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.

I'm a "young person" who works full time and I wish I could reduce my hours. My job is incredibly stressful, and I would like more time to work on my personal projects, like writing and art. I don’t have kids and don’t plan to, and I'm not driven by money. I'd rather be happy than wealthy.

@Gbtch

Is it to do with benefits? If you work less than x hours you get benefit top ups, including rent. Exceed these hours and you get nothing?

No, because most single people don't qualify for anything except council tax discount.

It is odd. I would encourage young people to work FT as it's an opportunity to save money while they can even if they are 'working for the man'. Making enough money to get by but not enough to save is endemic of our crappy savings culture in the U.K.

And it's everyone's business when people actively choose to work less and then need govt support now or in the future. Why sign yourself up for that if you don't have to?

It is odd. I would encourage young people to work FT as it's an opportunity to save money while they can even if they are 'working for the man'. Making enough money to get by but not enough to save is endemic of our crappy savings culture in the U.K.

You can work part-time and save at the same time. Not everyone needs to work 40+ hours a week to survive, and good on them. Why work more hours than you have to?

If you can make it work, go for it but I've worked full time and can't see me working less... although I'd love to work less hours of course... because I like to lead a certain lifestyle. I have quite a few friends who have no children and work part time and always moaning about money and not being able to do as much? I don't get it. Yes I would like more time off but on weekends and my holiday I get to live life the way I want to as I have money plus enough to put some away.

Pets and other animals, sport they take seriously, art, studying, writing, managing mental health or physical conditions they want to keep private, doing up an old wreck of a house, charity and voluntary work....

I am with you OP. My stepson works 20 hours a week which to me is unbelievable. No ambition to better himself or get his own place so no incentive to earn more. I remember my colleagues and l fighting for the overtime that was available cos we all wanted extra cash to go clubbing back in the day!!

Some people are too invested in the details of others lives and lack imagination. Not all live to work or to have children and own a home. Some would prefer to pursue interests rather than work the 9 to 5 or simply take some time away from the slog. I had a year in my 20s of working part time, I needed work and it was the only job going, and it turned out to be an amazing year. Volunteered doing something I enjoyed l, had energy to get fit, see family etc. All the things working and commuting had previously made difficult. One year out of saving for a house/maternity etc etc doesn't mean they are never going to do it if they want to anyway.

@vanillaandhoney I don't disagree that you can work part time and save but it's far less easy and common. You'd have to be on a pretty cracking salary in your 20s to work part time, have enough to live on and pursue all your hobbies and save adequately. Most people I knew in my 20s were struggling on full time salaries.

Most people I know who are working part time are financially buoyed by others.

I detest working. I do work part time though and it's probably because the job isn't for me, currently studying towards something I do want to do otherwise I dort think I'll ever work full time again.

A friend of mine worked part time, think she's gone back to part time now and she used say how much she loved it. We were in a shared house so her outgoings were low, £400 all in for the necessities which left quite a bit for phone, food and leisure.

Cannoy bloody abide work matyrs

If they can afford it why not? It's not just younger people fgs. I've always worked full time plus over time but if I was in the position to go part time. Sign me up!

They may work multiple ' part time ' jobs

They may have other commitments or have health conditions, neither of which they need to disclose to you

They may have applied for hundreds of positions, a lot of them part time, hoping to get ANY job and thinking they have more chance of getting something with more hours once they are in work.

A lot of companies prefer hiring multiple employees on part time contracts as if you have 2 staff each working short shifts then you don't need to give them a paid break whereas you do for one full-timer. Same reasons so many places hire on zero hour contracts.

I'm in my 30s, no children by choice, married for 15 years. We've paid off the mortgage, and now work to afford the lifestyle we enjoy. I have always worked part time (around 30 hours each week) because I want long weekends to go and visit friends and family who live 200+ miles away. I spend many weeks each year on holiday. I enjoy days off in the week to go to the gym and shopping. However during lockdown none of these things have been available to me so I've worked 6 days a week. Next year I'm going to have at least 3 months off as I'm worth it!

