I live in a culture where working part-time (even among people who are healthy and are not parents, and have comfortable office jobs) is quite common. I sometimes feel that I need to justify myself that I choose to work full time. People talk about their vacations and hobbies all the time. That can trigger FOMO, but I do a lot of fun things myself too. My bar for unpaid leave is high (twice in my career a month in between jobs to find a new place and move).
Reducing my work hours from 40 to 32 would increase my happiness slightly but reduce my donation budget by a lot. I DO feel obliged to maintain my ability to work 40 hours. It is sustainable for me. Sometimes I struggle to work 40 hours and I feel bad about myself. As long as this recovers quickly, it’s fine.
I DO NOT feel obligated to work more than 40 hours on my day job. Why:
cultural reasons
overworking is discouraged by my colleagues
longer presence at work does not make pay rises and promotions more likely
I tried and failed: experienced productivity loss and other issues when I worked more.
Note: for me “being the change I want to see” is actually working 40 hours rather than 32, given the circumstances I am in. YMMV.
Yes, but at a different margin.
I live in a culture where working part-time (even among people who are healthy and are not parents, and have comfortable office jobs) is quite common. I sometimes feel that I need to justify myself that I choose to work full time. People talk about their vacations and hobbies all the time. That can trigger FOMO, but I do a lot of fun things myself too. My bar for unpaid leave is high (twice in my career a month in between jobs to find a new place and move).
Reducing my work hours from 40 to 32 would increase my happiness slightly but reduce my donation budget by a lot. I DO feel obliged to maintain my ability to work 40 hours. It is sustainable for me. Sometimes I struggle to work 40 hours and I feel bad about myself. As long as this recovers quickly, it’s fine.
I DO NOT feel obligated to work more than 40 hours on my day job. Why:
cultural reasons
overworking is discouraged by my colleagues
longer presence at work does not make pay rises and promotions more likely
I tried and failed: experienced productivity loss and other issues when I worked more.
Note: for me “being the change I want to see” is actually working 40 hours rather than 32, given the circumstances I am in. YMMV.