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AIBU?

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Original poster

Full time staff looking down on part time staff

28 replies

Cumbrian07 · 10/11/2010 18:17

I'm fed up with being patronised, getting sarcastic comments and being talked down to by colleagues just because I work part time and they work full time. I get half the pay they do and they could also work part time if they wanted to. I've worked full time in my job before I had my children and now do school hours. Whats their problem?

OP posts:
Goblinchild · 10/11/2010 18:19

Are they female, male or both?

upahill · 10/11/2010 18:19

No idea what there problem is but it is not like that at my place.

MardyBra · 10/11/2010 18:19

YANBU - why don't you just say the same thing to them as you have written in your OP.

EdgarAirbombPoe · 10/11/2010 18:20

YANBU

some weeks i made more calls in 3 days than others did in 5.

part timers can really deliver in terms of value.

curlymama · 10/11/2010 18:22

My best friend feels a bit like this with some of her colleagues. She has no children, and is forever moaning about the part time staff that are on term time contracts and getting priority days of and holidays. It means she rarely gets to take time off during the summer or over Christmas. I can see her point, but I'm forever sticking up for these people that I don't even know!

Original poster
Cumbrian07 · 10/11/2010 18:24

Goblinchild, they're all female. They've nearly all had children and have not worked or worked less hours than they do now. It seems to me that some people just cannot cope with someone going home before them. It just really bugs me as I feel like I do the same amount of work in less hours. They get more time to do their work.

OP posts:
ChippingIn · 10/11/2010 18:26

Cumbrian - try not to take it personally, it's more common for people to be like that than not.

I think people often feel that part time employees don't feel the same responsibility etc that FT'ers do.

Also, do you deal with clients? Are they having to field calls when you aren't there?

upahill · 10/11/2010 18:28

Do you work in an office?

You see in my place there are both male and female f/t and p/t staff. We do office work but also deliver face to face sessions so people come and go at all sorts of times.

create · 10/11/2010 18:29

Cumbrian your 18:24 post hits the nail on the head, they're jealous.

Instead of defending your position (which you can do till you're blue in the face, but they're not listening) say "yes, it's fantastic, I love that I get to spend time with my DC and make a really valuable contribution here", or something along those lines, but a bit less corny Grin

Original poster
Cumbrian07 · 10/11/2010 18:30

Hi Chipping in, I do deal with clients but only my own. Me going home early doesn't make any more work for other people. I also work all year. I haven't got a term time contract so work through the school holidays, just part time hours.

OP posts:
Goblinchild · 10/11/2010 18:34

OP, I'm sorry that you are working with catty and unpleasant people who are probably jealous of your choice. Even if it's one they might have made themselves, earlier.
All you can do is the job, as well as you can in the hours that you do and develop a thick skin.

Original poster
Cumbrian07 · 10/11/2010 18:34

Create, that sounds really good. I might have to work on that. One woman was so rude to me today I felt like crying. Made me feel like I wasn't part of the team at all. I wish id thought of something cool to say but just mumbled something pathetic.

OP posts:
violethill · 10/11/2010 18:36

Sounds like it's not a particularly nice workplace. Some posts are part time , and as long as the work's being done, it shouldn't be a problem. And as you say, you get paid less if you work less, so its not like it's a 'fairness ' issue

upahill · 10/11/2010 18:39

Blimey what sort of things do they say Cumbrian? If anyone was delibratly and persistantly rude to other staff at our place we would be hauled in for a disciplnary or a greivance would be put in and the alleged offender would be suspended while an investigation was carried out.

TidyBush · 10/11/2010 18:40

If anyone passes comment again the thing to say is "you know what you get for part time work? part time pay"

That usually shuts them up and reminds them that you aren't actually getting something they aren't.

upahill · 10/11/2010 18:46

Top answer Tidybush!!

ChippingIn · 10/11/2010 18:50

Cumbrian - what did she say that nearly made you cry?

create · 10/11/2010 18:53

Tidy - IME that just opens you up to "well it's Ok if you can afford to work part-time" The implication being that you're a kept woman.

Women are definitely the worst for this sort of behaviour

echt · 10/11/2010 19:07

ChippingIn- you got there before I did with the pointy stick! feeling a bit cross about the way the OP's being treated at work.

I know it sounds a bit "official", cumbrian, but these
bitches colleagues are being very unprofessional. Is there no-one you can go to get them off your case? No-one should be got at in this way.

ChaoticAngel · 10/11/2010 19:11

The next time someone is rude to you pull them up on it. Something like "Do you have to be so rude?"

inkyfingers · 10/11/2010 19:13

Get all smiley like Create says and enthuse about your work-life balance. I'd love your job and I don't even know what you do!

BTW You get part-time pay (and conditions?), part-time pension, part-time annual leave. It's also true that some part-timers miss out on promotions (DON'T tell them that!).

purplefeet · 10/11/2010 19:20

I went back to work part time when ds was 8 months old. Stuck it out for 18 months then got another part time job elsewhere. I could not believe how jealous and resentful colleagues could be.

One day I came in exhuasted after bad nights with ds (2 hrs sleep), one woman who is in her 60s, a grandma, who didn't work for 20 years to bring up her kids said to me "It's your own fault you know, you shouldn't have put your child at the centre of your life"

I constantly got told my life was "one long holiday"

Got really fed up with remarks about "your rich husband" (wouldn't have cared so much if it was true)

Job I have now is fine, been there 6 months and so far no snide remarks.

upahill · 10/11/2010 19:23

Blimey Purplefeet that is rough!!

I can honestly say I have never heard a bitchy comment in any of my jobs to part timers and I am stunned!

purplefeet · 10/11/2010 19:26

Thanks upahill.

What made it really strange was that I was by no means the only part timer.

Think it was because I worked the least number of hours in the whole department that I got singled out.

picklebutty · 10/11/2010 19:32

I work part time (2.5 days) and some of the people in my office (even the ones who've had kids) tell me how luxurious that is.

I agree it's good to have the option.

However - it's bloody hard work combining home and work. I swear it would be easier to put the kids in childcare five days a week but I'd like to be at home part time, which is why I don't.

Jealous, resentful...sorry you have to put up with all that.