All very interesting. Well, my part time colleage will be coming into work all five days this week to keep up with her so called 'part time' workload, and still only being paid for three days. She's only popping in for a few hours on her two days off, but still, she's coming in. I talked to her about it but she feels obligated. That's not good, is it?
Not her fault at all for choosing to work part time. I would have done exactly the same if I had two under fives and a husband who could support the family enough for me to work part time. Our manager is personally very supportive of part time working, often leaves early to see his son then works at home in the evening. I think that because he is so understanding, and my collegaue is so nic, that she feels impelled her to come in on her days off.
I suspect that for him, as a manager, it is extra stress to have to part time workers in the team. Without enough staff in our team to cover the work comfortably, any deviation from a monday to friday working pattern complicates matters - the phone rings, messages have to be taken by other members of staff, meetings have to be postponed, there are natually question marks as to what needs doing in someone's absence, there are more briefings as work has to be handed over more frequently.
My colleague working part time does not affect me much. We are short staffed, true, but of course that's not her fault.
But I think it must be more difficult for a manager to manage part timers and so I wonder if mozhe's desire to tell junior staff not to cut their hours has a selfish motive - managing lots of part time workers, all with different days on and off, must be harder for her, perhaps?