H There should now be a fluffy column about part-time and lifestyle. And that in a full-time week in which the children are sick, the heat pump is on strike (thanks, Robert Habeck) and the school is on strike (thanks, unions). So again overtime late in the evening. We heard the Chancellor’s words in the taz, and as hard-working citizens we are now spitting on our hands and on our keyboard and doing everything we can to advance the site with another clever text.
On the topic: In Germany there is (still?) one Right to part-time. If there are no operational reasons against it, the employer must allow it. And more people than ever before, 29 percent of those in employment, are making use of it. One in nine men and almost one in two women.
The SME Union (trigger word number one) is therefore calling for the right to work part-time as a “lifestyle” (trigger word two) to be restricted. And as it is with trigger words and the debates that follow them: they are reflexive.
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It starts with the fact that lifestyle sounds as if someone in the Union had found the word in the lexicon of youth language. But many supposedly left-wing and liberal reactions to the proposal were also to be expected. It was said that the initiative was outrageous, and then came the familiar arguments: the part-time trap for women, the lack of childcare and so on and so forth. This isn’t wrong, but it’s a bit dishonest.
Daycare, care and cats
Yes, there are many people who would like to work more but can’t – because their living conditions don’t allow it or their employer doesn’t let them. But there are just as many people who no longer want to work or would prefer to work less than before. Because they would rather give up money than time. Because they prefer to see their children’s noses than those of their colleagues.
It is therefore defensive and somewhat hypocritical to act as if everyone would love to work 40 hours, but – unfortunately, unfortunately – that wouldn’t work because: daycare, care, cats. Because with this argument, the ideal of full-time work is accepted unquestioningly. Believing that the peak of equality will be reached when everyone works harder together is a trap.
It would be better to counteract it offensively. Whether you call it lifestyle or work-life balance or simply leisure. How much of it is available is ultimately not given, but has been fought for by unions and workers. This applies to the 40-hour week as well as the right to work part-time. Instead of being outraged by them, you can Middle Class Union be grateful and confidently agree with it: Yes, part-time work is often a conscious decision, it is also an expression of prosperity in a society, it is a lifestyle. And if employers and the federal government want people to work more, they have to offer something in return.
Ultimately, the fight over working hours is a three-fold question of distribution: between companies and employees over wage levels, between the state and citizens over employee rights and a public infrastructure that makes working possible – and last but not least, a fight between men and women.
Because if fewer women are to work part-time, that can only work if men give up work and take on other tasks instead. Those that make more sense than writing explanatory columns at night.
Full time for everyone? Yes, but with 30 hours, please. That would be a good lifestyle.