"We must overcome the dogma of working time".
In many companies, part-time work is still considered a "career brake" or even a "career killer" - for women as well as for men. And this is particularly true of management positions. Yet part-time work offers great potential, especially in view of the impending shortage of skilled workers. Matthias Mölleney talks about the paradigm shift needed to achieve this.
"However, there is one group of workers who are even more discriminated against: Men who want to work part-time."
After years of management experience at Swissair and other international corporations, Matthias Mölleney set up his own business with his wife Regine in 2006. Today, he is a management consultant, lecturer and, among other things, president of the ZGP Zurich Society for Human Resource Management. In this interview, he speaks out strongly in favor of a cultural change in the corporate world - especially through increased part-time work in management positions.
Mr. Mölleney, part-time work is steadily increasing in Switzerland. When it comes to management positions, however, skepticism still prevails. How do you assess the potential?
That, too, will come, I'm sure. But before that, we have to come to terms with the term "part-time. The term "part-time" always carries a connotation of inferiority - as if one were not working to one's full potential. This goes so far that employment contracts specify the working hours, but there is usually nothing about the objectives of the work. We have to overcome this dogma of working hours.
How do you imagine it? Isn't time central to the organization of work?
Of course, there are professions where working hours say a lot about performance. When streetcar drivers are on the job for eight hours, they obviously perform twice as well as when they are on the road for four hours. But if media workers work eight hours instead of four on an article, it is rarely twice as good. And that's how it is in many professions, from research to project management.
In your opinion, is part-time work feasible in every industry and every function?
You see, the higher you get in an organization, the less you work full-time in the traditional sense. Some have their board mandates on the side, others their teaching assignments, and that's all very well accepted. If someone reduces their working hours in order to spend time with their family alongside their management activities, that is still seen as a problem. But wherever working hours can be adjusted so that they are compatible with board mandates, for example, part-time work is also possible.
How should work be better organized?
I was able to take a look at the future of the working world at the Belgian Ministry of Social Security - of all places! There, in an environment of typical administrative activities, it has been possible in just a few years to significantly increase job and customer satisfaction as well as productivity. This has been achieved by agreeing with employees on a certain number of cases to be processed instead of working hours, measured in terms of quality, quantity and customer satisfaction. The teams organize themselves for the most part. Since everything is digitized, they can work wherever they want. And the supervisors? They take care of higher-level tasks, such as ensuring the flow of information or networking. And incidentally, this is what has moved this ministry from last place on the list of attractive employers to first place.
According to a recent study, Switzerland ranks fourth to last in terms of the proportion of women in management positions. Can this be explained by the particularly high difference in Switzerland between the proportion of women (60%) and men (16%) who work part-time?
Well, for years we have been discussing wage discrimination against women. However, there is one group of employees who are even more discriminated against: Men who want to work part-time. They often can't, let alone in a leading position. What I'm trying to say is that I don't think it's a question of promoting women or men. A very recent study by the University of St. Gallen shows that the environment is decisive - is it male- or female-dominated? Accordingly, men or women are favored. And in Switzerland, we traditionally have male-dominated industries, which will not change in the foreseeable future. That's why we urgently need a debate on this in our society, far beyond any quotas.
What do companies need to do to remain attractive employers in the future?
If Yahoo recently eliminated the home office option because they want employees to be physically present, that may work for Yahoo, but not necessarily for others. So companies need to keep asking themselves who their target audience is. And how they can differentiate themselves from other companies as employers. Part-time work is a key element of this.
What successful examples would you cite?
From established large companies to young inventive start-ups, part-time is already being used in management positions. Recently, I also helped the Thurgau Cantonal Police with their recruitment problem. There was a lot of skepticism about part-time work in this profession, where constant commitment is required. At the same time, experience clearly shows that mixed patrols of men and women are more successful - but they used to ask for part-time in vain. In the meantime, part-time is offered and the response is extremely positive.
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