To ask why are part time workers disliked?

[CherryCocoa]

I've recently returned to work but part time. It would appear that a lot of people higher than me are not keen on part time workers but I don't understand why? I work hard, I am conscientious, none of my work is passed to anyone else, but yet I'm still looked down on for being part time. Is it seen as lazy maybe? I work 30+ hours a week, I have a baby to look after and a house to run and obviously my pay is pro rata to account for less hours. I'm not a lazy person at all. I just don't get it, can anyone shed the light for me please?

@wellthatsunusual

I've not experienced this personally but I've been astounded over the years by how many people think that if you go part time you still retain your full time salary. So they think that women (it's usually women) go part time and are being paid the same as full time staff for less work.

I knew someone who went part time who thought this. The conversation came up as she had gone down to two days but thought she still have thirty days holiday. She looked horrified when it dawned on her. She was saying that part time staff should be treated the same and didn't seem to get that 100% salary/holiday for 40% work wasn't not being treated equally.

@Burnthurst187

Part time workers are seen by many as not being committed to the job

For context, I am part time

This. It doesn’t make sense it surely is the person not the fact that they are a part time worker. If they don’t finish jobs and so on chances are they were a sloppy worker when they worked full time too.

I’ve worked with plenty of lazy workers and it was nothing to do with how many hours they had worked.

Not rtft but many pp saying they've not experienced it. I've been part time for years in many different roles. Relentlessly heard
Lazy part timer
What do you do on you days off?
Oh you don't work on Wednesdays or Thursdays do you. Must be nice to put your feet up.
Etc
They also get annoyed they can schedule meeting or see you about work things on say wed and thurs other you miss monday briefing eyc

I think its caused by jealousy, annoyed as they work relentlessly all week.

@BlairCorneliaWaldorf that did make me laugh. I do understand your point but it would be taken care of. Unfortunately I'm not able to share what I do for a living.

Jealousy. Made worse where I work because all the part time staff have been furloughed while the full timers carry on poor things. 😉

@Covidpleasegoaway

I can only speak from my own experience -

Full time workers are often expected to work over and above their hours until the work gets done, but part time workers seem to stick to their hours 'because that's what they're paid for'.

There seems to be an attitude among some industries / employers that if you're full time, you're owned by your employer and jobs are rarely 9-5, and you're paid your salary whether you work 40 hours or 60 hours per week. But part time workers seem to have don't have that same expectation - if they're paid for 30 hours they only work 30 hours, or they may as well be full time.

The resentment is caused by the employer though.

This is what I found in my first graduate job too. As a full time worker, my day was officially from 8.30-4.30, but if we were near a deadline, we'd all end up staying until 6 or 7 several days in a row. Meanwhile, the part time workers had all left at 12.30 like they were scheduled to do.

Of course the problem was really with the employer, but it was easy to feel resentful that those on 50% contracts were doing a lot less than 50% of our actual hours.

I now work in a role with a lot less team work and a lot of working from home (even before covid), and I'm not even entirely sure which of my colleagues are PT or FT!

Ime people don't seem to grasp that part time workers do actually get part time pay!

I think there is an element of it being harder work to manage. It is difficult when there are things like training rolled out. If it’s a 15 hr course and they are a 15 hr post then that is all they will achieve that week for example. And a simple appraisal will take up more of their working hours as will things like checking emails. They will spend a higher proportion of their working week reading emails half of which may be barely relevant. I work with someone who works less than 10 hrs a week and realistically they are not massively helpful as they send so much time catching up with changes and emails, etc they get less done than FT staff. All this said you are 30 hrs a week so barely PT and much of the above will not apply to you.

Because they're more likely to be female.

I am full time but compressed over 4 days and this gets a bad attitude off some part time colleagues. ‘Ohh must be nice to have every Monday or Friday off while still getting a full time wage’ they seem to fail to see I am there at least an hour before them and 1-2hours later than them and they are quite happy to leave stuff for me to do as I’m going to be last out of the door! I have had more stick about compressed hours than I did part time in a previous role.

