The Trade-Offs Of Going Part Time

If you’re a new reader and not familiar with my backstory, in a nutshell I became financially independent in my mid-40’s and went down to 20 hours a week at my W2 job.  I now spend the newly freed 20 hours a week living a more fulfilled life doing the things I want, whether they pay money or not.

I’ve done a few updates about my job after going part time.  But now that I’m more than 2.5 years into this experiment I’ve had the time and space to form some more informed positions about going part time.  Going part time has mostly been a very positive experience, but like anything in life it has trade-offs.  

Keep in mind that my job situation is one of a white collar professional in a typical office setting.  Some of the trade-offs I discuss in this post might not apply to all jobs, especially more blue collar jobs.

 

Lower Salary

 

This is kind of a “duh..” thing, but needs to be stated anyway.  I work 20 hours a week, and thus I collect half of my salary.  Being that I’m already well past my FI number according to the 4% guideline I didn’t have to do any calculations to check if it was possible.  I can fully stop working and should be fine, for the rest of my life.  

But once you get used to a bi-weekly paycheck of a certain amount, those first part time paychecks do come as a bit of a shocker.  I remember thinking, “oh yeah, this is what is what like when I used to earn this much for full-time work”. 

Bottom line, having your paycheck cut in half does take some getting used to from a mental perspective.  It’s kind of like traveling back in time to when you were in the earlier stages of your career.

 

Some Reduced Benefits

This is one that will be very specific to a particular company or job.  I work for the Federal Government and going down to half time for the most part is very simple when it comes to my benefits.  Many are simply cut in half, fair enough.  I get half of the sick leave and vacation leave that I used to. 

One of the bigger reduced benefits is my healthcare.  I get to keep my healthcare plan which is one of the reasons I stay part time, but I have to pay more for it. 

It may come as a shock to most who think we Feds have the best benefits in the world, but we don’t.  For full time Federal employees the government covers 72% of the cost of the healthcare plan, and the employee pays the remaining 28%.  Most of my friends in the private sector do not pay a dime for the cost of their plan, while we Feds pay thousands out of pocket per year just to have the plan. 

Now that I’m part time it’s even worse for me.  Since I’m half-time I have to pay for half of the governments share, meaning another 36%.  So in the end I’m now paying 64% of the cost of my plan, while Uncle Sam is picking up the remaining 46%.  To me it’s still way better than being stuck with a high-deductible plan on the ACA, with the uncertainty of it’s existence going forward.

On the good side I still get my full life insurance benefit which is twice my salary (my official salary is still my full salary).  Other benefits like long-term disability haven’t changed for me. 

 

Less Social Interaction

*I wrote this post before the pandemic, so this section is now even more pertinent…

I’ve been at my agency for over 24 years and I have quite a few good friends there.  I’m a tad introverted on the Myers-Briggs scale so I’m not the biggest social butterfly at work, but I do enjoy these friendships. 

Since reducing my hours to 20 a week I obviously see these people way less and have become more distanced from most of them.  One person in particular is a closer friend than the others and we’ve purposely made the effort to connect outside of work more often to compensate.  I did some running races with him last year and hope to do them again this year. 

But overall most of my longtime work friendships have weakened.  With intention and effort this can be mitigated, but as an introvert it’s not my top priority.

 

Being Marginalized

Prior to going part time I was a senior level manager with over 70 employees under me and a large budget.  I sometimes made big and important decisions that helped guide the future technology of my agency.  I had influence. 

When I spoke at meetings and gave my opinion, people listened.  I moved up very rapidly in my career, and some referred to me as a “golden child”.

I gave most of that up when I went part time.  But as important as my old position sounds, in reality I spent most of my time doing useless bureaucratic tasks that shouldn’t exist. 

So it’s easy to harp on the loss of influence and lament my new marginalized status, but I constantly remind myself to remember the bad times too and the useless crap that came along with my old position. 

 

Less External Validation

These days most of my fellow influencers at work see me as less serious about my career and frankly not as important.  I’m okay with that.  I won many awards in my career, but none since I went part time.  I’m okay with that too. 

But I’d caution you dear reader to give this consideration in your own situation before you decide to go part time. 

This is a big deal for many, and you have to do some serious mental reflection to decide if you will indeed be okay with this.  Many of us want to believe we don’t care what others think about us but in the end we do, and far more than we’d like to admit. 

If you’re the kind of person who needs to collect gold stars at work and demands external validation, going part time might not be for you.  It depends on your career field and company, but I cannot emphasize the importance of this too much.  Do the self-reflection before you pull the trigger. 

Professional prestige is a precious thing to many, and losing it could be more impactful than you imagine.  I’m very proud of the work I’ve done in my career, but I’ve (mostly) come to terms with letting it go.

 

I’m Less Sharp

I did a whole post on this so I won’t rehash it all here.  My technical acumen related to work and public speaking skills have atrophied since I went part time.  This is something that can be mitigated, if desired.

 

Perspective

Even with these trade-offs I still love being part time.  It’s a great way to stay engaged in my industry and keep many of my benefits, but with less stress and more free time. 

It’s allowed me to have a taste of what being fully retired is like.  I’m home three weekdays every week, and unless you’ve done that you might not really know the feeling of going to the grocery store at 10 o’clock on a Tuesday.  The world just operates differently at those times, and I get to sample that. 

Yes, it’s as awesome as you’re probably imagining it to be. 

My part-time schedule hasn’t solved all of my problems in life and I still sometimes get stressed out like anyone else.  When this happens I try to re-frame the situation.  I try to remind myself that I have it good, that I’m reaping the rewards of the hard work I’ve done in life, and the good decisions I’ve made. 

So instead of getting pissed while sitting in traffic on the way back from mountain biking (which is pretty much every time), I try to say “Dude, it’s noon on a Thursday, and you might be stuck in traffic but you just went mountain biking on a Thursday morning while everyone else is at work.  You get to be stuck in traffic at noon on a Thursday, with your bike in the back of your car”

Like anything in life it’s all about perspective and how you want to see things.

Your turn – have you considered going part time as a way to ease into retirement?