A lot more parents work part-time than I realized! If you work part-time, what kind of work do you do... and how did you make the shift to working part-time?
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Very interested!! following!
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I really want to work part time! I do contract work right now on 3 different projects so I would just cut my hours. In 2 years when both my kids are in school I hope to do this - would love to be home when they leave and get home from school!
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I used to. It was perfect - my organization only had enough funding for a half time position. Which isn't a great fit for a lot of people, but it was for me! It was a little frustrating when I wasn't treated as a full member of the team, though, especially since I produced as many, and typically much more, deliverables than other employees. I basically had a FT load that I just did very efficiently - minimized meetings and distractions, focused and worked quickly. But since I was paid hourly, I wasn't going to work anything over my three days a week! Often I would have to answer calls and emails on my days off, but I figured that just entitled me to a lunch break on the days I did work.
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I'm a wedding photographer so I choose what dates I want to work. I worked at a corporate office for 5 years and worked for myself part time for several years before leaving my career to pursue photography only. We planned it this way so I could mostly SAH when we started a family and still be able to make good money when I wanted to.
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I'm a victim advocate with the court system. I was full-time in our largest county with a huge caseload and stayed very late during trials and trial prep. When LO arrived, DH got a job with a major airline and he is gone overseas half the month. I realized it wasn't working for us as a family.
I actually tried to quit, and my boss offered me a part-time position in our smallest county and I work 2 days a week and LO does grandma care of DH has him if he's home. It's the perfect situation to allow me to continue to do what I love and be home with LO too.
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I'm a physician and I work "full-time limited" or about 30 hours per week. I work at an urgent care which is all shift work and they're open 365 days per year (ugh) so there is a lot of flexibility.
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I'll be asking to drop to 32 hours/week. It's considered full time at my company. But it's, you know, 32 hours, not 40.
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I dropped from full-time to part-time after my second DD was born last year. I was forced to take a big hourly wage cut and had to switch jobs, at the same company, but we had been cutting back for a while so we were ready for the financial change. I work 20 hours a week auditing healthcare accounts. It's super boring and I'll be happy when I can find something that better suits my personality, but I can't beat the schedule!
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Although I technically work full time, my job has a lot of flexibility so I'm usually not in the office more than about 36 hours per week (I log on from home occasionally to make up the difference). It feels like something in between part- and full-time and it works for us right now. If we decide to have a second child, I'll probably try to arrange to work 32 hours per week for six months or so after I return from maternity leave. Unfortunately my position isn't authorized for permanent part-time hours (even though I could probably pull it off, IMO) so it would have to be a time-limited deal.
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I dropped to 32 hours last fall for work/family balance reasons. My position is not authorized for part time work but they were able to create a different position for me so that I could make it work. I have been at the same agency for 4+ years so they were willing to work with me. It has been really beneficial for my sanity and for my family!
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I'm a police dispatcher on a per diem basis. I specifically looked for part time work as I prefer to stay home with the children. It is working out nicely!
I will add that I went straight from college to SAHM. I've never worked full time.
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I've always worked as a contractor for the TV industry since 10 years ago (I do broadcast design and motion graphics)... but my type of work is either 60-80 hours a week or no work at all. I naively thought that it would have been a perfect scenario if I had a kid and I thought I would be able to wing it, I was dead wrong because my work was never flexible and always have ridiculous short deadlines.
So I've been trying to switch to illustration and art licensing. while I supposed to have 3 fabric lines coming out in late summer, licensed art to sell as wall art and home decor for children, illustrating 2 board books for a publisher, and just signed a children's book agent today, I am still waiting for the money to come in. This is another "naively thinks the money will somehow work out if I work hard"..... so wrong! One thing for sure though, is I feel much more in control with my time. I wouldn't panic and need to find back up help if, say, my LO got a fever and couldn't go to school. So that works out. Now I just hope the money thing gets ironed out soon......!
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@irene: Hope it works out! And wow, that's so cool that you're illustrating children's books!!
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@mrbee: Thanks! Yeah, that's what having kids do to you - now I just draw and draw for kids stuff now haha!
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I'm FT now but will switch to .6 FTE when I return from maternity leave with my 3rd. I was very nervous about asking the superiors, we are not even close to short staffed but still wasn't sure how it would be met. It was no big deal at all! It will mean working 3 weekdays per week but I'll still cover lots of weekends in addition to that (probably 2-3 weekends per month, like now). I'm guessing I will average about 35 hours per week.
