Full Time Vs. Part Time
Carolyn McHugh, MD, MPH, who was hired by Overlake Hospital when she was pregnant and finishing her residency, always planned to go back to work after giving birth to her daughter, but on a part-time basis. “I had to work pretty hard to find part-time work,” she says.
Aside from a few months of working full time while she was pregnant with her second child and her husband was out of work, Dr. McHugh continues to work part-time. She gets paid a little more per shift but doesn’t have benefits. When she was out on maternity leave, it was unpaid leave.
Her boss will frequently ask if she wants to switch to full time, but Dr. McHugh, who has a 3 1/2-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son, is content to decline. There are days now when she doesn’t see her children at all due to work, and her daughter’s cooperative preschool requires considerable hands-on involvement from parents.
“Maybe when my kids are in school, I’ll do it, but really, I don’t know,” she says. “I feel like I’m really lucky where I’m at. I have an employer who is concerned about my well-being, and the opportunity exists to move to full time.”
The decision about whether to work full time or part time must start with finances, explains Jennifer Owens, director of the Working Mother Research Institute in New York City. If a working mom can afford to work fewer hours, there are a number of factors that should go into the decision, including:
- Level of involvement with children;
- Impact on earning potential;
- Prospects for promotions and other career opportunities;
- Effect on relationship with spouse;
- Ability to switch to full-time work down the road;
- Level of support from family and spouse; and
- Impact on health benefits.
“It’s just a cost-benefit analysis where the costs and the benefits involve your baby,” Owens says. “You know the work environment that you’re in; you know the family environment. … Only you know all the factors.”
From the start of her pregnancy, Dr. Gilley knew she would be returning to work full time. “My husband is still a resident and that made a big impact on my decision. I work two weeks out of the month and that makes a big difference, too,” she says. “If my husband was out of residency and if we were a little more stable, I think I could have chosen part time.”
It has been several years since this article was published and the same issues remain. I took family leave after I had my baby, but it was longer than I anticipated, and getting back into hospital medicine had been impossible. I wish there was a support system in medicine to help parents transition. But unfortunately the current system has been very discriminatory and disappointing.