Comments | eyelid: and another thing

eyelid

and another thing

Feb 16, 2023 10:14

I have been thinking about it and I don't know why it never occurred to me before how nonsensical the terms "full time" and "part time" are in the legal field. Because firms don't work on the 40 hour work week. They go by billable hour requirements. And those can be radically different from firm to firm ( Read more... )

Comments 4

miss_ljv February 16 2023, 16:54:05 UTC

My work is mostly dependent on other groups - they have a need, and I guide them through it and make their shit sound clear and professional and prevent embarrassment. Because of that, my "work" time varies WILDLY. Sometimes there's an intense crunch and I'm working 14-hour days for a couple of weeks, and other times, like now, when I'm about to go on maternity leave anyway, I really only have like an hour's worth of work a day. I tried explaining this to my stepdad, and he was, I kid you not, almost ANGRY and said they can't justify having me on as a worker because I'm not filling an equal 40 hours per week. I said basically the same thing you did - we arbitrarily decide those numbers as a society that loves to do dumb things without a truly good reason (aka time prisons), and I look at it as I have 8 hours a day to DO work, not 8 hours a day I HAVE to fill.

andrewducker February 17 2023, 14:12:08 UTC

The big thing about 40-hours, is that working much beyond that actually causes efficiency to drop, to the point where you're getting less done overall despite working longer hours.

So 40-hours is about the most that you can work, sensibly.

eyelid February 22 2023, 23:00:29 UTC

My vague recollection is that studies have shown that productivity falls off way before 40 hours.

smittenbyu February 17 2023, 16:19:32 UTC

yes!!! We are advertising for a job as part time and it's 30 hours a week. And while we don't do billable hours, etc. It's still makes no sense. I could see 15-20 hours as part time. But anything over is a bigger commitment. We do offer full-time benefits for anyone over 29+hours/week. So, call it a full time position?! ugh... it's such an arbitrary thing.

For my boss, he equate full time to mean commitment to one employer. So, if suddenly fires happen, they/we are available to put it out. I don't know if I am completely convinced about that. If we are unable to pay them a fair wage, then we can't expect that form of commitment. *shrugs* folks have bills to pay and different priorities.