Is working part time the worst of all worlds? Idle question for a Sunday afternoon...

[WideWebWitch]

Just browsing on here today and seeing part time workers talking about not being taken seriously at work and picking up chores/childcare slack at home.

Does being part time mean you get the worst of all worlds in that you don't necessarily get taken seriously at work (I know this isn't fair and I'm not saying it is but I do know it happens) and that you also end up doing a lot more at home without any of the nicer bits that you might get if you were at home full time?

I'm not suggesting that ft sahms are lazy btw, not at all, just that if you are at home ft you probably do get the odd bit of nice time, just as you get an hours lunch break if you work ft. And if you work pt you probably do end up doing more childcare/chore stuff than if you work ft, jst because you're there.

True or utter bollocks? (I work ft oth btw and have no immediate plans to do anything else other than working from home but that would be with fulltime childcare)

Personally I chose to work part time when my dcs were very small but I always did a minumum of 3 days a week, as I found that anything less meant I felt out of the loop. Yes, there are some downsides to being P/T - to and extent you can find you're taken less seriously in your career, I'm not saying that's right, but it's the reality. I also ended up doing more of the home stuff - picking up kids from nursery, shopping, cooking, but i reckoned that was fair enough as DH was working F/T. While I was home F/T on maternity leaves, again, I took the major responsibility - seemed fair enough to me. If DH had been a SAHD, then he would have expected to take the major responsibility for home stuff.
Once my kids were a few years old, I got back to work F/T and it's definitely the best thing for us as a family. DH and I now have equal roles - we share all the cooking. housework etc. I feel much happier being fully 'in the loop' at work, and I've been able to take on a management role which I wouldnt be happy to do P/T. (We do have some P/T middle managers where i teach, but IMO it's a big disadvantage for the school).
So, yes, WWW, I can see where you're coming from. I think P/T work has its place and can be right for certain phases of your life, but I definitely want my career to be F/T for the foreseeable future.

Hmm, I was just thinking fewer hours would be nice !
Am finding full-time plus 2 DS (1 & 3) plus all the rest (DH does some stuff but I still do all the cooking, ironing, washing) really wearing at the moment.
Am hoping it will get better when DS2 is a bit more independant (and sleeps better!)

I don't want to start another SAHM/WOHM debate but when you work full-time you still have all the other stuff to do when you get home at night. I know you have the childcare in the day, but like s/o said, you CAN put a load of laundry on or hang it up when you're with the kids.
P/T sounds pretty good to me!

I've just gone back to work part time (3 full days) temporarily, having been FT for the last 10 years, and it does feel like I'm not at work enough to keep up with what's going on, but I'm not at home enough either. It doesn't feel like I fit anywhere.

FT is better from a career POV, but I don't think I could manage it ATM. After 10 months on Mat Leave I'm finding 3 days a struggle.

In some ways I think working P/T is the best of both worlds, and unless forced by finances would never choose to work full-time.

HOWEVER, I found all the stuff about being overlooked and not taken seriously was true for me.

I also found that I was dealing with all the childcare crises because effectively, my job could take it, while DP's couldn't and he was the main breadwinner.

Made me feel crap at work, and not being in the loop became a vicious circle, where I became less confident and more de-motivated, and therefore performed less well, and so on.

If I'd loved the job it might have been different I think, and I also might have fought harder to share the childcare problems.

Yes. You are constantly playing catch up at work, on the receiving end of snide "part timer" comments from arrogant 19 year olds who live with their mum, then you get home and all the housework that you would have done in the last 5 hours that you have been at work hasn't been done. So you have to do that too.

If you have a partner who picks up the slack, that's good, but if your partner is merely slack, or you don't have one, it's a nightmare.

Yes, I had loads of comments like 'I wish I could do your hours' (ask them if they'd like my salary - 'no')

'To be honest I never know when you'll be in' - my boss, that one....

Someone asked if I was in that day, and someone else said, 'not if it's raining' (had to smile at that one.)

I was doing regular days as well, they were the ones that shifted around...

I work pt but work a 6 day week. I also do all the housework and childcare during the day, so yes i find juggling all the balls harder than i did when i worked full time.

I am glad i am out of the loop at work because the office politics used to do my head in. I no longer taking problems at work home with me and when my set hours are over i am off... Something that never used to happen.

So let them call me a part timer in all i work more hours than they do and my main job (bringing up dd) is the best in the world.

I feel that it's the BEST of both worlds, but I don't do anything that could be construed as a 'full time' job, so I don't have colleagues thinking I am a sponger or anything, which I imagine would be quite annoying!

There are times when I feel that I'm getting my home-life AND my work-life half-cocked, but overall it's a great balance for me and makes me enjoy my days doing 'both jobs'.

I recently returned to work p/t (24 hrs/wk) and dh is throwing his full weight into the childcare and food prep (leaving me with cleaning think he lucked out on that coin toss, I have to say)

I'm loving being back at work, but a male colleague narked me monumentally when over a discussion regarding progression and career development, he said "Well, of course, they'd feel obliged to promote someone like you, no offense () when I'm sure you'd be the first to admit, in reality you just wouldn't have time to do all the reading to keep up to date, would you? Your mind would be elsewhere"

Condescending fecker, I'm going to devote my wandering mind to means by which I can despatch his gas-lift 'do-not-adjust' chair into the atrium at speed with him attatched.

For me, working part time is a compromise, and compromises never keep all the people happy all the time, do they?

I work part time, but it's from home and I go to meetings when I need to so no one actually sees what hours I work, and that seems fine. The housework depends on your attitude to housework generally, I think. I do a bit more in that I remember to put a load of washing on in the morning and take it out later, but we have cleaner and I don't think that other than the laundry, I actually do more than dh.

attached.

