WEBVTT - Is part-time work the best option?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>This week, we're talking about broad issues related to work

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<v Speaker 1>and how we feel about it. Today's tip is to

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<v Speaker 1>be where the part time solution to work life balance issues.

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<v Speaker 1>Sometimes working part time can be a great choice, but

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<v Speaker 1>it's not the perfect option many people seem to think

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<v Speaker 1>it is. Since I've written extensively about work in life,

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<v Speaker 1>including a book called I Know How She Does It,

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<v Speaker 1>which is about how women succeed in big careers while

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<v Speaker 1>raising families, I've long pondered the question of part time work.

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<v Speaker 1>I know it remains an attractive idea. Indeed, various surveys

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<v Speaker 1>have found that, depending on how you ask the question,

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<v Speaker 1>a majority of women with children would prefer to work

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<v Speaker 1>part time. I imagine that these days, a reasonable number

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<v Speaker 1>of fathers might feel the same way. I think out

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<v Speaker 1>of the appeal lies in the semantics. The phrase part

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<v Speaker 1>time makes it seem like the best of both worlds.

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<v Speaker 1>People don't want to imply that work consumes the full

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<v Speaker 1>amount of their time, so they don't want to work

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<v Speaker 1>full time. By working part time, we can show that

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<v Speaker 1>work only gets part of Us and Family gets Part two.

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<v Speaker 1>But anyone who listens to this podcast knows the problem

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<v Speaker 1>with this mindset. Full time work consumes nowhere near the

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<v Speaker 1>full amount of people's time. At this point. I suspect

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<v Speaker 1>many listeners can recite after me, there are a hundred

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<v Speaker 1>sixty eight hours in a week. If you work forty hours,

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<v Speaker 1>so a standard full time amount, and sleep eight hours

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<v Speaker 1>per night, so fifty six hours per week, that leaves

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<v Speaker 1>seventy two hours for other things. It's hard to see

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<v Speaker 1>what's more balanced about working twenty hours and leaving nine

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<v Speaker 1>two hours for other things. But the bigger issue I've

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<v Speaker 1>found is that in many organizations with salaried positions, there's

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<v Speaker 1>no accountability for hours. People working part time schedules can

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<v Speaker 1>wind up working fairly similar hours to their colleagues with

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<v Speaker 1>full time schedules. They're just getting paid a lot less.

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<v Speaker 1>This isn't a hypothetical possibility, for I know how she

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<v Speaker 1>does it. I collected time logs representing one thousand and

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<v Speaker 1>one days. In some cases, I collected logs from more

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<v Speaker 1>than one person who at the same company, and at

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<v Speaker 1>least one case I found a woman on a part

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<v Speaker 1>time schedule working more hours than a colleague on a

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<v Speaker 1>full time schedule. Broadening this up to look at the

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<v Speaker 1>same industries, this happened more times than I care to count.

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<v Speaker 1>It's hard to know what's going on in any given situation,

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<v Speaker 1>but I think that what happens broadly is that people

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<v Speaker 1>in competitive industries like to talk about their eight or

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<v Speaker 1>work weeks, but they generally aren't logging hours that long,

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<v Speaker 1>or at least not consistently. One study comparing people's estimated

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<v Speaker 1>work weeks with time diaries found that people claiming seventy

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<v Speaker 1>five plus hour work weeks were off by about twenty

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<v Speaker 1>five hours. People in these industries sometimes decide to go

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<v Speaker 1>part time in order to exert some control over their schedules.

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<v Speaker 1>People in these industries sometimes decide to go part time

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<v Speaker 1>in order to exert some control over their schedules, and

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<v Speaker 1>to go part time down from this theoretical number of

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<v Speaker 1>eighty hours a week to say, fifty hours per week.

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<v Speaker 1>But if people working full time in these fields are

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<v Speaker 1>actually working fifty five to sixty hours a week, taking

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<v Speaker 1>a fifty percent pay cut and then working fifty hours

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<v Speaker 1>a week is not a great financial move, In particular,

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<v Speaker 1>if there's no accountability for hours then taking a twenty

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<v Speaker 1>percent pay cut and working an eight percent schedule is

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<v Speaker 1>a questionable tactic. In many fields, It's quite possible to

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<v Speaker 1>get the same during the week time off that an

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<v Speaker 1>eight percent schedule would enable without actually going to this

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<v Speaker 1>official schedule, or, to be more blunt, lots of people

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<v Speaker 1>waste of their work hours and still get paid for

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<v Speaker 1>this time. I really don't like the idea of only

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<v Speaker 1>some people playing by the rules and bearing the full

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<v Speaker 1>fine financial and career cost. In general, I think that

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<v Speaker 1>people are better off seeking out or negotiating for flexibility

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<v Speaker 1>in full time jobs. If you can work at home

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<v Speaker 1>occasionally and make up hours at night or on the

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<v Speaker 1>weekend if you need to, then it's quite possible to

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<v Speaker 1>work long hours without having any sort of work family conflict.

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<v Speaker 1>This is what I try to do. I work about

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<v Speaker 1>forty hours a week, but because I control these hours,

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<v Speaker 1>if I see I have a complicated week of kid

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<v Speaker 1>related stuff coming up, I'll find other spots to work

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<v Speaker 1>those hours. Yes, I work for myself, but I saw

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of similar strategizing on the time logs I

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<v Speaker 1>collected for I know how she does it, believe it

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<v Speaker 1>or not. I saw one person working sixty hours during

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<v Speaker 1>her logged week who was still there for dinner and

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<v Speaker 1>her kids sports practices every day. She just worked a

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<v Speaker 1>few hours every night after they went to bed, and

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<v Speaker 1>did some Saturday work while her partner was in charge. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>there are definitely some jobs where part time truly means

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<v Speaker 1>part time. If you get paid by the hour, then

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<v Speaker 1>a work week means a twenty hour work week. Likewise,

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<v Speaker 1>some careers, such as doing medical procedures, are pretty clearly

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<v Speaker 1>on or off. Electing to do a three day work

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<v Speaker 1>week will in fact mean you work two days less.

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<v Speaker 1>If you'd prefer to do other things on those days

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<v Speaker 1>and you can afford the pay cut, then this is

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<v Speaker 1>really just a question of how you choose to spend

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<v Speaker 1>your time. But I do think there's something to be

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<v Speaker 1>said for choosing work that's exciting enough that you want

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<v Speaker 1>to work full time. Yes, the financial payoffs are good,

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<v Speaker 1>but even more so, challenging meaningful work can be a

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<v Speaker 1>source of great joy. If that work is flexible enough

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<v Speaker 1>to allow for a full family life too, then that

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<v Speaker 1>really is the best of both worlds. In the meantime,

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<v Speaker 1>this is Laura, Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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<v Speaker 1>the most of our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to

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<v Speaker 1>hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

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<v Speaker 1>and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's B the number four,

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<v Speaker 1>an email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot

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<v Speaker 1>com that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much, I look forward to staying in touch.

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