My husband also works PT, he was a SAHD until a few months ago when he began doing some website design work for a friend who has his own company and was swamped. He probably totals 10-20 hours per week, occasionally during naptimes but mostly when I'm home in the evenings and some weekends.
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@MenagerieMama: I'm a physician too! I'm an anesthesiologist which everyone thinks is shift work - I wish it were.
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I'm part time doing admin work in homecare services for a large healthcare organization. Right now I am only working e/o weekend. There are full time admins who do this job during the week, but they needed extra weekend coverage. It's home care, so it's open 365. I got this job for the weekend hours because I'm in a full time nursing program during the week.
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I'm currently working only 1 day a week in the office with extra hours as needed. It was a full time temp job and when the project finished they couldn't afford to keep me on full time. I'm pretty much working for a chance at full time in the summer and still job hunting meanwhile.
@cheesetomywhine: how does the "per diem" work in terms of benefits, health insurance etc? Do you have set hours at all or any indication of when they need you? Looking into applying for a translator job for the local school district and the pay is really good but it's s per diem / contract basis.
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I suppose I could reduce my hours if I needed to on a permanent basis because I am a contract employee. I only get paid when I work, which means no paid vacation, no paid sick days, no paid holidays.
This job happened because I have very specific experience and I can do what needs to be done without anyone telling me the backstory. That's what almost 20 years experience will get you these days. I am not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
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I'm a RN so it'spretty easy to work part time. I worked 4 days per week before LO but switched two days a week after mat leave. I had to give up my benefits doing so. But I worked every sun and mon so only needed to pay for childcare one day! We have moved to another state so I sadly had to leave my job and for now I sah.
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I'm a teacher but not a classroom teacher (I work with small groups) and they really value my expertise. When I asked to go part time, they accommodated. I still work 32 hours a week though.
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I work part time in public relations. After having my first LO, I knew I couldn't commute as far as I did (1-1.5 hours) and work the kind of hours I'd worked before (a PR agency is never a 40 hr/week type of job). I discussed quitting with the boss and she offered me part time. We decided on 3 days per week with one from home. The schedule was great but the type of work I was doing definitely had to fit my schedule (so I didn't get to work some of the more high profile or urgent accounts, and instead got a lot of one-off projects). Also, there were a lot of things that came up during my "off" time that I'd often have to jump in on (which was difficult with an infant at home and considering I had taken a 50% pay cut).
Ultimately, one of our prior clients offered my the same schedule so I'm doing PR internally for one company. There is less stress, and better benefits (though it's less exhilarating than typical agency work).
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I dropped to half time almost a year ago. It's the lowest I can go while retaining my full time status. The transition was hard until we found someone else who could keep projects moving on my off days so it wouldnt just sit there. I switched mainly to alleviate stress and accommodate my kids' scheduling needs. I work for a consulting company and contract to a government agency. When the kids need me less I will probably ramp back up again.
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I'm in grad school but consider what I do work, (esp bc I'm done with coursework and other requirements, just writing my dissertation) and I can set my own hours for the most part (except when I'm teaching of course, have to be in the classroom then!). Lo is only in daycare part time so I only work during those hours, plus I try during nap time and some weekends to get things done as well, especially if I have a deadline
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I'm an icu nurse so we do shift work after M was not I cut down to two 12 hour shifts / week. I have a bad commute so it's two very long days but I'm so thankful to be home the other days!
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@regberadaisy: For my particular job there are no benefits and no loosely set schedule. I generally get calls the day of looking for someone to fill a 4-midnight or midnight-8am shift (8-4pm spot never seems to need filling). Sometimes they'll call a couple days in advance to fill a spot. I know someone who is a per diem nurse who has to work at least twice per month with one of those being a weekend so it definitely varies!
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I'm a Certified Veterinary Technician, and I teach at a career college. The transition was pretty easy for me, I was their only full time instructor and I told them I was moving to part-time. They went with it since they wanted to keep me on. I was lucky that I was not expendable. I work about 20 hours a week and have evolved into about half on campus and half from home thanks to a lot of hard work and basically always making myself available to my coworkers and students.
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I'm a nurse practitioner and work .6fte. When I was pregnant, I asked to work part time upon return. They knew I would quit if working FT was the only option. (I was the first in my department to be approved for this. They honestly seem to play favorites bc have said no to another NP since then. She quit as a result).
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I am a part-time contract employee for a very small marketing consulting firm.
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I work part time as a nurse, the only sucky part is I work night shift (11p-730a) and have to work every other weekend. But I am still grateful that my job is flexible and that I have the schedule that I do. I work 24 hours one week, and only 16 hours the next.
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