Another secondary school teacher here. I've worked FT for 40 + years. I went .8 last year, .6 this. The difference is that in my Victorian school classes aren't split and the days can't be either unless you go below .6. While this affects the days I don't work and the classes I teach in the sense that I might not get everything I want, it's a small price to pay.

Meetings are fine as long as notes are kept.

I can't say I've noticed PT staff being criticised but have noticed that my opinion is not longer sought, sometimes get left out of decisions that involve me. Possibly it's because I'm seen as pre-retirement. I swear the next time it happens and I'm given a job to do, I'll point it out, i.e. what exactly is my function here?

Like every teacher I know, I work beyond my hours, but will not attend beyond my hours without TOIL. To clarify, in Victoria, FT hours are 38 per week for FT staff, so there is protection about work on the premises.

@CherryCocoa.no worries the grass is not greener. I’m envious of my old work life before I had DS!

Why is it that so many people are insisting that it must be jealousy when several of us have explained some of the issues that we have experienced as managers of PT staff?

I am not jealous of part time staff, I have never wanted to go PT myself. The reality in my experience is simply that it costs more to employ PT staff and takes up more management time, but on balance, I think those are prices worth paying in order to retain valued staff.

Maybe those who have never managed staff don't realise how much time people take up, and assume that the impact of a few extra bodies is negligible?

Either way, being honest about the downsides of PT work from an organisational point of view isn't a judgement on the value or the skills of the individuals concerned. It is merely a statement of fact - that there are some disadvantages as well as advantages.

OP - I have experienced this. I work 4 days a week - 32 hours.
I get "enjoy your day off" & "part-timer", sometimes in good humour, sometimes not. I do think they forget that I only get 4/5 of my salary.

I recently found out that our MD said part-timers cost as much as full timers (computer, desk etc) - despite us hot deskjng & working offsite a lot - and that had been used for not giving me/us a pay rise for 6 years.

I dropped to 4 days for childcare but have stuck with it for my mental health. It's worth the 1/5 in salary & I'm grateful that I can afford to do it.

If you feel any animosity, it's jealousy - pure and simple. At least I reckon it is - in the same way as I admit I'm a bit jealous of PT staff where I work (FT term time only, in a school) coming into work on Wednesday and telling me how they spent Monday and Tuesday (admittedly not doing much exciting at the moment, but pre-COVID it was lunches out/gardening etc) Then I have to give myself a kick and remind myself that they're also getting PT wages.

I probably only realise it's jealousy as I've experienced it off others because I'm not quite FT. I'm term time only, plus 2 weeks plus INSET days during school holidays. I've worked it out and compared actual paid holiday to those who are "proper" FT and when that's taken into consideration, then the difference is an extra 6 weeks UNPAID holiday compared to other FT workers. I have no idea if you gave FT workers the option to take off an extra 6 weeks unpaid whether they would take it or not.

I think it's a bit more difficult to keep a record of things when you have PT staff. eg if you've pulled your team in for a meeting and the PT one isn't there then you need to make sure that they get the info another way. It's extra work as a manager.

Agree it's jealousy. I had two part time jobs, years ago. Got hassle from the full time staff in both. They knew I had two jobs so fuck knows the reasoning

I can see it from both sides, when you get I got annoyed with the part timers who did all the nicer parts of the job only to dump the crap pier bits to be and others saying “sorry I’m not in you will have to do this”, the same workplace also let all the part time mothers get first choice of holidays, Christmas etc so I’ll be honest there was resentment that they were treated better (this is rare I realise). I’ve girl finished at 4 on a Friday, she used to go awol around 3pm do as not to get caught with a customer. She had no kids. She used to have a regular drs appointment every Friday which subsequently stopped, she just liked an early dart as she went out on Friday nights 😡
Now I’m older and I’m a different industry I do appreciate the work that part timers contribute but echo other posters that it’s often more work to accommodate them with arranging meetings, consistency with tasks due to handing to others and back and forth.
Again like others have said pt workers leave on the dot where there is an unwritten expectation that ft workers stay until tasks are done so that can build resentment

