A sharp friend of mine takes advantage of this. He looks for a full-time job, and then says, "Look, I'd rather work 4 days for 80% of the pay, so just make me an hourly employee at 32 hours a week." He's really good and will stay at the same place for many years, so somebody will say yes.

Then, no matter what crazy things are going on, he's insulated. As he says, "full time is full time, but 32 hours is 32 hours."