Working part time or 3 days per week.

UnixGuy · June 2015

Is that even achievable? It might be just wishful thinking from my part, but is it possible to be doing a senior IT role and doing it just 3 times a day or just part time (20hrs per week)?

Has anyone here done that? Do you know of anyone who did that?

techfiend · June 2015

The systems engineer consultant I work with rarely puts in 20 a week but once put in 50, many projects. He's salaried but no benefits at a smb. It's not a great salary but he gets by and it's above market per hour.

I'd really enjoy that type of setup working 30-32 hours a week and treated as fulltime. In most situations I think I can replace an average 40 hour employee.

UnixGuy · June 2015

That's really nice! So working with an SMB and having some kind of an agreement with them is one way of doing it?

techfiend · June 2015

In his case I think consulting is the main thing, employer no longer has to pay unemployment and benefits while the consultant gets more control in the contract negotiations. Prior to this he was a fulltime employee there but the company wanted to reduce his salary so they came to an agreement. He was working around 30 hours when I started but I've been doing a lot of his work.

I know a systems analyst that works 3x 8-10 hour days a week, salaried employee with benefits for a national bank. His was an agreement after putting in a few years. I know a few others that work for this bank in their hq's and management is very lenient and understanding.

N2IT · June 2015

UnixGuy

Not on a week by week case. I know some people (principal's) who sometimes work 10 hours a week and other times 70. i don't think those position are that available, unless you are working in a overnight weekend NOC or something quirky operationally. Maybe the SMB like the other poster mentioned could work, I've seen it in an MSP, without benefits.

Back to the Principal position. He would literally take off 3 months a year, in the summer and would only help out with RFP's or Website design / UI / UX work efforts. Everything else he was a no go. But he was legit, had 20 years as a director for Cap Gemini at a very young age. He's now in his early 40's so it took him a while. Sorry I couldn't of been of more help with this. I am interested in hearing some responses as well.

shodown · June 2015

find a work from home job. Learn how to code. Automate as much of your job as you can. You won't be able to get away with this forever, but you can just switch up jobs as the other job catch on.

I have a friend that works as a cisco consultant from home. He does about a weeks worth of work in a day in a half due to his python, VB and Excel skills.

Nervous Interviewer · June 2015

I came here to say there is some hope for you. A good buddy of mine works from home most days out of the week, but he is coding though. There are position like this for us, working from home or a tenuous schedule. You may be working 10 hours one week and another 40 plus hours the other. Depending on your skill set and how much you can sell yourself at your current job or future jobs, it is possible to swing this. Hopefully, you are up for a challenge to convince others you desire this.

Other than that, there is the flex days that is becoming quite popular. Every other Friday off or half days on Friday. Once again, depending on how much upper management likes you, you may get more freedom than others. Buddy of mine usually takes a day off every other week off and comes in kind of on his own schedule and doesn't make it up in the afternoon if nothing goes wrong.

UnixGuy · June 2015

I feel like I could've achieved this type of agreement with my last employer, but I then I went and changed jobs (stupid).

Something else I was thinking of, maybe contracting for few months and taking few months off? My idea is that I can live with half my salary if I can get to work half the hours/months. Perhaps I need to plan this more. Maybe skilling up more and trying out freelancing.

Working part time or 3 days per week.

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