to be respected at work now that i am on reduced hours?

[zenamm]

I work 30 hours per week, 4 days overall, and a male colleague repeatedly makes comments to the effect 'have you no interest', 'your hear early' - when I can start at 7am and am not doing the school run. He is saying it with humour but has made other comments about mothers 'mollycoddling' their children, ie taking a days leave when their baby is sick and unable to go to daycare. Also 'with respect' complaining about another female colleague who works 20hrs is good while she is here but it does not work overall. I work in a government job in a shift based role and the management have been great at giving me flexible working hours so I am very appreciative and work hard but to be honest these comments are chipping away at me and really starting to p**s me off! Anyone else come across this attitude, btw I have been part time for 4 years so nothing new but am being made to feel I am freeloading!

The best of it is, he has a wife who does not work and looks after their 3 children, makes him a packed lunch for work and does everything at home so he does not have to do school runs, make lunches, housework etc..

Just ignore him. He clearly has some attitude problem. Some people are like this about part-time employees at work and seem to think being part-time is a jolly. They seem to forget that part-time work means part-time wages as well!

We had a woman like this in my previous job who used to endlessly comment about a colleague who worked a 3 day week. It used to drive me nuts and I wasn't even the person she was commenting on...!

If it's really annoying you, you could always try retaliating with a few comments about his SAH wife mollycoddling him e.g. 'aw, did the little woman make you some tasty sandwiches for lunch today then? Are they your favourite just like mummy used to make?' 'You're completely spoiled with your wife at home waiting on you hand and foot' etc etc. Might make you feel better and make him realize how impolite it is to keep commenting on what others do.

I would just ignore him too. Just be professional and just interact work wise when you have too. Everywhere you work there will be one or more really annoying people.

Do you think he feels threatened by you? and this is his way of trying to undermine you?

I always think to myself, someone has to be the adult in this situation and I take that role on. Remember, you can go home and he is stuck with his stupid personality 24/7.

Just ignore him. You come across this attitude from time to time. It's his problem - you don't need to make it yours too. :)

I have worked part-time almost all my working life - before I had children and still now they are teens. I made a conscious decision when I was in my early 20s to 'work to live not live to work'. It is better for my health and well-being, and my children's; and since I don't think I'll ever be able to afford to retire, I see myself as enjoying 'part-time retirement' as I go along, throughout my life!

At the same time, I work hard when I am at work, and am very effective, committed and professional. I am probably almost as productive in my 20 hrs as people like this annoying man others are in their 37 hrs. I am lucky to have a line manager and an employer who recognise that. :)

If you know you're not freeloading, and your employer knows it too, then who cares what this guy thinks?!

Like NapaCab I do think people forget that part time hours mean part time pay. I work 3 days a week and get comments like 'Oh you get holidays too?!' - all jokey by colleagues I get along with, no offence taken but I do remind them that it's all reflected in my pay.

I get this at the moment and my reduced hours are only half an hour either side of my working day, (ie start at 9:30 and finish at 4:30), and I don't take a lunch, so I actually work the same hours/more than my colleagues as they have a tendency to have extended lunches.

I'm 9 months pregnant and have only had this for 2 weeks because I was/am dead on my feet working full time with a toddler in a fairly stressful job.

I've found a very effective remedy to be to tell them to fuck off.

I work through my lunch break 2 days a week as my ds2 has after school activities I have to get him to.
I leave at 4:15pm rather than 5pm.

every time without fail, the same person says "oh doing a half day again? It's alright for some, sloping off early"

It's been going on for a year. I used to reply that actually no, I wasn't doing a half day or sloping off, that I had eaten a sandwich at my desk and actually worked the same number of hours as him, but it was pointless, he just carried I making sly digs about part time workers, and people who have children probably shouldn't be in a full time job.

I just laugh now and say "yes, good isn't it, aren't I lucky"

He also has 3 children but boasts that he has never changed a nappy, got up in the night, done a school run and he gets to go home and play FIFA on Xbox whilst his wife cooks dinner, and does everything
He is also very proud that he cannot use the washing machine or iron and told my DH at our Xmas party that he should get me in check, and make me look after him properly as its not right that DH does the school pick up 3 days a week, irons, cooks and cleans.

There are some lovely people in the world.

Have you tried saying, "You are aware that these are all contractual arrangements, just like yours, aren't you?"