He's right, I'm a moron

I have worked p/t ever since returning from maternity leave and have had good and bad experiences. I used to work for the NHS where it was a long hours culture. Although senior management in the NHS was mostly women, I found they were often childless or alternatively superwomen and I always felt I was looked down on for working p/t and overlooked for promotion. Condescending remarks were always been made eg: enjoy your days off etc and I had to remind colleagues that I wasn't actually paid for those days! Now I work for a local authority p/t - I have a wonderful job share partner and things are a whole lot better. I was just thinking the other day that I couldn't imagine going back to work f/t ever!

I work 2 days pw and I LOVE it.

Yes I get comments about my working week being like their weekend, but to be fair when the children were very small, it was the weekend to me .

Also when I was a struggling new mum, it was good to have a little less pressure than a full time job would have entailed and there were a few years when I felt I wasn't taken seriously, but then I also wasn't taking the job as seriously as I had done. (although actually I have been promoted once!)

2007 though, I decided to get my act together and on Fri I had my appraisal and I got the highest mark (and bonus) of anyone doing my job, so I certainly haven't been written off.

I also know that they would jump at the chance to take me back full-time and although it prob wouldn't be at the level I could have been at if I'd worked FT for last 7 years, it will be much higher than if I'd had a 7 year break and I've had the benefit of that time with my children which I wouldn't have missed for the world.

I've worked p-t since I had DS1 (so 13 years).

I think some part-time workers get a really raw deal but it works for us.

I currently work (in theory) 25 hours over 5 days to fit in with the schoolrun, but I have a fair amount of flexibility which works both ways.

PT suits me and my circumstances, but then I have chosen where I work to fit in with my home circumstances (same organisation, different positions). I know I would struggle in a less flexible position, or working full-time.

I have heard colleagues having a go about other colleagues (in other locations) working part-time and I always tell them off (for want of a better expression), although I can understand the frustrations. Same with DH.

I think being in the office almost every day helps my situation, rather than say doing 3 days a week.

I think I'm taken seriously even though I'm only pt, although I do a different job to everyone else, so my opinion is not always considered.

I rarely get a lunchbreak, but then neither does DH and he works full-time shifts.

I do do more childcare/chauffeuring - but that's usually at the weekend when DH is on shift.

DH tends to do more jobs - because he's often around in the week on his own.

I think P/T can work well for some, not all, jobs.Maybe it's stating the obvious, but where it works well is when the part timer is proactive about trying to stay in the loop, and finding out what's been happening on the days they're not in work. I have a few P/T staff in my team, and it works ok with some, but there is one who's hacking me off at the moment. She jobshares with someone else, one doing 3 days and one doing 2. I have a team meeting on a day that the 2-day-per-week woman isnt in, and I've made it clear that it's her responsibility to read through the notes from the meeting, and make sure she's up to date. Yet she almost seems to want to be out of the loop! She's always making comments like 'Well of course I wasnt here when that was discussed' etc which pisses me off because she wants to work P/T!! This is the kind of thing that can give P/T staff a bad reputation

I think it depends where you work p/time as well. Where I am it's about 50/50 between FT and PT so there's no friction between the two, the way shifts work I wouldn't necessarily know whether someone is PT or FT tbh. Downside to this 'acceptability' is that it's in the retail sector so generally it's not taken seriously anyway....... There are downsides for me, as I work evenings and am home during the day I tend to do the bulk of the housework/childcare as well, , but I'm not exactly worked to the bone (I spend enough time on here!)

I've worked part time (3 or 4 days a week) and full time, at varying times, since having children 8 years ago. I found part time a lovely compromise, especially when the first two were very young. I didn't find I spent my time doing all the housework.

but my DP has usually worked part time too, he's quite unusual as he worked a 3 day week before we had children (he spent the rest of the time windsurfing/teaching windsurfing). So he's rather keen that the one at home that day shouldn't be lumbered with too many domestic chores.

we used to have an agreement when the dds were tiny, the one at home didn't have to do ANYTHING except look after the children. no expectations of shopping or cleaning or cooking.

I work p/t (3 days a wk) and I think both my work and my children get the best of me as a result. Definitely happier than if I worked full-time or was a f/t SAHM.

I'm a teacher and my exam classes got their best ever results last yr (despite having to re-teach what my awful maternity cover 'taught') and I would say I value and make more of the time I have with the children, compared with when I was on maternity leave.

However, there is no doubt that I don't get paid as much as I should for being p/t and it's a big financial hit.

On the contrary - it is the best of both worlds. I hope I never work full time ever again

It can be. For sure. I suspect I might have been one of those who complained about being sidelined at work. And sometimes it does feel as if I took a pay cut and accepted being taken less seriously at work, simply in order to do more housework But....I do really appreciate being able to pick my DCs up from school and get some involvement in that part of their lives. I would find it hard to give that over to anyone else.

I love working part time

but it's been tricky adjusting - I think you get less gossip at work and unless you have a very fairminded partner you can end up doing more than your fair share. but surely that's the same if you're full time too?

do what i did - book on a course just for you (mine is painting in acrylics/oils for 3 hours on a friday morning when both kids are at school and i'm not at work) and ringfence some Me Time.

ALL of my f/t friends envy my part-time lifestyle

and yes, I don't get promotions at work or huge payrises but that's a compromise I've decided to opt for as I value the flexibility and great working atmosphere more than I would a few extra £

No I think pt work is fab and everyone should do it! (not just parents). I think I would just feel too squeezed at home if I worked full-time. I do ok at work, I think I am taken seriously and I enjoy it, I don't think my performance is particularly compromised by pt working (I work 75%).