To ask why young people without children work part time?

[RosesinGranGransgarden]

Going to get flamed for this but here goes!

In every single job I've been in I've worked with people younger than me who work part time hours. I can't quite get my head around it.
In my previous job I was a retail manager. Most of the staff were young, 20-30, none had kids apart from me and one other lady. We used to have a sheet of overtime shifts up and I used to have to beg staff to work it. These are young people, not studying, none with disabilities that they disclosed to me, most were renting/ house sharing. I never understood why they didn't want to work more hours, get more money for house deposits, travelling etc.
Another job I was an admin assistant and two or three of the other admin were young women, married with no children, who worked three or four days a week. Why?! Even if their husbands earned enough to support them, shouldn't they have worked to save for maternity leave, holidays, nice car etc.
I know money doesn't motivate a lot of people but as a young, childfree person, I would have never thought to apply for a part time job, unless I could be assured there was overtime. If not for financial reasons then just out of boredom, as all my friends would have been working full time.
Currently I work 32 hours due to no afterschool club, my colleague works the same hours. She said to me yesterday she wants to drop a day as she's exhausted. She's 28?! We work in an office together. She moans about not being a homeowner, why not work more hours?
Sorry rant over.

It's called social conditioning, most of those that would work part time as a preference won't through the fear of being seen as lazy.

The responses to the OP quite sensibly state that there is more to life than work/money and that work/life balance is also important. However in the Times this morning I'm reading how old people should pay a lion's share of the costs of lockdown because apparently their generation had all the luck. I am part of that generation - still working, and through early 80's I worked horrendous hours, two jobs, low pay, before kids and marriage, to save for a mortgage and then when I first had a mortgage. So it just seems to me that those two ideas conflict each other. Everyone needs to be contributing to rebuilding the economy, and that might involve earning lots and spending lots.

I guess that employed retail work doesn't attract a lot of ambitious people due to the typically low pay and lack of qualifications required and this is probably the main reason for your observation.

It's often used as a side hustle for people who are more focussed on another area of their life (health, family, vocation, education, progressing with another careers or income sources) or for people whose lives are subsidised by other people for many different reasons and don't need to earn a living wage.

If you worked for a large firm of solicitors I doubt you would see much part time working for those in their 20s there.

Because full time work isn't available!
Because they want to do something else - act, make music, make art or films, develop a side-project or business
Because they want to manage their mental health
Because they can sustain themselves on part-time wages
Because "saving to put a deposit down etc" seems utterly futile in the current scheme of things

I worked part time when I was young and child-free because that was the work I could get.

May I ask the part time workers who are doing it for lifestyle whether they are also saving for retirement?
I feel a bit concerned that some may get to 65 (or whatever) with insufficient savings.

I do understand where you are coming from OP, I have and had so much ambition to do well, it's difficult to understand their way of doing things. But it's up to them I guess, we are all different!

It's worth thinking critically about what 'do well' means tippledpink. You obviously get that we're all different as you acknowledge it here, but this also means that what aspirational looks like will be different too.

I understand your confusion Op, I've worked full time for 40 years, only people who worked part time did so because of having children. It must be nice to have more free time but they're going to feel the difference when they retire

Why not? I'm in that age bracket. I've been at university while working part-time for 10 years. Now i'm taking a years break - i'll work part-time then go into my full-time career because i'm tired!! and working a dead-end low skill job is not going to add to my skill set or confidence. You generally get micro-managed, it's inflexible, can be labour intensive and is low paid. Why would I want to do that full-time after 10 years studying ?

Several reasons:

1. Because that's all the employer will give them, in terms of hours, and there ARE no full-time jobs and maybe they don't want to spend their life scurrying around between more than one employer like a little gerbil in a trap. It may be that they work for a business where the demand is part-time. Theatres, for instance, aren't usually open all day, outside the West End. (Yes, I know, at the moment they're not open at all.)

