Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#1

Post by statik » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 9:36 PM UTC

Hi! I've been working in technology for a long time, 20 years since I started my own little company in high school. For the last 6 years I've been privileged to work from home, mostly on open source software. This has involved a lot of travel and a LOT of hours of work per week, and the glamour of the dream career is fading. I want to simplify my life, cut my expenses, and work 2 or 3 days per week so that I can spend more time with my wife and daughter doing volunteer work and making a difference in the world. Everything I have learned about starting my own company or working at other companies points to making lots of money while working constantly, not making a small amount of money while working less. It seems like starting my own company is the only option, because every high tech company I've ever worked for wants people to work full time, and never hires part-timers.

Has anyone successfully moved to part time work, or started a company that allowed them to work 1000 hours a year instead of over 2000 hours a year?

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#2

Post by wccrawford » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 9:46 PM UTC

Yes, it's called 'contracting'.

No employer is going to let you work part time. There's a lot of time and expense involved in finding and maintaining programmers, and they'd rather have a full-timer instead.

As for starting your own company, those always take more time than a full-time job if you want to make any money.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#3

Post by mgkimsal » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 9:47 PM UTC

There are part-time gigs out there, but ime they're pretty rare, and afforded to people who've been with a company a while and 'earned' the right to the flexible working situation. Everyone else if f/t or contract.

I think you do need to move to freelance/contract work, and be firm in how you structure your work agreements. If it's MTW, with Th-Sun off, be up front about that. You'll be able to find gigs where they just need you 5-10 hours per week. Get 2-3 of those, work your time, then take time off - you should be good to go.

Most of those part-time gigs may not pay as well as f/t work, but you're looking for the time freedom, not maximized revenue anyway, right?

http://indieconf.com might be useful for you to attend, with respect to getting started in freelancing. We don't specifically have anything on 'going part time', but I'm sure some of the sessions can address that.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#4

Post by patio11 » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 9:49 PM UTC

Yes, I work part-time essentially all the time these days. (I run a small software business and consult on the side, average 20 hours or so a week, and take off pretty much any day I feel like.) If I wanted to, I could sustain this lifestyle indefinitely.

I'm told that many consultants do something like this. If full-utilization for a consultant is $200,000 (and that is by no means a ceiling), then 50% still puts your household in a pretty decent place to be. There exist some consulting opportunities where you can schedule arbitrary amounts of work over long time scales -- I have one client relationship where, if I wanted to bill four hours on Monday and four hours on Tuesday and then never touch the keyboard again, he'd be thrilled by that. There are other opportunities if you want to parachute in, work for two weeks, and then get back to living.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#5

Post by patio11 » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 9:57 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #2

Yes, it's called 'contracting'. No employer is going to let you work part time. There's a lot of time and expense involved in finding and maintaining programmers, and they'd rather have a full-timer instead. As for starting your own company, those always take more time than a full-time job if you want to make any money.

No employer is going to let you work part time.

Stop thinking like an engineer and start thinking like a lawyer: this, like everything else in your contract and HR handbook, is ultimately negotiable. I mean, heck, my day job put it on the table while trying to prevent me from leaving, and I was a Japanese salaryman. (They had a couple of offers -- another one involved more work and less pay.)

Any particular company may be more committed to full time employment than a Japanese megacorp, but I strongly doubt (and have personal knowledge that it is not the case) that all companies are totally committed to full-time only.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#6

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 10:18 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #2

Yes, it's called 'contracting'. No employer is going to let you work part time. There's a lot of time and expense involved in finding and maintaining programmers, and they'd rather have a full-timer instead. As for starting your own company, those always take more time than a full-time job if you want to make any money.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#7

Post by tjr » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 10:23 PM UTC

I work full-time for an avionics company building simulation software. A couple of my co-workers are part-time.

I also work part-time for a startup. In this case, I'm more of a consultant; some weeks I'm very busy, other weeks I might do nothing at all.

Part-time work is out there, but it's not always floating on the top.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#8

Post by Nate75Sanders » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 10:25 PM UTC

Look at university jobs. They even have a special term for it: 50% FTE (Full-Time Equivalent)

I'm 100% FTE at a university right now doing sysadmin/programming/network stuff for a small team and will be moving far away and telecommuting at 50% FTE in a few months.

Like patio11 says, everything is negotiable. Additionally, I did a LOT of networking (the human kind) and it paid off. The guy who hooked me up with this isn't even a tech guy -- he knew people who needed one, though.

EDIT: 50% FTE includes full retirement and health benefits, too, in my situation.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#9

Post by icey » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 10:33 PM UTC

This is definitely possible. When I was consulting, I used to take off between Thanksgiving and New Years Day every year to do nothing but decompress and dick around with whatever new technology had caught my eye.

I had a day job for a little while when I had gotten tired of the constant sales cycle of consulting. They were more than happy to let me go part time because I brought a good plan to the table - I worked 20% less and took a 12% pay cut - they got the benefit of the fact that I was learning new stuff on the day that I wasn't in the office.

Anything is possible, all you have to do is make a plan.

Re: Ask HN: Is it possible to work part time?

#10

Post by TamDenholm » Sat, Oct 02, 2010, 10:34 PM UTC

I'm not sure if this is an option for you but if you average out my hours over the year, i work part time. I'm a contractor, I work 6-8 months of the year full time, and the rest of the time i do what i like.

It does mean i have to be financially disciplined, which thankfully (after learning the hard way) does now come easy to me. It also allows me the flexibility to not be tied down to one location throughout the entire year, which working 2-3 days a week does.