Or over sensitive re comments about PT work?

[Bluerossettes]

I work three days a week, Monday - Wednesday. And I’m getting so much grief about it at work it’s really putting me off mentioning anything about it at all and in fact I try not to but sometimes I do have to, if only to remind people I can’t do something as I won’t be here.

I get some quite nasty comments about ‘lucky me’ and some groans and eye rolls about huh yeah, see you next week then.

Generally it isn’t a happy place at the moment for all sorts of reasons but it’s getting a bit much now. I have tried pointing out (in a ‘nice’ way) that part time is an option to everybody and also that I’m spending my days off with preschool children - they really aren’t relaxing days off at all! - but to no avail.

Is it worth saying something? I don’t want to come across badly but I do think I’ve been targeted a bit.

That is true true true.

I work in a role where you have to meet certain targets. When I asked to drop a day I was told that I could- but my targets would stay the same. There would be no corresponding drop. It was a fucking disaster and meant I just crammed an extra 7 hours into my working days or after work yet got paid for a day less.

Bastards.

(I am job hunting. It;s a toxic shit place anyway. )

"Yeah, you're here all week but you do fuck all!"

Mumsnet isn’t reflective of the real world. On here you’ll mostly get supportive comments from like minded women.

Unfortunately in the real world, part timers are carried by their full time colleagues mostly.

You’re very lucky to be able to work part time for whatever reasons - suck it up buttercup!

It isn’t about luck. I’m paid for the hours I do. I really don’t think ‘putting up with snide shitty comments from colleagues’ was in my contract when going from FT to PT.

Absolutely!

It’s very much about luck. Many many people would want to work part time but are unable to. You’re lucky to be able to do it.

Stop whining about it.

I've been in both positions and have probably been guilty of the occasional "lucky you, part-timer" comments that have not been meant at all snarky, but just a mindless comment. However, then I changed to PT after babies came along and those same comments really stung. I would end saying things like "ha! I'm just off to do my other job now - that one is days, nights and weekends for no pay at all".

I'm really careful now and don't offer any commentary on other people's work patterns, you never know what people are dealing with behind the scenes.

I like the suggestion upthread of directly facing these people and being blunt about this having gone on for long enough now. Hints are not working. If their comments are borne from mindlessness/thoughtlessness they'll stop. But if they are being twats, well you know where you stand and can make an informed decision. That might be to stay bc other factors suit your life right now, or it might be to leave.

'The real world'.

I’ve worked part time for 20 years now. I don’t engage with comments like that, I couldn’t give a crap. My DC are now grown up and I don’t need to be around for them anymore but I have zero interest in losing my day walking the dog around the woods, going to a yoga class and an afternoon in my/my mum’s garden so that I can work instead. That’s far more valuable to me and I expect the nastiness stems from jealousy from your colleagues that they can’t do the same.

Trust me, this isn’t about efficiency or otherwise.

I do think it’s crossed a line to be honest. It isn’t just the comments but also the persistence with making them: you really would think people had got over it by now. I think I’m going to have to go down the very direct route because otherwise it’s going to carry on until I revert to FT hours.

I can't afford to work full time - nursery would eat my earnings. How is that lucky?

Poor you if you think the opinions on MN are a true reflection of general opinion!

Yes I think one or two comments are tolerable but when it's repeated it's not on.

Something like "please stop bringing up my working pattern- if you have any issues please liase with my line manager"

Your methodology sounds dead rigorous.

Working full time was not an option to me as I wasn't paid enough to cover childcare costs for two children so I don't think it's fair to assume it's some kind of privilege. Not all parents who work part time are doing it because they are well off or "lucky". There's plenty of low income families where one is part time for financial reasons

It sounds like that's the right decision for you then. Personally I like to poke stupid with a stick so I'd have some fun with them, but I can see how you might not have the headspace for that if the job feels toxic already.

I used to get comments about this, I used to breezing reply "if you have any issues with my working hours, please take it up with my line manager, Jane on extension x89453, shes here all week". We only worked in a tiny office and I always said it in front of my manager (who had approved my working hours). It didn't last long.

Obviously if the manager is part of the problem...... that wouldn't work.

I’d also point out that many people make life long decisions about training and education at a young age.

those decisions have longer term consequences no one can really predict.

school friends who didn’t put in the effort, now working min wage jobs telling me I’m lucky when I battled through my disability got a degree and worked my way up.

but I was still horrifically luck to have picked a career that allowed me to continue working through being widowed and being ill. If I’d gone for one of my other options of veterinary medicine I’d have been fecked despite that seeing g like a better idea over English.

folks need to focus on their own lives, do the best they can, and work with the situation they’ve got. Anyone bullying someone else due to different choices can quite frankly stuff off. They must be deeply unhappy to make such a constant thing of it. And agree about telling them to take it up with your line a manger

I’m also a part time teacher - do you have a job share? If so, are they saying the same thing to them?
Unfortunately, having worked in a toxic school in the past, escalating things may only make it worse.
Personally I wouldn’t be planning to go back to full time in the future to stop bullying, my advice would be to look for a new school where it isn’t so toxic, you have until the end of May to find somewhere else & then resign. I know easier said than done, but there are better workplaces out there, with part time roles. Good luck.

I'm wondering if the reason this has gone on for so long is less about the actual hours you work OP and more about how the others hate their jobs / workplace. If you're unhappy at work, being stuck there for 5 days means you're going to think someone who's only there for 3 days is pretty damn lucky. Regardless of what the part time person does the rest of the time or financial/personal circumstances etc. It could be this simple. It's not about you, it's about them being unhappy.

''@Sittinginmysunnygarden · Today 09:49
Mumsnet isn’t reflective of the real world. On here you’ll mostly get supportive comments from like minded women.

Unfortunately in the real world, part timers are carried by their full time colleagues mostly.

You’re very lucky to be able to work part time for whatever reasons - suck it up buttercup!''

Such an ignorant comment...

Can you give us some examples of the 'snide shitty' comments please?

Because in your op you say they refer to you as 'lucky' and that isn't particularly snide or shitty.

Do they come up and say these things without any context, because that would be odd?

Or in response to you saying that you're not in tomorrow, or that you won't be at the staff meeting, or whatever?

Because I guess their op might be 'I don't know how to respond when X is always reminding us that she's part time.'

It just sounds like nothing to me, absolutely nothing. You're supposed to enjoy the working arrangement you chose, and those who can't afford to do it are often going to be a bit jealous.

PP makes a good point. Do they say the same stuff to other pt staff?

I've worked in a lot of schools and am really struggling to imagine anything other than envious, good natured teasing about how lucky you are to be disappearing on Wednesday and missing the extra-long staff meeting on Thursday or whatever it is.

I wonder if it's considered luck that childcare costs price many women out of full time work?

@electriclight i literally say this in my OP

”I get some quite nasty comments about ‘lucky me’ and some groans and eye rolls about huh yeah, see you next week then.”

You’ve worked in lots of schools and you’ve never, ever encountered anything but good natured teasing. Great. Do you think that means that it can simply never happen, then?

Teasing it might be but it isn’t particularly good natured! Hence why I’m really sick of it now.

It isn’t ‘always reminding people I’m part time’ if I say ‘bye’, is it? I did used to say see you next week but have stopped because of the comments but doesn’t make a difference.

@HundredMilesAnHour i know, there’s a lot of general unhappiness I think, some of it is linked to work but some of it just to peoples lives. I am not unsympathetic to that, but I don’t want to bear the brunt of peoples frustrations and unhappiness either.