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- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!not-for-mail
- From: mbb@keps.com (Maureen Busch)
- Newsgroups: misc.kids
- Subject: Re: Is There A Mommy Track for Technical Professionals?
- Date: 22 Jan 1993 14:23:22 -0600
- Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
- Lines: 37
- Sender: daemon@cs.utexas.edu
- Message-ID: <9301222019.AA13412@cairo.kodak.com>
- References: 1993Jan19.061356.14467@fuug.fi> <1993Jan21.212733.28090@litwin.com
- NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu
-
- In article <1993Jan21.212733.28090@litwin.com> dld@litwin.com (Deanna Delapasse) writes:
-
- ...
- >I'm curious about half-time versus 3 days a week part-time
- >employment. The astronomical day-care prices make part-time
- >unaffordable (you pay full price if you're there at all),
- >but every other day seems tougher on the Mom. What do you
- >think ??
- ...
-
- I worked part-time for a while when my kids were younger, and I worked
- 3 days a week, partly because of the daycare, but also because of
- the commute. It really wasn't so bad doing it that way. I worked
- Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so basically, I would gear up on
- Monday evening to go on auto-pilot for the next 3 days. I found
- working 3 days versus 5 half-days easier because it gave me bigger
- pieces of time to work on my project, since there is always some
- time involved in remembering where you left off and winding down at
- a logical point. Plus, it gave the kids days where we could goof off
- in the morning, and we would have the whole day to do whatever we
- felt like doing.
-
- My time spent on part-time was not nearly as wonderful for my career
- as it was for my home and family life, however. While it is true
- that there are many wonderful companies out there that are supportive
- of these kinds of arrangements, the fact is that it will only work
- for *you* as well as your immediate management allows it to work.
- For me, it meant I only got to work on the things nobody else wanted,
- and I was viewed as not being "dedicated" since I wasn't always there.
- That time did not count at all towards being promoted to the next level.
- It has taken a long time to undo some of those perceptions. It was
- worth it since the time with my kids was wonderful, but I would be
- lying if I claimed I felt no bitterness toward certain individuals
- and their treatment of me. (BTW, I never missed a day of work when
- I was working 3 days/week)
-
- Maureen Busch (mbb@keps.com)
-