Can part-time work ruin your career chances?

(JB) Working part-time can ruin your career chances, at the least that is what half of all those working in Luxembourg think.

According to a report by Luxembourg-based recruitment specialist Randstad, 54 % of those surveyed thought that dropping down to part-time hours would affect their career path for the worse.

It perhaps comes as no surprise then that part-time jobs remain less common than full-time posts in Luxembourg. Randstad reported that only 14% of all workers in the Grand Duchy worked on a part-time basis. Women remained the most likely to reduce their hours, with 18% of all women workers on a part-time contract compared with 9% of men.

Despite the negative attitudes towards part-time work, nearly half of respondents (45%) believed that it was possible to hold a part-time managerial position.

Regarding equality of opportunities between men and women in the workplace, the balance remains in favour of male workers, despite efforts to promote positive discrimination for women. Of those quizzed, 76% told Randstad that their direct manager was male.

The gender balance appeared to be more equal in the anglophone and Nordic countries in Europe, however.

There appears to be a favourable shift towards a more balanced gender office environment. The report suggested that more than half of the workforce felt that a company would perform better with an improved balance of male and female employees.