I’ll admit that I’ve never been a big fan of the 40 hour work week. I put up with it when I was young and childless, often finding myself sitting bored in an office after finishing all my work, with nothing else being offered up by my boss. I’m a quick worker, and I’ve never been fond of standing around the coffee maker catching up with people that I have nothing in common with save for working together.

I then landed a telecommuting job, and couldn’t be happier with it. I worked, on average, 25 hours a week and I was always ahead of schedule and taking on additional work. Even with the distractions of being home, I got more done, and had plenty of time leftover for chores, hobbies, and naps. Especially naps.

So when my old job cut out telecommuting with no warning, I was devastated. I had a one month old baby at that point, and had planned Cordelia’s early life around my working from home when she was asleep or Aaron was home. It was going to be the perfect arrangement – still being paid a nice salary, yet getting to spend as much time as possible with my daughter. Instead, I was forced to put her in daycare at three months old and return to the office.

After two months at the office (hey, I gave it a good try!), I knew I couldn’t handle it. Seeing Cordy for an hour in the morning, an hour at night, and then two brief, sleepy, night wakings was not enough. I wanted to work part-time. It took three months and a lot of frustration to get the job I currently have.

Finding a part-time job is difficult, and honestly, in the current US economy, I can’t understand why. Skilled labor is apparently reserved almost exclusively for those who work 40+ hours.

If you want a part-time job, newspaper and Monster.com searches will result in lots of ads for telemarketers, retail positions, and food service, with the occasional secretary thrown in. All will have low educational requirements (“HS diploma or GED acceptable”), and most will have the stipulations, “Must be able to work evenings and weekends on a variable schedule”.

In other words, these are not the jobs for a new mom with a university degree. New moms need stable hours, and those with college degrees want something more challenging than answering phones or asking, “Would you like to try our new perfume?”

I know that the situation is a little different in big cities. There you can find more job sharing and part-time opportunities. But here in the Midwest, old habits die hard. Part time workers often have the stigma of being uncommitted to their jobs, unreliable, and producing less than those who work full-time.

Even in my current job, I face discrimination because I am part-time. When our reviews are done twice a year, bonuses are given out based on performance. And each and every time, I go into my performance review and I’m told that the work I do is great, above and beyond the required amounts, and that they’re very thankful to have me. When my bonus amount is finally revealed, the bonus being between 9% min and 18% max, it is always 2-3% lower than the full-time employees (they show you where you fall on a scale in the department – I’m always near the bottom).

I have asked why I consistently fall below the others, and every time I’m told the same answer: “You should be happy with this amount! It’s a very good amount, for being a part-time worker.” How is that fair? The bonus is a percentage of the pay you have earned over the last six months. Since I’m part-time, I’m already earning less money, so therefore even if I got the same percentage, my bonus would be smaller. I perform the same duties as my colleagues, but because I only work 24 hours a week, I’m thought of as less worthy of a good bonus.

It’s ridiculous that this stigma is in place. As a part-time employee, I consider myself to be more dedicated to my job, specifically because I am grateful of the time it gives me with my daughter. I’m sure there are many moms and dads out there who would also be devoted to a part-time job because it would give them the chance to keep their professional skills polished while allowing them to spend more time with their young children.

Kids are only little for a short time. Once mine are in school, I’m sure I will pursue full-time work again. But I want to witness these first years, instead of being told of Cordy’s accomplishments from her caregivers.

Why must employers be so stingy with part-time employment? Part-time employment benefits them as well. Many part-time employees already have health coverage from their spouse or partner, so the company saves money on those employees. They could hire two people to each work 20 hours a week, pay them the same amount as a full-time employee, and still save money by saving on benefits.

If more part-time work was available, I think we would witness less struggle and stress amongst new parents who agonize over balancing work and family. Part-time is the ultimate “meeting each other halfway” option. Parents get more time to spend with their children, still get the much-needed paycheck, and also get to keep their skills sharp (instead of trying to write a resume with a 5 year gap in employment history). Employers get workers who are skilled, often have no need for benefits, usually have years of experience as successful workers in their field, and who are genuinely grateful for the chance to keep their lives in balance.

Seems like a win-win, right?

On Friday we decided that cooking was not in the plans for dinner, so I ran out to get dinner. As I pulled into my driveway after getting food, I noticed one of the neighbor boys and his friend acting suspiciously in our yard.

A quick background on the neighbors: they live in the three bedroom, 1200 sq. ft. ranch next to us, and they have two adults, four children, three dogs (one about to have puppies), a cat and a turtle. How they all fit in that place is a mystery to me. The oldest child is 9, and the youngest is 3. They are nice people, although the kids are a little rowdy at times.

