I am working part-time for an employer right now. I have switched between full-time, to part-time, to full-time, to part time again. The change to reduce my hours, and this time, my pay rate was not something I asked for directly, but I seem to be making it.

I had previously advocated to get bumped back up to full-time so I could be approved for my Tesla loan, which I did, and nearly a year later, the pandemic started and I was reduced down to part time again, but you know it is pretty freeing. (Anyways, my goal of getting the car was achieved.)

Because I am a skilled worker, I get paid $30 per hour (it used to amount to a higher hourly rate), so I can live off of part-time wages. Because of the pandemic, I was able to put my foot down and work from home mostly, so I was okay with the small pay reduction.

Since I have more time to myself, I get to take care of myself better as a whole person. I can sleep in and wake up mostly when I want (there are two days a week I do need an alarm though). I can jump in the shower when I need to rinse off. I can eat when I want. I can cook my own food in my own picky ways in my own kitchen. I don’t waste time driving and sitting in traffic so much anymore. I feel more in control of my life, by controlling my schedule.

I can also work to gear my freelance design business back up. I used to solely do that for money, before I worked for this current company. I have to work a bit more on this aspect, as I now need to earn enough to chip into that Tesla car loan.

I can also work on my art show, and my arts and crafts. (This is a bit of a back-burner thing as my house renovations are underway.)

As you can see, the quality of life is good. I am happy, well-rested, making enough to live. I still think I am a valuable person to myself and society. My value as a human-being is not derived from my work status.

There are many ways that society might shun or belittle a part time employee. For instance, employers tend to treat their part time employees as less valuable, when they provide great value. Employers often do not offer health insurance or vacation time to part time employees, although, part-time employees are people too and deserve these things all the same. Part-time employees offer employers their skills, time, and talent on a reliable basis, and at rates that are cheaper than contractors (while not getting those benefits). Since the employee is part-time, the employer does not have to shell out money of a full time employee rate (I used to make $65k a year, now it may be $25k, so you can see the savings to to company). It is like the employer gets the best of having an employee, with minimal consequences of having an employee.

Again, I do like the control of my life schedule and my work schedule, so I am benefiting from this too. Probably one of the toughest things for me is to get used to the lesser income level. I used to be able to buy things on a whim, without even checking my account balances, but now I need to really think about it; I almost became obsessive making a year long decision if I could afford a new dishwasher, comparing model features and prices, looking for the right model on sale, trying to figure out why a dishwasher was so important to me. The issue would not have been an issue when I was a full-time employee; probably the only thing would be finding the time to browse for the machine, and scheduling the delivery.

So, when you are looking for a job, but you still have a lot of living to do, going part-time might be the right option. Don’t take your value from your employment arrangement. Do what is right for your life.

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