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Would senior engineers be interested in working reduced hours or part time?

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Re: Would senior engineers be interested in working reduced hours or part time?

#33

Post by dataflow »

iso1631 wrote: post #28
dataflow wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry if this is a dumb question but would your friends not still be working 8h/day? How would having 4h/day help see your friends? Did all of you manage to cut it down to 4h/day?!

Kids leave school at 8am, get back at 3pm A traditional job would be 7am - up, breakfast 8am - leave home 9am - get into office 5pm - leave office 6pm - get home, see kids 7pm - make + eat dinner 8pm - chores (washing, gardening, etc) 9pm - hobbies / friends start 11pm - bed a 4 hour day 7am - up, breakfast 8am - start work 12pm - stop work, chores 1pm - hobbies start 3pm - kids back 5pm - cook/eat dinner 6pm - hobbi…

Wow cool! Thanks for sharing.

Re: Would senior engineers be interested in working reduced hours or part time?

#34

Post by speed_spread »

disambiguation wrote: post #20

> we're not so much looking for contractors/freelancers to work on specific projects, but for an experienced senior engineer .. to join a team and essentially be a guru or advisor to the team. So, a consultant?

Consultants in technical work are quite often cannon fodder, this is not the case here.

Re: Would senior engineers be interested in working reduced hours or part time?

#35

Post by Jtsummers »

colinmhayes wrote: post #29

I do think the biggest obstacle to part time work in the US is that health care is tied to employment. Health insurance can easily cost $20k+ a year for a family, and it'll be hard for employees to stomach the salary cut they might have to take to make the numbers work.

You can still get health insurance while working part-time, it's just not required by law. Put it into your contract, someone going for a role like this poster seems interested in would be able to negotiate that into their contract if it wasn't there from the start.

Re: Would senior engineers be interested in working reduced hours or part time?

#36

Post by deepsquirrelnet »

jrib wrote: post #17
deepsquirrelnet wrote: post #13

I’m considering quitting engineering altogether due to chronic burnout. I suspect I’m not the only one. I would love a part time position that gives me recovery time, and I would happily take the reduced pay that comes with it.

Do you know what you'll be doing instead?

Quite honestly, if I had figured it out, I would probably already be doing it. Technician type work has a certain appeal to me, but it’s intimidating to be two feet into a career, supporting dependents and trying to decide with certainty what is a better option.

I wish I had more insights to offer, because I personally know quite a few people struggling with burnout as well. Their solutions and mine so far have been just to switch jobs and hope to find a more favorable environment.

Re: Would senior engineers be interested in working reduced hours or part time?

#39

Post by BadCookie »

I’m considering it. Gumroad is the main example I can think of where they hire for 20-25 hours per week. It’s easier to find places that hire for 32 hours per week (a 4- or 4.5-day work week). For the latter, I am concerned that the companies end up expecting basically the same output (i.e., it’s a hiring marketing gimmick) since the positions are salaried. I saw one company that said they manage their 4-day weeks by working 10 hours per day! (At least they were honest.) Another company said that they have a 4-day work week (M-Th), but then mentioned that Fridays are great for getting “focused work” done. So I guess what they really mean is that they don’t have meetings on Fridays.

In summary: Yes, I’m interested, but skeptical of many of the places that claim to offer this unless the pay is hourly.

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