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Career and Kids

Part time isn’t the answer?

by elizabeth on April 7th, 2008

Now this is interesting: an Australian study suggests that part time employment has “failed to deliver” either at home or in the office, with “large numbers of white-collar workers suffering career burnout and family stress”.

It discusses the fact that part time professionals feel pressured to do the same work as their full time colleagues, but for less money and there’s also a serious decline in fertility among female professionals.

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Judi/Sister Honey Bunch
Apr 8, 2008 at 6:24 am

I can completely see this point. I would imagine that if I worked part time, I would still want to be seen as an integral part of the team. I would end up taking on more projects to prove my worth was as valuable as my full time counterparts.

Especially, if a part-time worker’s ultimate goal is to return full-time at some point, she would certainly end up doing more that expected so that she was assured that option.
JayMonster
Apr 8, 2008 at 6:52 am

This actually doesn’t surprise me in the least. It is part of the corporate culture that everybody needs to do MORE than their fair share, and part timers wind up with much higher levels of pressure to deliver in their time frame.

In reality this is not much different than the typical worker who now seems to have to work more than the typical 40 hours as a base, but with Part time, it just becomes magnified that much more.
Jamie
Apr 8, 2008 at 1:58 pm

Well aren’t you the bearer of good news!

Just kidding. ;)

I work 32 hours and took a pay cut to do so and honestly? I still do the same amount of work but it was worth it for me to have the flex time and work from home so much. Sigh…