthood. I went against the grain and was married for 26 years before having a son. I wanted to be able to feel I'd been there and done that before having a family. I've kept my career going and also managed this by working over 4 days a week.

A colleague's wife worked as a night nurse and part time and childfree in this role mid twenties to mid thirties. This was in the 80s/90s. It meant she didn't qualify for the occupational pension nurses were getting then. She would only have had to work one more day to qualify. Her next job at a different NHS trust was much better pension wise. They don't have kids and are now retired.

@RosesAndHellebores and @Tiredofwhataboutery . You both have valid points but 8k is very very low estimate for healthcare. Most well (healthy) people cannot imagine the costs of inpatient care regardless of the country or who’s paying for it. 8k a day for some folk. In the USA which I realize has a different healthcare system but the test exits in all healthcare a stress echo cardiogram costs 8k$. That’s an outpatient test done on a healthy person with moderate to mild symptoms who can walk on a treadmill with no medications involved. 8k for one test

I don’t think it necessarily always boils down to envy. A lot of people like OP are simply curious. Particularly in todays climate, it’s interesting to learn the hows and whys of different peoples decision making.

I hear what you are saying @Lavenderandbrown but the NHS is funded on the basis that many people take out far less than they put in.

I not so long ago worked out how much of my taxes had been applied to the NHS - i can't remember the exact percentage now, but conservatively, since 1980, it worked out at about £250,000. I shall continue paying tax even when I retire. At almost 65, I have paid in far more than I have taken out and because we have health insurance this is likely to continue.

At the ages of 88 I would venture that mother and MIL have paid in far more than they will take out too. Mother's TAVI on the NHS cost about £15k I believe although admittedly when I looked at the private cost it was about £50k because private hospitals won't be doing five on a surgical day and it requires a number of specialist staff and specialist equipment.

I'd like to know what that echo cardiogram would cost privately in the UK. I suspect nowhere near USD8k.

It was a different era, those ladies would of had children young and the culture at the time was staying home or working part time. A woman born in the fifties or even the sixties raised their children in a completely different era to know. Don't let that get in the way of thinking you are superior though.

Raising children is hard work and many of those ladies would of been at home doing everything for a husband that worked full-time (many such cases where said husband builds his pension up then leaves the wife who's raised his children for free for him for all them years, leaving her with her shit pension) so you can drop the "they haven't paid anything in themselves" shit. Those ladies are also allowed opinions on things including immigration even if you don't approve.

I disagree with you entirely. I was born in 1960 and that wasn't the experience of my peers and me at all. Neither was it mother and MILs experience.

I'm still working full-time and am nearly 65!

Some people are disabled and can't work full time. In my circles it's not unusual at all.

My own mother and aunties were born around the same time as you and all married and had children before they were twenty, wasted years of their lives married to complete assholes doing absolutely everything for them enabling said assholes to work and build a good pension for themselves. Only for the ladies to be left with nothing in the end. It may not be your experience but it's the experience of many others your age.

Sorry I just resent that other posters implication that those ladies are lazy/entitled etc

Exactly !

I’m 36, no children and have only worked full-time for a couple of years. I’m also autistic and go into burnout if I regularly work over 30 hours a week.

You wouldn’t know that to look at me though.

@RosesAndHellebores an echocardiogram costs around 1k to 1500k per echo. A stress echocardiogram which is a stress test and an echo and does show different clinical results than “just” an echo is 8k in the USA Midwest

I believe it is the UK being discussed.

Women of my age and a bit older were able to chose to have children. You speak of women of my age as though we had no choices, no rights, and no independence. I object to the fact that you are implying that women of my era could not have independence and choices. They absolutely could. It wasn't the dark ages

If your female relatives were enabling men to have good careers and pensions, why did they not get decent divorce settlements?

All the women I grew up with knew about the pill, were more interested in education than babies and were excited by the Sex Discrimination Act and equality.

My mother and grandmother born in 1936 and 1912 waited until they were 23/4 to have babies and both worked.

Most people I know who’ve never worked FT have chronic mental or physical health problems, or complex caring responsibilities, so it’s not like they’re fucking about living the high life.

Most people I know who currently work PT reduced their hours when they had DC and haven’t had the opportunity or the need to increase them.

Either that or as their DC grew up their elderly parents needed more help and they continued to need the flexibility of PT.

I don’t move in the sorts of circles where people are semi-retired at 40 and spending time on their hobbies & holidays.

I’m almost 50 and only worked full time between leaving college and having kids, so 3 years. I quite often do lots of overtime which will result in working full time for a week or a few weeks but only been on part time contracts most of my adult life. It’s given me plenty of flexibility around the kids and school.

Good for you and the people you grew up with. My mother was born the year after you with sisters also around that age, you must of moved in some hippyish circles because for most in that era they fell in love young (like 15-18) then married and stayed stuck with him for decades.

We were all young and dumb at that age right and made mistakes be glad our mistakes didn't leave us stuck to an asshole for decades.

That other poster that implied ladies that lived that life were lazy/entitled should be grateful she has no idea what she's talking about

Crikey.
I worked full-time from 20 to 35
Part-time from 35 to 36 (one year)
Had 7 years off with the DC
Parttime 43 to 45
Full time from 4t to 65
Planning a year of p/time 65 to 66.

Those young ones will be 80 year olds one day too