Re:Working fewer hours would make us more productive
by marklgr on Tuesday January 05, 2016 @07:29AM
(#10842881)
Freelancers often work part-time because they are more expensive, so they are not hired full-time, but they generally have many clients in the same week when they can. Moreover, they most often have some expertise in their field, which means they still devote quite a bit of time keeping up to date--they don't just spend their time with the kids. What they can do, though, is taking several months off, either between contracts or when it is ok with their long-time clients.
Anyway, that's a kind of special situation, essentially unrelated to the employee working 20h/wk to take care of their family.
Interesting question. Not necessarily; as a lead developer, I just had an experience of a talented freelancer joining my project for 20 hours per week and helping with issues that we delegated to him so we can fit in the deadline. On one hand, _usually_, 9 women don't make 1 baby in 1 month; on the other hand, in this particular case the freelancer new the technology really well, and we delegated him with special issues that required less knowledge of our whole project and more knowledge of the tech itself.
So — yes, 20h/week limitation creates some problems, when you're working in the 40h/week team, but it's not the end of the world.