I have a PT colleague (20 hrs) and so much gets left undone and I have to pick up the slack. As my PA it really does drive me nuts. The problem is that she doesn't seem to take her job very seriously as she is only there a small portion of her day. She has a good job, well paid with incredible flexibility for her son at school, which if she took it more seriously would lead to something more if she ever wanted it.
Sadly this has been my experience for a number of years professionally and it sucks because it has always been women and it's patently unfair on women who do take their work seriously.

@AlexaShutUp everything you have posted does make sense. No manager will be jealous of me working part time but my cost most definitely would be an issue.

@AlexaShutUp because some of us have had experience too. Likewise you have of been a manager.

It’s funny you say you wouldn’t want to go part time why is that? Because most people would work part time if they could and that’s a reality money aside

Lots and lots of part-timers where l work, it's a tourist industry and several part-timers give you better and more flexible cover than one full time person would. I love them, they're a great bunch and always try and help out if we're short. Your workplace sounds a bit wanky, OP, sorry! They're not all like that, some industries couldn't run without part-timers!

Part time workers should be valued in the same way as full time workers.

It requires a little more effort to manage workloads for part time staff. Particularly if it is a deadline driven industry. But if an employer offers part time hours - then part time staff should be treated in exactly the same way as full time staff.

@CherryCocoa likely because the PT staff attitude gives them reason to dislike them, and unfortunately you are being tarred with the same brush. I know everywhere is different but this is how it is at my place of work:

I am FT and meant to work 40 hours a week, but some weeks more like 55. I don’t expect any extra pay. The work needs to be done. I make sure work is done, if ive had a busy week I speak up, and I can be trusted to get the work done. A PT who works 20, doesn’t work 30. They are out the door no later than 5:01pm. They take their full hour for lunch and arrive no earlier than 09:00. You could argue that’s what they’re meant to be doing but they provide no flexibility, expect to be paid extra if they work over their hours and this attitude makes life harder for others. Where I am, (and it’s not all PT but it’s a lot of them) they cannot be trusted to take on certain projects just incase the project pushes them over their hours and then they can’t understand why they are not given pay rises or promotions. Another example is they will expect to be allowed the morning off for a dentist appointment, but not work an extra hour if the company is having a busy week.

Not that it makes a difference, but just for context these are not school leaver / entry level roles. They’re demanding roles which pay well and a certain level of flexibility is required and this is reflected in the pay and benefits.

It might be that your company have had problems with part timers, and you are just seen as the same - which isn’t fair. Prove them wrong!

I’m a teacher and going part time has screwed my career up completely. I have also had to point out to my head of department on many occasions that yes, I work fewer hours than her, but I am also paid a vast amount less than her, it’s not that we’re on the same money and I just choose not to turn up!

I’ve worked many different PT/FT roles over the years. Reasons some people (a minority it seems) are annoyed by PT workers:
For managers:
Harder to arrange meetings/training.
More administration, appraisals etc than if all roles FT.
Costs can be higher -aforementioned training/insurance/Anything they now need to spend in 2 employees instead of 2.
Possibly having to cover PTers urgent work on their days off.
Reasons co-workers don’t always like PTers:
Might need to cover for them on days off.
Might be harder for them to book annual leave.
Jealousy- plenty of people would love to go PT too but cannot.
Perceived lack of commitment to the job- if you really valued your job you would be here doing it 40 hours a week right?

I’ve come across all of this between observations/personal experience in my own life, though I work pretty hard so I don’t think I’ve personally had my commitment doubted that way, that I am aware of anyway.
I’ve always tried to reduce potential for being considered a PITA to my full time colleagues by trying to tie up all work before my days off and I’ve never chosen to have Monday or Friday as one of my days off, so I wouldn’t hinder anyone else’s requests for annual leave.