They might have no ambition to buy a home or get on in a career or travel. They might be lazy and happy to manage on a shoestring and not join a gym, eat out, live a full life. Maybe they live with mum and don’t pay for anything and just stay in a job they aren’t really interested in. The pleasure of it might wear thin over the years.

[quote Waferbiscuit]@vanillaandhoney I don't disagree that you can work part time and save but it's far less easy and common. You'd have to be on a pretty cracking salary in your 20s to work part time, have enough to live on and pursue all your hobbies and save adequately. Most people I knew in my 20s were struggling on full time salaries.

Most people I know who are working part time are financially buoyed by others. [/quote]
But there's nothing wrong with being supported by parents, or a spouse, or a trust fund, so long as everyone involved is happy with the arrangement.

I have Aspergers and can't work full-time. I've done it several times in the past and each time I end up burning out and needing to be signed off for several months. It's just not sustainable for me to live like that. I now run my own part-time business from home and spend the rest of the time with my animals and looking after the house. DH works full-time, earns very well, and is quite happy with the arrangement.

Me working part-time also saves us money in doggy daycare (which would be necessary if I worked full-time) and also means we don't have to spend our weekends catching up with housework etc. as it's all done during the week. We have plenty of spare money for luxuries - we run two cars and have holidays each year. But we also chose a cheap house, a cheap area and neither of us expensive hobbies.

On the outside I might look like a lazy/entitled so-and-so but very, very few people know about my Aspergers. It's much better for me to be able to work part-time permanently, then to work full-time for a couple of years, burn-out and be incapable of doing anything for six months in order to recover!

I guess my argument is don't judge. It's very unlikely that you know the ins and outs of people's personal lives and at the end of the day, as long as they're happy, it's really not anyone else's business.

They might have no ambition to buy a home or get on in a career or travel. They might be lazy and happy to manage on a shoestring and not join a gym, eat out, live a full life. Maybe they live with mum and don’t pay for anything and just stay in a job they aren’t really interested in. The pleasure of it might wear thin over the years

What? We manage to do all of the above and rent on a good but not insane professional salary (85k between us), and still save half of it every month. Once we've bought a flat and paid off the mortgage, which should be doable in 8 years if we have no kids, why on earth would we not go part time? If you have a professional office job in this country and no kids, you can have a very nice quality of life without breaking your back. Also for a lot of people "living a full life" doesn't involve a constant revolving door of expensive consumer goods and £13 cocktails after work.

Not everyone is slogging their guts out with lots of children in poorly paid jobs, and if you're lucky enough not to be in that situation, why not make the most of it.

I’ve only ever had 1 full time position, I just like having time to do other things. I’m older now with 4 children but even when I was in my 20’s and child free I worked part time. Then I trained to teach, worked full time as a Primary teacher for 4 years and was a p/t teacher for the next 14. Retired at 48 - bliss😊

Both me and my husband work four days a week. We've paid off our mortgage and our girls are grown up and working.
We decided that we wanted more of a work life balance, it's great. We love holidays and have a couple a year but aren't bothered about getting new cars every few years. I wouldn't say we lacked ambition but maybe it's fine in a different direction now.

Gone not fine

Each to their own some people go to college, have other commitments, everyone's circumstances are different.

When I started out in my career it was difficult to get a job without experience. Thanks to an paid internship which I won through my university course I was able to get a job doing what I wanted to do, but they could only offer part time wages. It was terrible money £8k a year (2004) but my parents were kind enough to support me by letting me live with them rent free during this time so I was very lucky.

I ended up taking another part time job until I was able to find full time employment with the first employer. I don’t know how people survive financially on part time money without someone to help them, but I really wanted to work and part time work didn’t appeal to me.

@RosesinGranGransgarden Oh my god! People doing things differently to you? 😱 Judgey much 🙄

My son works part time because he has bipolar and tends to go off if he works too long hours.
He earns enough money to get by just fine on 4 days a week though.