Would you judge someone for working part time (no kids)?

[whatevertrevor84]

What are your thoughts on someone who chooses to work part time (say, four days per week), but who does not have kids, so no childcare excuse? In fact no real "excuse" just would like to have a bit more time off? Context is professional career (law, accountancy etc) in London. Would you think they were lacking in ambition or not serious about their career? Be honest... you'd probably hate them wouldn't you?!

My deputy at work (single, no children) wants to do go part-time next year. I absolutely support it - she wants to take a step back and have more time for other stuff, and I'd infinitely prefer to support that than to lose someone really good. I reckon in five years' time nearly all my team will be part-time apart from me and one other. An organisation that can't make it work is a badly run organisation IMO.

My kids are grown up but I never went back to work FT: life's too short and we can live comfortably on what we earn now.... in fact DP is going to take a complete career change in June and will also earn less than half what he is earning now. We have seen friends drop dead, get cancer, be knocked off their bike and killed etc. etc in their 50s .... live now, you don't know if there will be a "later".

I don't get why you would care. You've actually described what I do and it's the best decision I ever made. I don't like working full time.

Hate you for it? No not at all. But some people might judge and/or view you as being less ambitious. I get that as a PTer with children. Not all the time, but it would be disingenuous to say that you won't come across that attitude at all IRL. There will be people who've got promoted despite going PT, but there are also those who have got stuck in a rute career-wise.

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm all for work-life balance, I'm delighted that I have some and I'd make the same choice again. But let's not pretend that there is no risk of a downside at work. For me the benefits outweigh those downsides.

• stuck in a rut, not a rute, whatever that is :)

Your right I just need to stop worrying or caring what other think don't I, it's ruining what should be a lovely time!
Life is way to short I guess! So from today onwards sod them!!!!

It would be great if this was a more common thing, more job shares, a great way to spread employment around. In my perfect world, dh and I would work part time. We had dc later, had decent jobs; so were in a good financial position to start with.

This should be irrespective of having dc.

I work part time as the pay from my job gives me the same income as when I did work full time. We don't have kids, my husband doesn't have a problem with it. I work about 30 hours over 4 days. I think I'm general we work too long in the country. YANBU.

You mean YOU hate it??

After going from full time for 19 years to 4 days a week since having kids i would never, ever want to work full time again. Would rather earn less and have more quality time.

I plan on going 2-3 days some day if i still have to work, but otherwise good for them. The days of 'full time' working is changing or has changed. I know many people that are part time now and manage ok.

Looking forward to working ZERO days a week way before official retirement age thats for sure. Life - for me - is for living - not working then retiring when I am too old to do anything.

Course not! Life is too short so do what makes you happy.

I haven't worked f/t since I had my kids. They are grown now but I still work p/t. I enjoy being able to balance work and home, plus looking after elderly family members.

My health isn't great so think if I worked f/t it would not be fair on my co-workers.

I had a colleague who went PT originally when she had a baby but just kept the hours after her DD was grown as she didn't need the additional money. No one ever had a problem with it, we all just thought 'lucky her!'.

The only thing we noted was that it killed her promotion potential. She was pretty much told that in order to be considered, she'd have to go full time. It didn't stop her putting in, but she was either passed over without comment or she was pulled aside and asked if she'd go FT for the job and when she said 'no', that was that. So that's something you may want to consider if being upwardly mobile is something you want.

She eventually did go FT in order to get a promotion, but she timed it (quietly) to coincide with her last 5 years as it massively increased her pension.

I only worked part time (social worker) when my DDs were teens. Now one lives and works 359 miles away and one is at uni and I don't work at all! I call it early retirement.

I am part time. I love it. I work to live, not live to work. If I could afford it I'd retire as early as I could (my dad retired at 55 and in the past few decades has climbed mountains, sailed around the world and really lived his life). There are so many things to do with your life besides work, it's just most of us can't afford it.

Over the years a few people have been judgey, not many, and TBH I think it's them with a strange attitude/problem, not me!

I have a friend who works part time, no kids, but is an artist. So she works to earn money, but lives for her art. I admire her.

It wouldn't occur to me to think anything.
In my workplace there are people, both men and women working full time , part time and also casual hours.
Everyone has a reason for what they do and I frankly don't care!

I would think they were a lucky sod if they can afford to live like that and I would be jealous I definitely would not hate them, envy them a bit perhaps

I'd be envious and wouldn't hate them

I work 3 days a week (total hours spread over 4 days) and can see no reason in the near future that I will ever work full time again! I do have kids but they're getting older so the childcare aspect isn't really an issue anymore. I see it that we can afford it so why not?

I've never been ambitious as such, just happy to go to work and enjoy my job but to forget about it when I get home. I love my one day off even though it's invariably spent at the gym, supermarket, cleaning or at friends' houses for coffee. I'm not giving this up in a hurry!

Not read through all the posts, but no I would not judge, its their life let em get on with it.

In my team out of the 23 people, 12 are part-timers and only 2 of them have kids and another one is studying. The rest just have part-time jobs for whatever reason and that's fine. Life's too short. If I could afford a part-time job I would do it.

I should have specified that none of the roles started as part-time but people have reduced their hours over the years. Not that it makes a difference but just in case people think it's been a case of only part-time jobs being available.

Their business why judge?

I worked part time (3days) when I didn't have kids. I didn't need to work full time. I don't see why it's anyone's business.
When I did tell some people though, I could see some dying to ask how can we afford it, but didn't ask.

Why would anyone judge anyone for this? Surely everyone wants more time off?

Our company has four day a week output based working. Most people seem to like the idea.