Moment: 5 Reasons Part-Time Fails, and How to Fix Them

Going part-time might seem like the solution to burnout and imbalance, but without specific strategies in place, it often makes things worse by cutting your pay while you continue working the same hours. We explore why so many part-time arrangements fail and the key skills needed to make flexible work actually work for you.

• Holding boundaries is essential - without them, you'll work unpaid hours and experience guilt in both directions
• Learning to disconnect mentally prevents work from following you during personal time
• Developing focus skills is crucial as workloads rarely decrease proportionally with hours
• Emotional awareness helps prevent "vomiting" work stress onto family and friends
• Perfectionism and procrastination become even bigger problems with reduced hours
• Success in part-time work requires setting guilt-free boundaries around your decisions

If this resonated with you, share it with a friend who needs to hear it today, and don't forget to subscribe to Balance and Beyond for full episodes and more of these bite-sized breakthroughs.

Thank you for joining us today on the Balance and Beyond Podcast. We're so glad you carved out this time for yourself!

If you’re keen to dive deeper into our world, here are our socials where you can discover more about the toolkit that has helped thousands of women create a life of balance.

Website: www.balanceinstitute.com
Podcast Website: https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
Email: [e-mail]
LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betterbalanceinstitute/
Instagram: @betterbalanceinstitute

Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the Balance & Beyond Podcast!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Balance and Beyond Moments.
Your weekly dose of insight,wisdom and mindset shifts all in
10 minutes or less, whetherit's a powerful truth, a fresh
perspective or a spark ofinspiration, this is your space
to pause, reflect and reset.
Let's dive in.
Don't go part time.

(00:26):
I know you think it might bethe answer to getting better
balance and stopping burnout andlooking after your health, but
I promise you, unless you putsome specific strategies in
place, it is only going to makethings worse.
Now, before you try to burn meat the stake, I'm a big
supporter of flexibility andmaking sure that work and life

(00:50):
are all in balance.
However, I have seen time andtime again that unless you
understand what really happenswhen you go part-time, you are
setting yourself up for failure.
The reason most people want togo part-time is they feel like
life is completely out of whack.
Working too much, crazy hours,too much stress overwhelm your

(01:12):
relationships with kids breakingdown.
Same goes relationships withpartner.
No time for you, healthsuffering and in all of this
mess, it feels like the onlyoption.
The only thing that can reallygive is work.
The kids don't go back.
Most people would like to staymarried or with their partners.
You know there's life admin.

(01:34):
Kids still need to be taken tosport and dropped off and fed.
So, in a world where it feelslike there is no other choice,
it feels like work is the onething that has to drop choice.
It feels like work is the onething that has to drop.
Now, in my experience, there arefive key reasons why part-time
is not going to work for you.
To be clear, part-time willwork if you solve all of these.

(01:59):
So I'm going to run you throughthese five reasons why I have
seen, time and time again,countless, countless reasons and
examples about part-timedoesn't work, so let me share
with them, with you.
Now, to clarify when I saydoesn't work, what I mean is
that it's not working for you.
And as I go through all ofthese examples, you're going to

(02:21):
see what I mean.
So one of the first reasonsthat part-time work is not going
to be successful is if youhaven't learned how to hold
boundaries yet, and by this Imean you've dropped your days or
you've reduced your hours andyet you are still working in the
time that you are not meant tobe, that you're not being paid

(02:44):
for it.
So all you've done?
Let's say you go from five daysto four and think I need to get
some space for me.
I need to get thoseappointments in.
Well, if you are working onthose days in any way, shape or
form, you've just dockedyourself 20% pay.

(03:04):
And what's even worse is thatwhen you do do some work on your
day off that usually you aredoing other things, whether it's
childcare arrangements orwhatever else you then feel
guilty about it because you knowyou shouldn't be working and
maybe your partner goes nuts atyou because, like, this is your
day off, you shouldn't beworking.
Or you feel guilty because youdon't want to let the team down
and you feel bad because you'vehad a day off and other people

(03:27):
are working and you're lettingyou know you're not getting to a
deadline or the team needs you.
So you have this constant pullfor oh my God, it's urgent, they
need me.
And the time that is meant tobe boundaried for you, which is
the reason why you're notworking on that day or
boundaried for the kids, whichis the reason why you're not
working on that day, orboundaried for the kids, or
whatever it is that you'vechosen to do with your time,

(03:49):
ends up being draped in shameand guilt, and nobody wants that
and that's not fun, and this iswhy so many women I know try
part-time and then, because ofthis lack of boundaries, end up
going oh stuff it, I'm going togo back up to full-time, because
at least I'm going to get paidfor the time I'm working.
So you must learn how to holdboundaries and, really

(04:14):
importantly, you also must learnhow to not feel guilt around
your decisions.
Whatever you've chosen, howeveryou want to structure your work
time, hours, locations,whatever it is you've got to be
strong enough to know who youare and to say no in the times
that you're not working.