The kids are often playing in our yard. I can understand this a little, since our house is located on the bend in the road, so we have a fairly large yard, while they have a postage stamp sized plot of land to play. As long as they are playing nicely and aren’t coming up on our porch, or attacking our tree or shrubs, I try to not let it bother me. (Although we did fence in our backyard not only to contain Cordy, but also to stop them from using our entire backyard for football and baseball games.)

Anyway, back to Friday. This was the second youngest kid, who is 5 or 6, and his friend of the same age. They were moving along our fence slowly, eyes darting back and forth to see who was watching. I made eye contact with the neighbor boy – I gave my “What do you think you’re doing?” look, while he gave the typical young boy “I’m getting into trouble” look with a side glance at me.

I continued to watch them as I slowly gathered up my stuff and got out of the car. And then I noticed one of the boys facing the fence, and his hands were in front of him. Then his pants slid down slightly, and I noticed the fence in front of him getting wet. He was peeing on my fence!

The boy gave a quick glance over his shoulder, knowing I was watching. I was in shock – while I wouldn’t put it past these boys to do something like this, I didn’t expect them to be so bold as to do it with me watching. The boy finished, pulled up his pants, and both of them ran back into their own yard to play. I should also point out that this part of the fence was roughly 4 feet away from the neighbor’s back door, where they could easily find a toilet inside.

I walked in the door, still dumbfounded by what had just happened. “What’s wrong?” Aaron asked.

“The neighbor boy and his friend just peed on our fence!”

“What?”

“They peed on our fence. I watched them do it.”

Aaron put on his shoes and went outside right away. A few minutes later, he came back in.

“What did you tell them?”

“I told them if they needed to use the bathroom, to go into their own house, and not use our fence.”

“And what did they say?”

“They mumbled something about OK, then ran off.”

Somehow, I doubt that will deter them. I’m sure they thought it was hilarious. It made me hope that baby #2 is a girl, because I seriously don’t think I’d know what to do with my son if he peed on someone’s fence. Of course, the answer is my son would never be raised to do that. But boys just seem to be more willing to do stupid stuff like that.

Is there some kind of “hoodlum” gene on the Y chromosome, tempting little boys to pee on fences, pull up flowers, and leave their bikes right behind our cars in our driveway? Some primal urge to mark territory and destory the territory of others?

Have you heard the song “Sexyback” on the radio? I’ve heard it while driving in the car about 10 times in the past few weeks. I didn’t think much of it, other than it was kind of dull and one of those songs that easily gets stuck in your head. (Although thanks to Sunshine Scribe I’ve had Sir Mix-a-lot’s “I Like Big Butts” stuck in my head since yesterday.)

I’m embarrassed to admit I did not know that song was by Justin Timberlake until I heard them mention it on the radio yesterday. I had to go home and look up the video, because I couldn’t figure out how the song was his. I knew he certainly didn’t have the deep male voice on the song, and I didn’t know who the woman was singing, either.

Before yesterday, I had actually asked co-workers who the woman was singing that song. (They just gave me blank stares. Should have realized the problem right there.) So I watched the video last night. There’s the problem – the “woman” I thought was singing was actually Justin. I thought for sure his voice was a woman’s. I feel totally unhip.

Justin, dude, you sound like a chick.

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The morning sickness is slowly easing up, thank goodness. I’m now only gagging one or two times a day, and as long as I keep a slow but steady intake of food going all day long, I don’t feel too bad.

The other day I found by accident my true “preggers” food. I think most pregnant women have that one weird food combination that sounds gross to many but they can’t get enough of. I had ordered food from the deli near work for lunch, getting a grilled chicken sandwich and mashed potatoes. They always include a pickle slice with every meal – not just a wimpy pickle slice, either – we’re talking half of a small cucumber.

This time they had placed the pickle in the same side as the mashed potatoes. I pulled out the pickle to have a bite, and noticed a little bit of the mashed potatoes stuck to it. Licking off the stray potatoes, the tastes combined in my mouth, and nirvana was reached. I can’t even properly describe how wonderful it tasted, especially comparing it to other foods right now, which all taste bad to me. It was the best thing I’ve tasted in months, and so I started scooping up the mashed potatoes with the crisp pickle and eating the two together.

My only regret was that I ran out of pickle before I ran out of mashed potatoes. I ate the remainder of the potatoes without a pickle, but not before the irrational part of me gave serious thought to running out to the deli to get another pickle.

If you’re pregnant and feeling sick, give pickles and potatoes a try.

