What do you think is considered part time work?

[nick]

I did a bit of research on what is considered “part time” work around the world and I n many places there are no strict definitions so employers and employees can agree upon hours and the “part time” title doesn’t hold much weight besides intent.

The US, however, defines anything less than 30 hours as part time and ties the requirement to offer healthcare to full time positions. This of course has opened up a number of exploitative job positions which keeps employees at “almost full time” but offers no benefits.

What is the situation like where you live? How many hours per week is reasonable for you?

(You can read more about my findings here if you’re interested: How Many Hours Is "Part Time"? It's Complicated.)

 

[VickiLanger]

Phenomenal question. I'm currently looking for a part-time job and I wish companies would define this in their job listing. Fulltime work is 40 hours. Apparently some companies are having people work 39 hours and calling it part-time. Personally, I'm looking for something more like 20 to 30 hours.

 

[Sharkie]

I don't know if theres any laws or anything around it in Canada, but from my experience it makes no sense.

Part time basically means you'll work anywhere around 39 hours, which is 5 days by 7.5 hours a day. But whenever you're not needed, you'll get shoved down to 3 days. So it's very inconsistent and rarely ever ends up being actually part time.

 

[JacobHegwood]

I don't know if theres any laws or anything around it in Canada, but from my experience it makes no sense.

Part time basically means you'll work anywhere around 39 hours, which is 5 days by 7.5 hours a day. But whenever you're not needed, you'll get shoved down to 3 days. So it's very inconsistent and rarely ever ends up being actually part time.

Wow. I don't think I could manage something like that. Either work me three days a week consistently or work me five days a week consistently.

 

[Sharkie]

It is a massive pain in the ass. But the real kicker?

Not knowing your next weeks schedule (which starts in Sunday) until FRIDAY.

Y'all, don't work retail marketing/retail anything. It's not worth it.

 

[avena]

Aside from part-time, in LATAM countries there is a common "mid-time" work schedule, that it is supposed to be exactly half of the full-time (usually 40 hrs). So if you work 8 hours a day in full-time, mid-time is 4 hours a day.

The difference from part-time (which is more common for work at restaurants or variable scheduled business) is that mid-time is supposed to be constant; you usually work only in the morning hours, or in the afternoon or evening hours.

In reality, people expect you to work the full 40 hours; bosses simply don't know how to organize the time and they are constantly mad at mid-time employees because they think they are not working as hard as they should.

So people work more hours and get less money.

:(

 

[Gummibeer]

In Germany we have common, and I bet they are manifested in any law, ranges.
So a normal office week is 40h. A lot of companies already try to name it different if you do 36/32h. By law there's a break at 25h it's based on several laws in our social security (health insurance, unemployed protection ...) laws.
A lot in social jobs (kindergarten, school ...) do much more than 40h but it's still named full-time and not double-time or anything. A really increased workamount is starting from 60h. That's also a law point that SHOULD guarantee you more benefits, in reality no one cares about it and there are tons of companies not paying the minimum and require you to work >40h.

So a common definition of part-time is 25-32h/week.

 

[LividJay]

Part-time was good for me as a teenager working in retail. I could get extra hours/money when possible. It worked well with my school schedule and while I was going to higher education. I didn't need health/benefits back then because I was still living at home. In that sense, working 39 or even 40 hours (which I did at times), but still being considered part time, made sense.

 

[Mike Rees]

Here in the UK the part time/full time barrier is 30 hours. For full time positions employers have to make NI contributions for their employees. From what I gather in retail and hospitality there's a lot of gaming around this point, where the only people who get above 30 hours are people who show management potential. I work 35 hours a week which is a standard full time duration, that's with an hour's unpaid lunch and 2 15 minute paid breaks for a 9-5 job.

Though if you ask my dad part time is anything below 45 hours a week 😂