Page 277 - Introduction to Business

CHAPTER 7 Motivating and Leading Employees 251

Part-Time Work
Most of you have either worked or know someone who has worked part-time. Part- part-time work Work that is permanent
time work is permanent, except the employee agrees with a firm’s management to and in which the employee agrees with
the firm’s management to work for less
work for less than the normal 40 hours per week in the United States or 35 hours per
than the normal 40 hours per week
week in much of Europe. Most part-time jobs comprise 20 hours of work per week.
Employees complete their part-time work by the time the firm closes for the day, as
at a restaurant or grocery store. The major financial drawback in the case of most
part-time work is the area of employee benefits. Most companies do not provide
benefits like retirement programs, or even health insurance coverage, unless the
employee works more than 20 hours per week. Of course, there are exceptions and
certain companies provide health care benefits even to employees who work 10
hours a week.
People work part-time for a number of reasons. Some employees may have fam-
ily members to take care of and therefore are not available to work eight hours each
day. Some are students like you, who may be taking a full load of course work in
college and need to finance their studies. Then there are others who already have a
full-time job, but because of financial obligations, are forced to take a second job,
and part-time is sufficient. Also, there are those who are unable to find a full-time
job, and are therefore compelled to take part-time jobs. Finally, there are a few who
are either relatively well off or who are moving to semiretirement, as the baby boom
generation may be doing in another ten years. These individuals like to keep them-
selves active by working part-time and to spend the rest of the time on leisure.

Work-Share Programs
When two employees have similar professional backgrounds and are highly compati-
ble with one another in terms of work ethic, communication, and organization, they
may team together and share a job—job sharing. People share jobs when two employ-
ees cannot, for personal reasons, take full-time jobs. The advantages of work-share work-share programs Jobs that are
programs are that the job is permanent and yet it also offers the flexibility of part-time permanent and in which two compatible
employees with similar professional
work. As in the case of part-time work, employees in work-share programs may not
background split a job
receive all the benefits, such as pension programs and health insurance coverage, that

To better meet their family
obligations, these two teachers
with similar professional
backgrounds share daily classroom
hours and duties at an elementary
school.

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