Article for Cynopsis email newsletter WHAT IF YOU'RE ASKED TO GO PART TIME? By Mark Levine Most businesses act as if jobs become extinct overnight: keeping a full timer in a position until it makes no economic sense, and then firing the individual and eliminating the job. Increasing numbers of businesses in today’s environment are embracing a more graduated approach: turning a full-time job into a part time position. While it is certainly less traumatic for the employee in the short term than immediate termination, the long-term effect really is the same. Few employees are in any position to absorb such a dramatic cut in their earned income. A handful who are devoted to their job, for one reason or another, may look to find another part time job to make up for the difference in pay. However the odds of finding a job that fits the newly abbreviated schedule are long. Most will simply use the free time to look for another full-time job. Employers understand that's the likely outcome. They’re simply trying to get the best of both worlds: cutting the cost of the job but keeping someone of proven capability in the position for as long as possible. Trying to argue the company out of the move is wasted time and effort. No matter how logical or pragmatic your points they'll be viewed as self-serving and ignored. And if they desperately wanted to keep you as an individual they would have fired someone else and moved you into the open place. Instead, follow their lead and try to have your cake and eat it too. Explain that this move is, in effect, a termination, and ask for a severance package. But add that you're willing to help them out by filling in as a part timer for as long as they need you up until you land a new position. Your part time pay, however long it lasts, can serve as a good supplement to your severance.
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