I’m the bloody .5
9 Mar 2011
In discussions about ‘working families’ as we are now all calling them, the key assumptions are that the male person in the family works full time and the female person works part-time. Usually half time. This is not the way it is in a large number of households, but when describing ‘working families’ it is usually what is implied
'Working' from home
It is also misleading. As you know ‘working mothers’ work ALL THE TIME, not just when they are being paid for it. However, we digress. The half-time part-time is usually expressed in HR land (where they care deeply about how these things are expressed) as .5. This simplifies things for the poor payroll people who, at least this way, have half a chance of actually paying you for the hours you work.
I will be paid to work half the standard hours. Standard hours for the public service are 0830 to 1651 or seven hours and twenty one minutes, with an hour for lunch for five days. Yes, it’s true – four fifty one. If you’ve ever seen old footage of Canberra, you will have seen the traffic jam in the Parliamentary Triangle, as all the public servants drive out of the car parks together – after having worked their seven-twenty-one. My regular hours will be eighteen hours and forty two minutes per week. And woe betide me if I forget to work those extra two minutes. I will actually be working slightly more, by twenty two minutes, than half-time. Leaving this little anomaly to one side, I will be working .5 of the standard hours. It is of course, a cliché of epic proportions to be the .5 and here I am, exactly that. I’m the point-bloody-five. Everything’s lovely and a one and a two and a three …
Being the point-bloody-five has its advantages. I will miss the staff meetings. I will not be there to donate to at least half the latest school fund raising thingys. I will miss at least half the morning teas. Being the point-bloody-five also means that I will be working to pay the childcare fees and the cleaner. So while I am off being a ‘working mother’ some other ‘working mothers’ are cleaning my house and looking after my child. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Are you the .5? Or are you the breadwinner? What’s working for you and yours?
May 24, 2011 @ 22:46:01
.5 and proud. Although have been reminded more times than I care (ie. more than once) that “you’re only part time” somehow implying that this means that I am incapable of doing anything really useful, and can only make a worthwhile contribution by fully committing to 5 days. Not happy Jan. Although very happy to be able to toddle off mid-week in the knowledge that worktime woes can take a back seat for 48 hours… my Wednesday weekend as it is starting to feel. Power to us I say.
May 25, 2011 @ 20:32:43
Us .5-ers have to stick together!
Every day we add value. Every day we dismantel a tiny piece of the walls of discrimination against working part-time and the ‘mummy-track’.
After all, ask anyone with a baby how much they can get done in a sleep cycle – a lot!
xo
May 04, 2011 @ 15:55:38
How come I didn’t see this one earlier. I am not the bloody 0.5, I am the bloody white picket fence full time stay at home bloody John Howard fantasy mother who needs some valium! I hate being a conservatives wet dream. I hate that no matter how we all try and do it, it is so hard. I am a lazy SAHM with a cleaner – although right now without because I have been too lazy to call to get a new one in the land of the free and the undocumented workforce.
I am wishing you well – and hoping B and the rest of you stop getting sick so you can actually get to work sometimes.
Love M xx
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Mar 11, 2011 @ 12:08:43
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Mar 09, 2011 @ 23:50:18
I am doing 2 shorter days. My husband is full time plus. We don’t get paid for his hours talking internationally on the phone or Skype at all bloody hours of the day, nor for the weekends we miss because he always travels on a Sunday morning. Grrr. All jobs have their perks, don’t they? Good luck with it all, hope it goes smoothly for you. And I hope for a cleaner too one day!
Mar 11, 2011 @ 12:19:31
Our cleaner saves us. Just gives me a little bit of breathing space. Saves arguments too. There is still work to do of course, but it is easier.