If your burnout and sense of overload is related to occupational stress, then you probably have considered reducing your workload to part-time hours. For this post, I’m going to assume that you’ve identified work as being the root cause of your burnout and overload.
This is a very common cause, but it is nuanced.
Perhaps you enjoy the work itself, but the volume of paperwork and administration is overwhelming. Or perhaps the work feels fulfilling, but team squabbles leave you feeling drained? Maybe you wish to decrease your work-load to be able to prioritize more time for personal issues like your health, childcare, or eldercare.
There are lots of ways that the amount of time spent on work could be the root cause of your overwhelm. So now what? How do you feel less guilty about going part-time?
Let’s examine this in a few ways:
What does work represent for you as far as your wanted identities? When you were growing up, did you hear the message that work = worth? Were you told that a woman needed to make her own money and not rely on anyone else? Were you told that capable women should be able to work outside of the house and manage the household too? What are your goals surrounding work? Do you have leadership goals or maybe are you up for a promotion?
Do you need the income? Do you have other sources of income, e.g. an investment portfolio, a partner’s income, income from medicine-adjacent sources (like teaching, research grants)?
Do you know how much post-tax cash-flow your family needs on a monthly and yearly basis?
How old are you and when do you hope to retire?
Do you have flexibility regarding your current lifestyle? What are the big costs that you need to consider (e.g. education, mortgage, car payments, travel).
Do you have a sense of your financial runway? How many years could you reasonably afford to work part-time before you would have to dip into your retirement savings? And how difficult or easy would it be to increase your work hours in the future (if wanted)?
Would working part-time mean you could potentially work for more years at a more sustainable pace? Is that important to you?
Who else would be affected if you went part-time? What are their thoughts on this idea?
Most people in the services industry who trade their time for money neglect to consider one more factor: could you invest your interests and skills into some area where you could potentially create more monetary value in the future in less time than you currently spend at work? After all, going part-time gives you TIME FREEDOM. How you use that time can create even more time freedom in the future.
Question: “What’s the real reason you’re feeling guilty about going part-time?”
