The Advantages and Disadvantages of Working Part Time

There are a lot of reasons working part time might make sense: among them, you have more hours in the week to take care of kids or parents, take on freelance work, go back to school. But working part time can stall career advancement, and oftentimes women end up doing a full-time job for half the pay while taking on more responsibilities at home.

We speak with Linda Duxbury about the problems she’s seen some professional women run into when they work part time. She suggests factors to consider before reducing your hours and conversations that can smooth the transition. We also talk to an incredibly organized consultant and mother of three whose part-time schedule hasn’t kept her from getting promoted.

Our HBR reading list:

• “Five Strategies of Successful Part-Time Work,” by Vivien Corwin, Thomas B. Lawrence, and Peter J. Frost
• “The Problem with Part-Time Work Is That It’s Rarely Part-Time,” by Laura Vanderkam
• “The Case of the Part-Time Partner,” by Gary W. Loveman
• “What Happens When All Employees Work When They Feel Like It,” by Freek Vermeulen

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Email us: womenatwork@hbr.org

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.