This morning one of our national TV stations posted a brief discussion re the trends of part time workers and asked what people thought
about the government’s proposal on enforcement of 20 hour week employment.
One of the commentators was a recruitment company specialising in part time employment. The other an “entrepreneur” and they were both at
opposite ends of the spectrum when pointing out their views on whether they felt part-time working was viable for business. Both were female, by the way so the bias was
definitely not a feminist one.
London jobs on offer in our office are predominantly fulltime. We do get asked to fill part-time roles for job share roles (in this instance hours are not flexible) or where
a professional service is offered and does not need the employee to be sitting at the desk 5 days per week. For example an Accountant .
I think most employers are still scared of offering part time work as their feeling is that the client/ customer will suffer as we are living in a deadline driven work
culture whereby if a last minute request is made , it needs to be completed in order to offer excellent customer service and also be competitive in a tight economy. It’s a shame
really but I think we have a long way to go before London jobs embraces the part- time culture fully.