Working moms wonder whether full-time or part-time job best
Julie Ingoglia straps in her son Matthew, 2 1/2, for the ride to day care. She returned to work full time after both her children were born, though she hopes she will be able to reduce her hours once the children are school-age.
Negotiate for benefits, pay in part-time work
First, remember what you’re worth, said Jennifer Folsom, who runs the Northern Virginia office of Momentum Resources (www.mom-entum.com), which places women in flexible and part-time positions.
“You have good value in the industry,” she said. So “think about the things you want and need, and ask for them.”
Start big and negotiate down if the company isn’t willing or able to meet your desires. Emphasize what you’re saving the company by going part time and taking a smaller salary.
If you can’t get full benefits, aim for proportional benefits. If you work an 80 percent schedule with 80 percent of your current salary, you could get 80 percent of your benefits.
Look for alternatives and be creative. If your company can’t pay for your health insurance, offer to stay on the plan but pay the employer contribution – if that’s cheaper than paying for coverage on your own.
Some employers will be reluctant to allow part-time schedules. “Challenge them,” Folsom said. “Be prepared to counter all of their cons.” For example, promise that if you leave at, say, 3 p.m. to greet your children after school, you will be available by cell phone or will check back after dinner and work then. “Address what you think the concerns will be up front.”
Offer a trial period, suggests Donna Klein, president of Corporate Voices for Working Families, a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization. “People are more comfortable agreeing to something on a three-month time frame rather than a year. It gives you a time to pilot it to see if it will work. It usually does.”
I love my new job. It was absolutely the right choice for me.
But – isn’t there always a but? – when I come in to work, I have to leave a little guy at home who has just learned to wave bye-bye with his chubby backward wave. So even though I feel excited about being back at work, I also feel guilty about not having more time with my 9-month-old, Sam.
I wonder: What would be different if I worked 80 percent of the hours I do now?
The idea of working part time entered my mind off and on throughout my six-month maternity leave. Many of my friends in similar situations worried about the same things I did: What would a part-time job do to my career? Would work continue to be gratifying, or would it just be a job where I punched a clock? Would working fewer hours save money in child-care costs, or would I actually earn too little to make ends meet?
And really … does Sam even care?
For those of you who don’t remember, I wrote the careers column for The Washington Post’s Business section. I’ve come back to the paper in a completely new job. The job allows me to work more predictable hours than I did as a daily reporter with a weekly column. That helped me easily make the decision (for now, at least) to work full time.
But the decision isn’t so easy for many women. For those who have a choice, family, finances and career success are all major considerations when settling on a work schedule.
Financial impact
Julie Ingoglia considered working part time after Matthew (2 1/2) and Giovanna (14 months) were born.
But the family’s insurance was covered through her job, and if she cut back on her schedule, her insurance would also be cut back, as would her salary and her leave.
“I returned full time after both kids and pondered it a lot and still do,” said Ingoglia, a senior analyst at the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
Ingoglia, 33, said she might eventually decide to work part time. Before her children were born, she went to graduate school to prepare herself for a job that could let her consult and therefore have a more flexible schedule. She hopes that when the kids are school-age, she can reduce her work schedule so she can be around when they get home.
“The decision was, I’d stay working full time now and reduce hours then,” she said. She and her husband hope that at that point, he will have a higher salary to offset her pay reduction.
Stepping off the linear career path has become so common that it now has a trendy vernacular. It’s not called “going part time” or even “quitting.” It’s “off-ramping.” When it’s time to go back to work and pursue a direct career path, you’re said to be “on-ramping.”
Words aside, the way we work is being redefined, even if the changes are not universal.
Women are “redesigning careers to be a lattice instead of a ladder,” said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute. If you view your career as a ladder and you jump off, Galinsky said, it’s hard to get back on. The idea of a lattice implies more flexibility.
Patricia Fuentes works a 60 percent schedule in public relations at Freddie Mac. She decided to take that route after her first daughter, now 3 1/2, was born.
Nearly half of the employees at Freddie Mac work a nontraditional schedule.
“It’s happening so much more, I think because there are more women in the workplace,” said Debi Gay, human resources senior director at Freddie Mac. “Companies want to keep good people and have to be creative.” More than half of the company’s employees are women.
Setting a budget
Before going part time, women need to take a hard look at their financial situations.
Fuentes, who works part time for Freddie Mac, and her husband created three spreadsheets to help them decide. They analyzed first what life would be like with her working full time and them paying for full-time child care. Then they looked at their budget with her working 60 percent of the time and hiring part-time care.
Finally, they assessed a situation in which Fuentes wouldn’t work for pay at all and would be a full-time mom. The spreadsheets showed that a part-time work schedule was affordable.
“It worked out that it was a financial hit, but we could do it,” Fuentes said.
If you decide to cut back your hours, it doesn’t mean your schedule is fixed for the remainder of your career.
My Sam is at that age when he’s thrilled to see his babysitter walk in the door, and he squeals with delight when his 8-month-old friend, Charlotte, with whom he shares the nanny, shows up in the mornings. But this morning, for the first time, he cried and held his arms up as my husband and I said goodbye.
My heart is in my throat just thinking about it. But for now, this schedule works for us. In a few years, the situation may be different.