Posted: Thursday 14 June 2012
The ‘Shame’ of High-Earning Part-Time Workers
On my way to work this morning, I noticed an intriguing article in the Metro on the rise of the high-flying part time worker, which you can read for yourself on their website.
Whilst part-time workers have always been prevalent there has been a significant increase in the number of part-time workers at senior levels, with figures from the Office of National Statistics revealing that one in ten part-time staff earn over £40,000 per annum.
Despite this it seems that there is still considered to be a significant stigma towards part-time working particularly at a senior level. According to the survey by Timewise, nearly 40% of part-timers earning over £40,000 would ‘never’ refer to themselves as ‘part-time’, as they consider the term to have negative connotations. When earnings reach £75,000, the percentage shoots up to 67%.
As the Metro article rightly points out, part-time work is very often just as beneficial to employers as employees, allowing them to retain highly-valued team members who might otherwise have to leave the business, and reducing costs where there isn’t sufficient need for a full-time member of staff at such a senior level. Similarly, by adopting a flexible attitude to work employers may well attract people that they would otherwise not.
With employees increasingly looking at flexibility in respect of the way that they work my own view is that it won't be too far into the future before the rigid 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday working week becomes the exception rather than the norm.