Definitely agree that everyone seems to forget that part time hours = part time wages. I only worked PT for a few months but this used to annoy me greatly. I now job share with someone who works PT (but I do another job in the same team which brings me up to FT) and I am very careful to bear this in mind - if she's expected to do less work than the rest of us in the same time period it's because she is only paid for 0.6 of the time!

and in many cases it's not the employer doing the emplyee a favour. Many of these jobs just pay less and expect pretty much the same amount of work, with a few "nice to haves" lopped off. Saving for the employer.

I'm a nurse and work 3 days, the rest of the team are full time, (i was moved there as a senior nurse to help out) I always get jokes about me never being there. To be honest although its said as a joke it pisses me off! I think they are just jealous, I simply reply "I know, it's great!"

Actually, I don't think you should ignore him. I think he needs pulling up on his behaviour.

I work FT but manage a team in which quite a lot of staff work part time. The PT staff work every bit as hard as the FT staff when they are in the office, and I wouldn't be happy at all if they were subjected to stupid comments like this.

Why not have a quiet word with your manager and explain that the comments are making you feel uncomfortable? You don't have to make a big deal of it, and your manager doesn't have to either, but if an employee told me this, I would pull the guy aside and let him know that the comments had to stop. You shouldn't have to just put up with it!

He is an arse tbh.
I am actually his team leader which riles him even more as he doesn't think a person with so many other commitments should have the responsibility.
I think I've got so used to him being an idiot I don't really notice anymore.

I agree with Jinsei.

"Dave, I'm well aware of your opinion about my working hours because you seem to be fixated upon it, but given that my contractual arrangements are none of your business, do you think we could focus on something more productive?"

Do you do the same job as him? He's probably worried you'll show him up, doing as much in less hours!

Back in the day, I worked alongside a woman who did the same job as me, on the same contracted hours as me, but because she had a child, would come in late after the school run, zip off early, refuse to work weekends etc. Our contract had some clause in it about "as a senior member of staff you will be expected to work over your contracted 37.5 hours" or similar, so if she wasn't about, I had to do it. I was single, no kids and she assumed that I could have no concept of how important it was that she sorted out her childcare. She might have been right - but what she had no concept of, was how much it pissed me off that I was automatically the default cover if she went off.
Now I have my own children I get it. Really I do. But I also remember how our perspectives were so different - my priority was the job. Hers was her child and then the job.
OP your colleague does sound like a nob, but I do think that unless you have the same priority (and clearly he doesn't if his wife is doing everything else) then it's hard to see anyone else's point of view and in turn, respect their different work patterns.

DO NOT IGNORE!

This is bullying, use one of the great comments above the next time and follow it up with 'you know this really isn't funny, if it continues I will take steps.'

It's mean nasty and undermining and needs the monty python foot from the sky to drop on him.

Absolutely hear you. I left a job partly because if the horrendous attidtude to part time workers.

Even better we are both supervisors and I manage 20 people to his 10 people! I often work through lunch and work at breakneck speed to get things done. It is just getting mildly irritating, I am not sure he knows it is annoying me as we get on well other than that.

Probably what bothers me is that before going part time I was in an active role not a desk job and when I reduced my hours I was put in an office role, though my dh works shifts and if we were both on shifts it would be a nightmare to try and get childcare, we would need a live in carer to cover nightshifts, between 5.30 and 7.30 in the morning if one of us was on nightshift and the other early shift so it is a godsend for family life but deep down I feel my job is seen as a easy number (which it is compared to my role before).

Though my colleague is also at a desk job in office hours ?

Hahaha, well then there's your answer zenamm: he's worried you're showing him up doing more in fewer hours, so is undermining you to make himself feel better, and perhaps to try to shift perceptions among other colleagues. Plonker!

I would actually advise others in this situation to tell their manager, and as a manager myself, I would challenge comments like this - Jinsei is right that you shouldn't have to put up with it.

But funnily enough, if it was happening to me, I would probably tackle it directly rather than talking to my manager. Depending on the person and my mood I might either do it absolutely straight: "You do realise my contract is for fewer hours, don't you, and I get less pay and holidays because of it. If you have a problem with how productive I am in my working hours, please raise it. If you don't, please stop commenting"...Or I might be very tempted to make a more sarky comment like: "I know. I do so much work and am so efficient that management have agreed to let me work part-time! Haven't they spoken to you too?!" >innocent look<

flow I love your sarky comment idea

YY to reporting it or calling him up on it- totally not appropriate and possibly sexual harrassment