1. Education - their own or someone else's.

1. Not wanting kids (I know, how unnatural is that, in our current world, eh! And it's unlikely things are going to get better, environmentally or socially, for a long, long time, if ever. Besides, we now live in a world where an astonishing number of well-heeled women and men who've never gone hungry in their lives, often thanks to the somewhat nefarious activities of their ancestors, dispense judgment on those who "should have worked out that they wouldn't be able to afford kids and not had them in the first place". Yes, because everyone knows what's coming in life, right? How many people predicted COVID-19? Not the "sudden" appearance of a pandemic per se, but the way our government would react? I've been amazed it's taken this long for a pandemic of this kind to emerge, if you just take an occasional interest in history. I've been utterly gobsmacked at the response of the government, on just about every level. And anyone who thinks they're not going to claw back every begrudged penny of the support, one way or another, for generations to come, just isn't paying attention.)

1. Caring responsibilities, and not just progeny. It's exhausting looking after an elderly parent with dementia, just as one example. And with regards to aforesaid progeny, there may be additional healthcare needs that mean part-time working is the only option

1. Health issues

1. They work on crafts, or creative pursuits in their spare time and don't want to end up spending every night slouched in front of the sofa because the dragging day job has sucked every ounce of energy out of their souls

1. It's a hobby job and they've got a rich spouse/parent/other sponsor

1. Because it doesn't make sense from a tax or other perspective to work full-time

Those who've "never met" anyone without kids who's "young" and works part time, I'm curious to know the part of the country where you live and what industry you're in, if you're in employment yourself. I'm guessing the answers are probably not the north east or north west of England and probably not teaching or healthcare!

It could be any one of several reasons

• maybe only part-time shifts and positions are available
• maybe they are also studying part-time
• maybe they have another part-time job
• some may have a hidden disability that makes full time physical work impossible
• child free lifestyles for young people are typically less costly - maybe some are satisfied with lower working hours and more free time

I worked 4 days a week with a wednesday off for a few years prior to having ds. It was fab. Initially it was to help my mental health (anxiety, a lot of it work related) then I stuck with it. If you can afford it I would recommend everyone does it (note that my job isnt highly paid but decently and I share costs with dh)!now I've had ds I work 3 days a week, might go up to 4 one day but can't see I would ever go back to full time.

I don’t see how anyone can afford to work part time in a retail/basic admin role without being financially supported by someone else. How were they affording a house share?!

I see what you mean about wanting to have the extra money for nice things OP, but it is a balance I think. If I could comfortably afford to only work 2 or 3 days a week then I absolutely would, but I’d have to be earning a very good hourly rate as I wouldn’t want to have to massively cut back on other things. I don’t really see the point of having 4 or 5 days off but not being able to afford to go anywhere or do anything.

I work compressed hours (9 day fortnight) but if I could afford to I would definitely go part time. No children. I don’t enjoy working and I want to spend as much time as I can on my hobbies or with my loved ones. I think if people can afford to go part time then that’s great and good on them.

I would imagine working f/t in retail or in a (quite likely) dull admin job might be a slog. I would totally do it p/t rather than f/t if that was an option.

I'm a fan of the four day week for all, that way there will be more jobs to go around and we won't all be working ourselves into early graves and can have more time for relationships with friends and family.

I don’t really see the point of having 4 or 5 days off but not being able to afford to go anywhere or do anything.

Lots of things are free or don't cost anything much after an initial investment. It may be that they're not things you would want to do, but they exist and some people like them. So for example it's possible to study a virtually infinite number of subjects you're interested in for the price of an internet connection and device.

I roughly earn £50k a year now depending on bonuses. I do 4 days a week 10-4:30 term time.
Just because someone is part time doesn’t mean they earn little I suppose. I have savings plenty and a large pension pot.

Obviously this was a lot less when I was younger but I started around £30k when I was 24 in this job role. Friends in my role earn around £80k-£100k full time with bonuses on top.