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I have a new sister blog to compliment this one! It’s called Mommy’s Must Haves, and it is a collection of product reviews, book reviews, contests I’ve found, etc. Basically, it’s stuff that just didn’t fit in here with my ramblings about Cordy, pregnancy and my life. When I come across a good product, I love to tell the world about it, and if I come across something crappy, I take a wee bit of evil pleasure in pointing out why it sucks and telling people to avoid it. This seemed like a perfect solution for me to sound off about the crap I buy.

So, if you feel like checking out some recommendations every now and then, click over there and have a look. There’s not much there at the moment, but I hope to add a few new posts each week. Right now you can check out this fun contest to win all you need for a bake sale!

Oh, and putting this new site together reminded me that back in July, due to the stresses of getting ready for BlogHer and having our house broken into and trashed, I totally flaked on sending out the books to Mrs. Chicky and Dana, who won my book contest. Ladies, the books will be mailed out to you this week!

Recently I had applied for a few jobs that I happened to notice. I’m not actively job hunting, since I am pregnant and don’t want to give up the maternity benefits I currently have, but should an amazing job come along, something that would make life easier and/or pay more, I might consider jumping ship.

I don’t know if the same holds true for other cities, but here in Columbus it is close to impossible to find a decent paying part-time job. Most of the part-time jobs available involve fast food, retail, or jobs with the minimum requirements being a high school graduate or possession of your GED. Few pay any higher than $8.50 an hour.

I could write an entire post about how companies should consider more part-time, high-skill positions to help those moms and dads with university degrees and a strong desire to work but also to raise their young children. It would benefit the workers, who could have fewer hours so they could spend more time with their kids, and I think it would benefit the employer, too, who would have employees that were dedicated to their part-time work because they felt their lives were balanced. Many times these employees wouldn’t even need health benefits because a spouse working full-time would carry the benefits, saving the company even more. But, I digress.

So when I do see part-time jobs that fit my skills, I tend to apply. It’s good practice to keep updating my resume, and should a dream job land in my lap, all the better. OK, a dream job would be working from home again, but I’d settle for even a decent job with good money.

About a month ago, I applied for a position with another college. It was actually a slight demotion from my current position, but the pay was equal and the hours looked better. My current hours are dreadful: working 11-7 or 12-8 means I have no morning to get anything done, no afternoon, and by the time I get home in the evening, I just want to eat dinner and go to bed. This advertised position offered better hours, less responsibility, and equal pay.

I never heard back from them, figured that I wasn’t a candidate, and the job had fallen out of my thoughts, until Monday when I received a call at work.

HR guy: Hi, you applied for the position of X last month, and we were wondering if you are still interested in the position?
Me: (thinking back to job description) Oh! Um, yes, I am still interested.
HR guy: You’ve been selected as one of a few candidates. The hiring department wants to rush this along, so we’d like to have you come in tomorrow at lunchtime for an interview.

Note: If you’re in such a hurry to fill the position, shouldn’t you have started calling people right after the application period closed, instead of waiting a full month?

Me: Oh, well, I’m sorry, but I have to work tomorrow, and I have appointments with students scheduled, so it would be impossible for me to come in at that time.
HR guy: Oh, so you couldn’t make it tomorrow, then?
Me: I’m sorry, but no. I currently work part-time, Monday thru Wednesday 11-7, but I would be happy to come in around those times or Thursday or Friday if that is possible?
HR guy: Well, we only had interview slots open for this position tomorrow around lunchtime. I’ll have to get back to you to see if Thursday would work.
Me: Thanks, I appreciate that. I am interested in the job, but I can’t neglect the duties of my current job.
HR guy: Yes, I understand. I’ll give you a call back shortly. Goodbye.

Can you guess what happened next?

I never got a call back.

Yep, it seems that the part-time job market is so intense right now, that you have to drop everything you’re doing for an interview or miss your chance at a job. Of course, you might think that a devotion to your work would be something a recruiter would admire, but apparently not in this case. Too busy to show up with less than 24 hours notice for an interview? Well, we’ll find someone else, then – you part-time workers are a dime a dozen, and should be thankful we even called you at all.

I thought I’d be angry about this, but I’m not. I find the entire thing funny, and there is a chance that he will call back. At this point, I don’t think I’d take the job, anyway. If I did I wouldn’t be eligible for any maternity benefits, while I can get maternity leave pay at my current job. But I wouldn’t mind the interviewing experience.

So much for the thought that having a degree and a good skill set would give me any kind of bargaining power for a job. Hell, I can’t even bargain for an interview.