(04:38):
A second reason that part-timedoesn't work and you'll start to
see that all of these are goingto stack on one another, they
all work together is you haven'tlearnt to disconnect yet.
What this means is that, eventhough you might not be working
on a day when you are nottechnically paid to work, you're

(05:01):
thinking about it on your dayoff and once again you beat
yourself up.
And then let's say that you'vegot kids around you or you're
picking them up.
You then yell at the kidsbecause somebody from work
contacts you who technicallyshouldn't have.
You're angry at them forputting an unreasonable demand

(05:22):
on you and for then having toget on your laptop when you
shouldn't.
Let's say, you go and do thework because you don't have any
boundaries and then you'rethinking about it for the rest
of the day.
I often call this emotionalpollution, when the thinking
just follows you and maybe it'sthe resentment or it's the anger
or it's the frustration thatsomeone's always meant to do it
and now it's left to me.
And even if you're not doingthe work, like right, no, I'm

(05:44):
not going to do it till Monday.
They can wait.
We're not changing lives here.
We're not saving lives.
You think about it all day, youthink about it all weekend and
you worry and you stress and theoverwhelm.
And on Monday, the first thingI'm going to do is this, and
this is what I'm going to say tothat person about my boundary.
And then what happens is thekids come home from school and
drop a water bottle in thehallway and you absolutely lose

(06:08):
it at them because you're stillthinking about work and you
haven't understood your emotionsenough and you're not
emotionally aware so that you,in essence, vomit your emotions
over and you're not emotionallyaware so that you, in essence,
vomit your emotions over anybodywho happens to bump into you.
And this is when we're carryingwork with us and we don't know
how to be present and enjoy thisday off whether it's a day off

(06:31):
to spend with children, whetherit's a day off to spend with
family or even sometimes a dayoff for you, when we aren't
holding boundaries and wehaven't learned to disconnect.
Another reason that part-timedoesn't work is because you
haven't learned to focus yet.
When most people I know drop aday it's pretty rare that their

(06:54):
workload drops by anything closeto 20% and this is another
piece that we'll come to andwhat often happens on those days
is that they usually pick upother stuff because they've got
quote unquote more time, whetherit's having a child not in
daycare, whether it's they'regoing to help out.

(07:17):
Maybe part of them not workingis they want to volunteer their
time, so they pick up more stuff.
Or, from a relationshipperspective, it's like look,
I'll go part-time because we'renot coping as a family and I'll
take the dog to the vet and I'lldo the groceries.
And so they're going and doingall these extra things when work
hasn't dropped and while theirperfectionist is still ruling

(07:40):
the roost, and if they don'tknow how to tame their
procrastinator.
They will spend this day andothers jumping from task to task
and then feeling even morebehind because now they've got
even more staff on.
And so the idea is that ifyou've dropped your hours in
whatever capacity, all right,well, I'm only going to work

(08:04):
four days and I've got three tofocus on the family or on me.
But if you're not able todisconnect and then learn how to
focus on you and either get thestuff that you need to get done
from a life, admin perspectiveor whatever it is that you're
doing, well, everything is goingto bleed and you're going to
have this crazy pollution whereall you've now done is you've
got four days worth of, let'ssay, you're working four days,
you've got four days worth oftabs open from work, and now

(08:27):
you've got three days of tabs ofpersonal stuff.
Maybe you're renovating, maybeyou've got, you know, medical
stuff you've got to do, and soyou have disappointment and that
and you cannot get it all done,and so your focus is completely
dispersed and then you end uprunning around like a headless
chicken, and that is not theidea of part-time work.

(08:47):
Part-time work is meant to beabout balance, but just because
you have more time doesn't meanthat you should allow everything
to take longer.
So this is why focusing is areally, really important skill
that you must develop if youwant to be successful in any
kind of reduced hours.
I mean, generally, this is justa life skill that we need
anyway.
Thanks for taking this momentfor yourself.

(09:12):
If this resonated, share itwith a friend who needs to hear
it today, and don't forget tosubscribe to Balance and Beyond
for full episodes and more ofthese bite-sized breakthroughs.
See you next time.