Maternity, Motherhood, and Medicine

The Hospitalist. 2011 April;2011(04):

April 1, 2011 | The Hospitalist

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.

Plan for the Transition Back

Here are some recommendations on how to transition back to work, courtesy of the Working Mother Research Institute’s Jennifer Owens and Working Mother Media, which is affiliated with the institute:

Visit the hospital a couple of times during your maternity leave to say hello to colleagues and catch up on what’s been happening.
Ask if you can gradually return to your job by slowly increasing the number of workdays in the first few weeks after your leave.
Divide up family and home responsibilities with your spouse/partner and other family members in order to limit fatigue.
Be clear about what you yourself can actually handle.
Manage your workday as efficiently as possible to avoid working beyond your scheduled shift.
Control your calendar by blocking out the times that you cannot be available at home or at work, and share the calendar with your home team so everyone can see where you are at any given time.
Find a way that’s right for you to handle being away from your baby (e.g. having photos close by, frequently checking in with the caregiver, immersing yourself in the job).
Connect with other mothers of young children at your workplace.

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.”