On that part time working report that suckered Zoe Williams, the truth:
The actual truth of the spate of articles is more mundane. There’s a recruitment consultancy that specialises in placing part time people into senior roles. They have a “research” arm which tells us all occasionally that it’s very important that part time people be placed into senior roles. The last time they did this was June 10 2015, this press release went out on 11 Jan 2016, we must expect another in the second or third week of June 2016.
Whatever the efficiency of part time employment this sort of PR, or perhaps astroturfing is a better description, is highly productive: a week’s typing is very much cheaper than three half page ads in the national press. So much so that we might set our calendars by that next irruption, coming this summer.
Technology newly allowed them to work from home, Dame “Steve” employed them to do so and made a fortune.
Dame Steve is my drag act name.
Zoe gets points for realising that it’s about motherhood, not gender:
> “Obviously, it’s a feminist – specifically a motherhood – issue.”
I’m definitely overqualified for my current job, but I never get anywhere applying for jobs that I am appropriately qualified for, and find that most of them actually get filled by people /under/-qualified for them.