I live in the north so I don’t really need 100k a year for a nice house, nice holidays, pensions and savings. 50k more than covers what I would consider a good lifestyle and although there’s no super cars and mansions in my life I’m happy as I am and don’t envy my full time colleagues lifestyles at all.

Just to add, anyone worried about people working part-time not having enough money for a pension, it won't be long now before that myth of being able to retire, at least on a full-time basis, is well and truly put to bed. Those of us under a certain age will all just have to drop dead in harness, to put it bluntly. That's if starvation, illness or climate change don't get us first and there still ARE any jobs once we're well and truly over the hill. It's still not really apparent what effects will be felt in the pension market from COVID-19 but I very much doubt they're going to be beneficial for anyone under the age of 50.

That's if you can even afford to pay into a pension after food, rent, council tax, phone/Internet (and yes, they ARE essential in this day and age, libraries and job centres don't have the capacity to support people any more in the numbers currently needing help, that's where they haven't been closed down), utilities, transport, and a few rags to keep the elements off your back.

Because around here at least full time jobs are rarer than rocking horse shit.

@Samster45

I roughly earn £50k a year now depending on bonuses. I do 4 days a week 10-4:30 term time. Just because someone is part time doesn’t mean they earn little I suppose. I have savings plenty and a large pension pot.

Obviously this was a lot less when I was younger but I started around £30k when I was 24 in this job role. Friends in my role earn around £80k-£100k full time with bonuses on top.

I live in the north so I don’t really need 100k a year for a nice house, nice holidays, pensions and savings. 50k more than covers what I would consider a good lifestyle and although there’s no super cars and mansions in my life I’m happy as I am and don’t envy my full time colleagues lifestyles at all.

What do you do? Sounds nice btw.

Ive seen a number of posts on MN recently where people are apparently "baffled" that others make different life choices to them and it bemuses me.
Firstly, why would you care whether others decide to work part time? There could be a multitude of reasons but it comes down to this: most people do the things they want to do and dont do the things they dont want to do. Sounds simplistic but generally, humans tend to do only the things they want to do. If you are asking why - there could be hundreds of motivations or reasons but it seems to me you dont really care about this, you seem more invested in posting about how baffled you are by this as if your lack of understanding that people might be different to you is actually more the issue here.

I saw a very similar thread recently of someone "baffled" that anyone would queue to go to Primark. Because they want to! Its really not complicated and its not difficult to comprehend that people like different things and the life choices that you make wont be the life choices that others make. Why on earth is this so "baffling" to some people? is it because you think your life choices are superior to others and therefore are seeking validation? because that kinda shows that your life choices arent that secure if you need others to validate them. I make life choices each and every day and I have enough imagination to get that other people will make different choices to me because I'm not so blinkered that I think my way is the only way to live. I can empathise with the fact that others choose to do things differently and it doesn't make either of us "wrong" it simply means we are different and thank heavens for that. All the baffled people would find the world a tedious place if everyone was exactly the same, I'm sure.

Pre-DD I worked 3 days a week. 90% of people in the job I do work a maximum of 4 days a week and that is considered full time. Can therefore be dependent on what you do.

Some people can afford it. We can afford for my husband not to work at all. He volunteers part-time at a dog shelter. He was asked it he would like to volunteer full-time (when he first applied for the position) but he takes care of the home whilst I work full-time.

I've never understood it, I worked part time at school and as soon as I left I found a full time job, the only other time I worked part time was when I needed more income and I had a full time job in admin and worked part time in a supermarket at the same time.
My friend used to date someone who only worked part time and I could never understand why, no kids, no hobbies - turns out he was just lazy. No get up and go and just wanted money to smoke weed. Had to borrow money from his mum every month. Thank god she got rid of him!
(Not saying everyone is lazy, that was just her ex)

Not RTFT.

Young people entering the workforce now face having to work until they're 70 at least. Why not work part time for at least some of that time?