to think people don;t seem to understand that if I work half/part-time, I only get half the money?

[undercovamutha]

I DO appreciate being able to work part-time, and having an understanding boss who was prepared to let me reduce my hours when I had the DCs.

But AIBU to be fed up that everyone thinks I should be just so grateful all the time for being able to work part-time. I work 50% hours, and to get my work done I have to bring a lot home to do, I am very regularly on the phone to clients in my 'free-time', getting texts to check my emails etc. I arrange all doctors appts etc in my own time, and go into work very early to have any chance of getting my work done. If I worked full time, I would get double the pay I get now and actually be paid for the hassle!

And yet all people ever tell me is how lucky I am to be working part-time. I feel like shouting 'I only get paid half the money you know!'. Why does it always feel like you are being done a huge favour for which you must be eternally grateful?

I work 2.5 days. I am grateful that both my line manager and her boss acknowledge how hard I work when I am in the offce. My immediate line manager was part time for many years when her children were younger. They are also very good about ensuring I take TOIL for any hours I work over.
If they have to phone me on my days off (very rare) they apologise. I ensure all notes about my work are accessible by my colleagues, I write clear comprehensive accounts as I am always aware someone else may need to make sense of them with no prior knowledge.

I work for a local authority, so I know at my level they are fairly good about flexible/part time. It gets worse the further you progress I think.

I am way more productive as a pt than the ft. They arrive, gossip, coffee start work around 9.45 after they have gone and bought bacon sarnies too. I arrive 8.30 - like them - then work the hours that I am paid for - doing the same job that I did in 5 days in 1.5 days.

I went in to talk to my boss today about my return from ml, and he was saying how productive I was and how my most recent role had been a bit of a time filler before I went on ml. However he is excited as he has lots of work but none for ft! So I hope I am in with a good chance of getting something suitable.

With regards to returning from ML, I didn't think a company was under any obligation to give you part time work, they had to consider the flexitime thing but if it didn't work for the role they were under no obligation if they held your original role open for you? Am I wrong?

well, i really want to work part-time and am trying to organise it starting in the summer but currently cannot cut any hours so i only have limited sympathy.

there are things that are hard, and situations to manage etc. but overall you work p/t because you want to and to have what you want is lucky or fortunate or whatever you want to call it.

sorry.

My company is fairly supportive of PT (took a new 3 day role there after mat leave as a sol and couldn't do private practice FT).

I do about 80% of a FTer's workload but as the new job is way less stressful than the old, I don't feel too hard done by. I work 2 days til 5 because of pickups and one day as late as I need to - frequently 9 or 10pm.

In the space of a yr I have been promoted and got a large salary increase. Interestingly, the 2 other PTers (neither of whom have kids - 1 studies, the other "enjoys life") haven't been promoted once in 6+ yrs. They do 9-5 on the dot & are seen as working to rule.

It's all about managing perceptions and expectations. If there's one thing 10 years in a law firm teaches you, it's how to do that!

If anything, I have worse guilt at home as I don't feel the house/washing/ironing is what it should be given I am at home 2 days!

I dunno fluffles, I think some people work p/t because they have to. Someone downthread said they couldn't cover the childcare costs if they went f/t, didn't they? But couldn't afford to be a SAHM either.

fluffles i think we probably agree we are lucky to have the opportunity to work part time and can do it financially etc. What we are not is 'lucky' to be able to leave work at 2 and go home and eat biscuits whilst our colleagues have to stay and do all the work. We do need to sometimes remind them they we are not 'lucky', we are just not paid to be there later like they are.

YANBU - I am also a p/t worker doing 3 full days. It is an executive role after ML and would not be available in the job market usually.

There was no reduction in my work load when I returned after M/L and in fact it has increased considerably in the last 8 years.

I definitely do a full time role in 3 days and, as other posters have said, watch the F/T staff gossiping and wasting time whilst mine is precious.

I do happily take calls on my non work days - I am also a key holder and have been woken at 3am by the alarm company!!

Maybe because I have been working for over 30 years in many different organisations I appreciate the fact that I work close to home, in a job I love.
But I don't think I'm lucky - it was my choice and I have a lot less disposable income as a result.

