Which would be very old fashioned if all of that was true. In the case of maternity/paternity leave for example, you're right that taking a year off gets people behind on the career ladder. And it also lets their skills and connections lapse. Which is why I can see two people from my desk who could have taken longer maternity/paternity leave, but instead reduced hours to 3 days a week. They get to take it easier, spend time with their babies, while also maintaining skills and career path. Not to mention they actually want to work, because they'd go crazy without the structure and stuff to do. It would be very easy for them to extend their hours in the future back to full time.
For musicians, what happens when they have a gig? When do they practise and write new material? Part time work gives them flexibility, particularly in service jobs they can swap shifts for if they're out of town. There's also a very big gap beteeen completely amateur and completely professional - a friend of mine is in a band selling out big shows and touring the likes of the US and UK, but at best that pays for itself. It's seen as an investment in possible future income and a brilliant experience, and when he's home he picks up what hours he can in a cafe to help get by right now.
An example of seasonal workers are the ski bunnies who work part time as instructors here during our winter and in Canada during theirs, getting accommodation and easy access to the slopes. Or people on working holidays, doing bits and pieces around the country while seeing the sights.
The elderly could and do volunteer, but if they can get paid hours as consultants in highly skilled roles why not? Or keep doing their old job, but take it easier.
As for students, I'd guess around 3% of the entire NZ population are current university students. It's a big chunk.
The classic 9 to 5 doesn't work for most. I've had my share of odd hours. More than half of adults here don't do 30 hours a week, and about a quarter of those in the workforce don't. People like choice rather than cookie cutter positions and expectations.
I am pretty sure it is true.
With regard to maternity leave then nobody works during it. In fact the left are talking about making fathers work less by earmarking more to them (that is a way the left things will lessen the wage gap). And as maternity leave has gotten longer and longer so has the recommendations for breastfeeding. These days mothers are expected to breastfeed for half a year.
I am not even sure you can find a daycare for children under 6 months anymore, though there probably are solutions.
With regard to musicians then you have a point that there is a large gap between amateurs and professionals. The ones I know practices after work/in weekends. Their gigs also are in the evenings. Don't know what the people in between do. Though I have a hard time seeing them working at cafes and such, since wages in general are really high so most such places prefer full time staff. And shops generally have youth workers for most positions, since they are much cheaper. Most youth workers literally have a clause in their contracts stating they will be terminated the day they turn 18 due to how their wage otherwise would rise considerably.
We don't have that kind of seasonal workers. The closest I can think of are the amusement parks, but those are staffed by full time workers (like that princess in Legoland). Although they also employ some youth workers---although when they employ most of those (in the Summer) there is vacation so I would presume most of the children are working full time, but not completely sure on that.
Well some elderly step down gradually, but most just go directly from full time to retirement. And with retirement age gradually getting increased (it is not implausible that I first will get to retire around the age of 80; for my parents it is around the age of 75) I doubt more people will want to spend additional time on the work market.
I don't know how big a part of the population are university students. Though 3% doesn't seem too wrong. Although many are just living on the student wage. (Don't know if they should be counted, since technically they are "working" full time.)
And I would say the classic 8-16 is still the most prevalent. Though people are getting more and more flexible and working more loose hours and also working from home. That actually has the opposite effect of NZ though. That means that many people are working more than 37 hours due to it and there is a general problem of people never being off work, since they at all times are expected (or think they are) to check work emails and similar stuff.
I wouldn't be surprised if that flex time where you just arrive at work when you want to and leave when you want to (as long as you do at least 37 hours a week on average) at some point gets added to an extended version of flexicurity.
IN
I hope that EUROO7 doesn't miss this post between all this off-topic and boring spam.
Just be glad this isn't last council. When signups closed in that one we were around page 80. On one of the first days over 50 pages were posted---i.e. more than 1000 posts. Hence why it was called the day of a thousand posts.
Spoken like a true conservative. How can ideas be dangerous?
You don't think that ideas like abolishing private property are dangerous?
(Also ideas like clearing Eastern Europe of Untermenschen obviously are dangerous too, though granted those weren't commie ideas.)
Good thing B was booted from the government offices last June.
