Comments on: Part-time smartschmuck-time

By: Leanne

Leanne — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:44:55 +0000

Thanks for a spot-on post. Having juggled work with my husband as much as was financially possible (we both work part-time and some of this is home-based) our oldest has hit her first lot of school holidays and my mind is boggling at how we deal with the next 16 years of this (our little one is 2). The math of leave-taking simply does NOT work – 3 weeks a year each yet school takes 12week breaks – each year we will be 6 weeks short. Not to mention the whole issue around working part-time as a fast track to losing any ability to be promoted, regardless of capabilities. We have already downshifted and I wonder how we can sustain our attempt at being there as much as we can for our kids – childcare and “afters” care provides just that – care, not love – and we are trying to save our kids from that as much as we can. I also agree with Deborah – this is a systemic, gender-based issue – my husband is certainly in a minority at school pickup time……

By: innercitygarden

innercitygarden — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:27:30 +0000

I was talking to a former colleague on the weekend, and she told me a friend of hers has just ’solved’ her work life balance problem by moving from part time to full time work.

Now she starts work at 5am, and her husband is home all morning. She gets home at 2pm, and her husband heads off to work for the afternoon and into the night. Apparently this is an enormous improvement for them on the one and a half jobs at the same time set up they’d been working on previously.

It would drive me absolutely bonkers though. For a start, perhaps we could get employers and employees to agree that a 40 hour week is a maximum, not a starting point? Because it’s not efficient to work longer hours, it’s just macho showing off, and it entrenches bad work practices.

By: moz

moz — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:31:49 +0000

And on the more frivolous side, some of us chidlfree types would appreciate the opportunity to work a bit less too. I can only choose less work for the same hourly rate by contracting and taking breaks. Which often means working silly hours for six months then taking a few months off before lying about what I’ve been doing in order to get another job. See, holidays are all very well but an employee who takes 3-6 month “holidays” every year is not desirable.

I would like to be able to work 80% of the hours for 80% of the salary, but the companies I work for will not consider that.

By: Julie

Julie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:26:43 +0000

In the past I think many men weren’t concerned that they were missing out – my dad was very involved in my upbringing, but this was quite unusual at the time. Now I think dads are starting to want to spend more time with their children, certainly this is the case in my own family. This creates new tensions of course!

By: Ari

Ari — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:22:27 +0000

Men don’t “get to have it all”. If men offload the childcare responsibilities to women, then they don’t *really* get to experience parenthood in the same way. But I agree that men get a lot closer to having it all than women do, and that’s wrong.

I think we’ve got a long way to go in accommodation for parenthood in the workplace- both for women and for men, although until men start being primary parents a bit more often, it’s not as urgent a deal for us. I think the first step is definitely that we need part-time to really mean part time, and not “almost full time but paid a lot less”.

By: violet

violet — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:47:22 +0000

I would have agreed whole-heartedly with Deborah, but – now that I’m on the verge of returning to the workforce myself – now believe that men aren’t necesarily in a good position. Yes, by and large they can have the children and the career prospects, but this is at the expense of time with their families. In general, if anyone is part-time it is the mum, while the dad is fulltime – which means that the dad only gets to be with his kids on the weekend. You can’t say that presents any sort of work life balance.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:19:37 +0000

Yes…. except that by-and-large there is one group of people who get to have it all – partner, children, career – and that’s men, with exceptions of course. That’s why this is a gender issue.

By: Make Tea Not War

Make Tea Not War — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:52:25 +0000

No one gets to have it all. We all have to live with the consequences of our choices and the fact is that every time you choose you lose & a certain amount of regret is inevitable. Time and energy aren’t infinite resources and if you have three children, of course it will be hard, impossible even, to commit the same amount to a job as a childless person could. If you only have one child maybe you gain in terms of having a less demanding care-work load and more ability to succeed in the workforce- but don’t assume there isn’t sacrifice involved- the guilt about the only child missing out on siblings, the regret and the sadness of the children that could have been if a different path had been chosen.

By: artandmylife

artandmylife — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 19:08:01 +0000

Excellent post. I have 3 children – the oldest is 5. I thought school would make it easier- ha! I worked part-time with my first which developed into full time somehow, part-time after my 2nd and also did masters study and then it all fell apart. I couldn’t DO IT ALL. No way. It was a total collapse for me and I felt so so bad that I couldn’t. I continued to do my study until #3 came along and now I know that the kids take all my time. I cannot imagine trying to work outside the house just now although I am doing a little study. I am totally fed up with being asked “when are you going back to work”, I am TIRED of the constant running around around, pick ups, drop offs, ballet, trips, birthdays, and all the household stuff. Doing that and working too??? No. Ok I could if we needed the money but part-time work means loss of “Working for Familes ” income and expensive child care – we’d be worse off financially. And sorry but people “doing it all” with only one child irritate me SO MUCH and all the time and energy they have for that one child. However I used to be that person so…

By: penguinunearthed

penguinunearthed — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:22:47 +0000

Thanks for the link, and the great post. I do think that part time work could be more of a solution than it is at the moment, but to make part time work, a workplace needs to take it seriously, not just treat it as a quick temporary way to keep their mothers until, as one employer said, “her daughter’s two now. Hasn’t she got over it yet?”

I’ve heard about workplaces where part time work is very common. Often in places where it is the only way to keep good staff. They work because the whole team takes it seriously and works it into the routine.

But at Gen X, there are increasing number of dads doing it too. That will help, as it becomes not just a female issue.

In my own team at work, there are three dads working part time, although they all work more days than their wives in a week.