I am really pleased I can work p/t but I don't think it's in the least bit unreasonable to be irked at the easy assumptions made by many employers/ft workers that a person "lacks commitment" if they are p/t.

I work 2.5 days at the moment. I was hoping when I requested this working arrangement that some additional work might become available as a colleague was on maternity at the time and I knew she intended to give up some work. So essentially, I took a gamble and gave up a lower paid portion of my job which consisted of several separate contracts, as it wasn't worthwhile). I was delighted when her sessions became available. However, when I worked out the finances, it turned out that an extra days work would be worth about £65 a month due to additional childcare/transport costs and I would lose all the flexibility I currently have to "absorb" the demands of work that overspills into my home life. I frequently do a full 3 days at work and additional evening and weekend work but it is so much manageable than the equivalent overspill I experienced as a f/ter.

Yet I think calling this "lucky" is a bit silly. Basically, I used to have to work a 50 hour week to do what needed to be done in a job that was supposedly 37.5 hours. Now I need to do about 30 but am paid for 18.75. I am doing more for less but have lost prestige, career development opportunities including potential to develop management skills, I am left out of meetings and decisions and sidelined, I am paying less into a pension, I will be paid less redundancy/maternity/sick etc, I won't be able to get as high a mortgage etc. There are huge longer term disadvantages and the fact I'm not living hand to mouth at the moment (though I a pretty skint) and have nice times with ds does not necessarily negate these.

I think it feels more manageable with a young child as a 50 hour week (plus 3 hour daily commute 5 days instead of 3) would be hard to sustain. But I have lost a great deal of income because I essentially made decisions based on an unmanageable workload if that makes sense?

YANBU at all. I used to have this issue in my old job. The situation was compounded by the fact that the trade union had objected to the introduction of part timers; the fulltimers were hostile before we walked through the door! They acted as if we got paid identical amounts.

Many bitching sessions; they initially objected to us having a 15 minute break on our 4 hour shift while they had 2 of them plus a paid lunch hour

In the end I got fed up of biting my tongue every time I heard 'it's alright for you part-timers, you're hardly here' etc. I put one of my payslips onto the table and stated that when they were prepared to take home that amount, they could piss off early too

I think I am very lucky to work part-time. Because it means I can balance time with the DC and time at work, everyone know I get 60% pay and 3 days in the office, but there aren't many part-time jobs in my field, so I do feel genuinely lucky and grateful that I have a part-time job.

Lots of my friends gave up their jobs when they had a 2nd baby as they couldn't go part time... and other friends are working full time and never see their DC.

I'm with foreverondiet though I have been on both sides of the fence.

With DS1, I went back PT (4 days a week) when he was 11 months old and same workload. It was awful. Low point was when I had someone (not from my company) yelling down the mobile at me while I was trying to feed DS1 after picking him up from a long day at nursery and he was tired and cranky. I took redundancy from that job while on ML with DS2, not expecting to go back to work for while but I went a little stir-crazy (the age gap of 20 months between my 2 probably didn't help!). Was considering all my options and it didn't look too good. It's actually incredibly hard to find something PT and flexible hours as I need to do the pick up and drop off for the kids as well.

Then, out of the blue, I saw an ad on MN for a PT position in my field and it's worked out really well for me. I work two days in the office and one day at home. The boys go to nursery 2 days a week and I think nursery is really good for them. The one day I work from home, I drive to my ILs and my MIL spend the day with them. I do then do a few hours at night or on the weekends, which I don't mind at all. My boss is lovely and has been really flexible with me (when one of the DCs been ill etc) and this is how I want to repay him, by working hard to make sure he is not short-changed either.

I feel very lucky to be able to see my boys grow up, they get to spend time with my, their GPs (whom they adore) and also the nursery experience (which they love). The job has made me feel better about myself and gives me some headspace from the children so I think I am a better mother as well as a result.

Hmm. Because most part-time workers are women, and work that is mostly done by women tends to be undervalued and underpaid, that explains part of the problem.
The other issue is of course that unscrupulous employers will happily 'allow' staff to go part time because they are getting the same amount of work for half the money.

I agree with SGB, this is a non issue for men.

She's not lucky! It's a piss take! I am shocked.

I thought that people in your situation would get half the work!

[naive]

I don't think that is fair at all!

I'm self employed...I have never worked for a large company so all this is making me