Full timers v Part timers

[user2389283]

If you work in a job where there are part timers and full timers do you find that there is a lot of animosity from the full timers towards the part timers?

I'm the only one who is part time in my team of 5. No animosity towards me at all. I'm the only one with a primary age child, everyone else is in their late 40s and 50s and their kids are grown up.

My job is completely different to everyone else's though I should point out. The full timers all deal with clients and get paid more than me. I do the admin for all the full timers that they don't have time to do, I don't have anything to do with clients. My job can easily be done in part time hours and none of the full timers have to do any of my work because it's not urgent, it's just filing and the like. They don't even do it when I'm on annual leave, it just piles up for me to come back to!

No, none personally against me where I work now but I do believe it is common. It helps to be incredibly good at what you do - I also haven’t gone for a big running a department type job.

I went from full time to part time for a few years before I retired. I don't know or care if anyone had an issue with it.
I found a sharp ' what has it to do with you? Nose out beaky ' to anyone mentioning it shut them up.
I worked my contracted hours and refused to do any extra, otherwise I might as well have remained full time.

If anyone does have a problem with it, they have never said anything to me but l am older and cranky now and quite frankly dgaf....my life to do what works for me.

I worked in Cardiology for a long time, it didn't matter if you were part time of full time as long as you were there when you were supposed to be.

I had one boss who basically asked the staff what hours they wanted and then scheduled work around it, so I did an earlier start but got to go home early on a Friday, one member of staff worked term time, another 2 days a week etc.

I don't get many direct comments (and as I said earlier in the thread, it's obvious where they come from so I know how to respond if I want to).

What I do find wearing is the endless decisions on what to do about e.g. staff briefing is at a certain time, before I officially start work. Do I arrive in time for it? Then one day there's compulsory staff training before work. I go to all of them (I added up - it comes to 2 extra days over a year). But part timers who don't work that day don't have to go. Meetings on the day I don't work. Do I join on Teams? If I don't I may miss out on important info. Half days finishing at lunchtime or starting at lunchtime. What's the actual start/end time? Should I 'just come in' to do an assembly at 8.45 although I don't start till the pm, or stay for an after school event although I finish at noon?

Then there's all the indivisible stuff. You either attend a parents' evening or an open evening or you don't. You either write a budget or fill in a form or talk to a student about an issue or you don't.

Is this and the pay cut, worth it to claw back a bit of time in the week to keep on top of all the other stuff I need to do?

I must say the comment above resonated with me, that it would be easier for the team for part timers to work full days but less of them than to spread the hours over multiple days. 9 out of my 11 years of teaching have involved spreading a fraction of full time from 0.5 to 0.8 over 4 or 5 days. It's a great way to end up practically full time while getting paid less and still having people grumble!

It's annoying when a piece of work can't progress because the person doesn't work on certain days.
And when part timers are assigned to a project and the project timescales don't reflect that. Eg that a week's worth of work done by someone working 3 days a week will therefore actually take almost 2 calendar weeks. It's not the part timer's fault, but can mean the rest of us can't make our deadlines.

Yes absolutely!

I work part time, as do a fair few of my work colleagues, we get many comments from the full-timers/those who work more hours.
I wouldn't mind as much, but working part time means I don't often finish my work during my working hours so often take it home - something they wouldn't have to do. It doesn't phase me, I prefer the luxury of having time to do other things (I volunteer), but I really wish the digs would stop. We also get disproportionately more jobs "because you're not here this afternoon!" - so actually I end up doing the crap jobs every morning, and the full timers share them out over the afternoons. An example - I do the cleaning jobs 5 mornings a week, the full timers then share out the afternoon stuff so they do one day each. I have raised it with my manager that it doesn't really work fairly but she didn't do much!

I'm about to change my job to a role where we all work part time, which I feel will be nicer.

A little bit. In my previous role I worked full-time, someone else at work is part time. I had to cover her work on the days she isn't in. So I was expected to keep up with my own work while also looking after hers which didn't seem fair.
I've now moved on within the organisation, so no longer my issue - and having to take on more then one person's worth of workload was one of the reasons I applied to move roles.
If it didn't effect my own workload then I wouldn't be bothered.

A lot of the problems described on this thread appear to be caused by management wanting the benefit of part timers (cheaper, sometimes willing/able to be flexible) while not adjusting working practices to suit.

With respect to the previous poster (it's never fun to be permanently covering tasks that aren't yours), you can't be 'covering someone's work on the days they aren't in' if they're not contracted to work those days!

Management need to understand the consequences of their decisions re staffing (especially as we keep hearing how hard it is to recruit).

One example: during the pandemic the head at my school decided the school should stay open till 6pm each day to assist working parents (of students). It apparently hadn't occurred that this would mean the working parents among the staff paying for extra ad hoc childcare to facilitate this...

None at all.

We have it because the part timers literally down tools and walk out on the dot
full timers don’t have that option and often get lumbered at the end of the day

More fool them then. At my work everyone works the hours they are contracted for. The full timers finish at 4.30 and computers are off and coats are on by 4.28. No one does any overtime that they aren't paid for.

Part timers are generally part time for a reason though. There's a pay penalty, pension penalty, often a lack of progression and promotion and as this thread demonstrates, the potential for significant carping about you, however efficient you may be!

Anyway, I notice the OP hasn't been back...

That doesn’t work in the service industry with the general public kicking off

It would be like going to Asda and at 10 pm halfway through scanning your shopping and they say sorry I’ve finished and make them leave .
imagine ringing your insurance and after 40 minutes they say sorry I’ve finished and cut them off
any issue could Take anything from a few minutes to an hour . You can’t pick and choose it what ever problem/fault you get so it not like you can switch off 2 minutes before u finish

I used to work in a place where they were often looking for people to do overtime on weekends. However, they would only pay normal time for part timers but full timers got time and a half for Saturdays and double time for Sundays.

Consequently the part timers refused to do overtime as they were getting paid less than full timers for the working the same weekend hours. This created friction.

Opposite where I work - the part timers often end up working past their hours, and because it's still within everyone else's working day, it doesn't get noticed as much as staying late into the evening does. Also, if you work part time, working an extra hour is a much greater percentage of extra work than it is for a full timer.

Yep constantly hear well you only work three days

Surely the part timers also have that issue then? If a problem arises 2 minutes before they are due to finish do they sack it off?

No they will pass it on to a full timer and leave

Ah, I see. I think that's fair enough to be honest. I don't see why anyone should work hours they aren't paid for. Instead of being angry at the part timers maybe get angry at your bosses for not paying you overtime.

And by that logic the shop would never close...

If a shop says it closes at 5.30, customers shouldn't be coming in at 5.30 taking hours and hours. When I worked in pubs we closed the kitchen at 9pm, anyone who walked in wanting food past then were told the kitchen was closed. It should be the same in shops.

Went part time last year after 2+ years of full time at same place. One FT woman on a lower band to me has been a complete cunt about it even though I barely mention it.

Last time she did it I pointed out I get 60% of my former salary and that she is well aware that I can only afford to do it because my last surviving parent died suddenly and my sibling and inherited the house. I used the money to fund spending more time with my school-age kids while they're young. Even so, I'd rather have to work full time and still be able to talk to my mum...

Other colleagues have been fine and the experience of service users hasn't suffered for me having two days a week off. Performance review etc confirms this. Tell grumblers to fuck off, they're envious