Any part-time engineers here?

[Retireatee1]

I'm in range of FI after a 30-year career as a senior software engineer and 20 years or so of aggressive LBYM.  I could delay 5 years and probably have a zero-risk retirement plan, or wait 2-3 to shore things up a bit more.  One idea I had was partial retirement as a part-time employee, say 24 hours a week.  This would cover my cost of living indefinitely and delay drawing down my savings.

The trouble is I don't see many opportunities in my area for part-time positions as a software engineer.  The number of job listings drop from over a thousand to a small handful.  Is anybody doing this?  I've done contract work in the gig economy in the past, and don't wish to pursue that option.  I am somewhat specialized and not in the right area to find that steady trickle of contracts you'd need.  I'd prefer a steady routine like I have now, just not a 40-60 hour grind.

I may just be blue-skying a bit here.

[Pomegranate12]

Yea part time engineering gigs are hard to come by
You can do short term contracts but that means moving to the locations and staying at temporary housings which eats into your stash.

[Retireatee1]

Yea part time engineering gigs are hard to come by
You can do short term contracts but that means moving to the locations and staying at temporary housings which eats into your stash.

I guess this is to be expected.  Companies seem to delay hiring engineers until it is absolutely necessary.  So if they have an open position for one, they probably need two.  Who wants to hire 50% of an engineer?  Also there is the issue of hours.  I've always been squeezed for more than 40 hours when salaried.  With hourly, you pay for every single hour.

There are some 1-year contracts out there, that's probably the closest fit.

[Pomegranate12]

So if you contract for a large defense contractor like company thru a agency they will give you a per diem based on the city you go to.
The per diem can offset most loses due to temporary housing sometimes exceding it so you can work one year but ear as much as you would in 18 months, you will have to get some Affordable care insurance

[nirodha]

I think software engineers solve this problem by getting a low-supervision work from home position and not putting in the full day. Results vs. butt in seat time and all that.

[Pomegranate12]

I think software engineers solve this problem by getting a low-supervision work from home position and not putting in the full day. Results vs. butt in seat time and all that.

LOL

[Retireatee1]

I think software engineers solve this problem by getting a low-supervision work from home position and not putting in the full day. Results vs. butt in seat time and all that.

It takes a bit more skill but you can not put in a full day in the office too haha.

[Retireatee1]

I used to work for MegaCorp and there was an older software engineer who inquired about similar partial retirement options with HR.  They denied his request and he just retired outright shortly after.

[mtnrider]

My experience has been that if you have some years of time at your company AND you have what management deems to be a "good reason", you might get 4 days a week.  A good reason is caring for a child, caring for a parent, or dealing with a health issue yourself. 

If you ask, you're no longer thought of as "serious" and you won't get bonuses or raises.  If you do get it, you'll lose more than 1/5 of your compensation - the one day + the bonuses and raises.

It might still be worth it to ask, of course, if you're planning to quit otherwise.

It seems to me like I'll have three options if I decide to leave my employer: 1) to work full time at a more lax workplace, 2) do one year contracts, or 3) build some apps on my own and see how they do.

[ysette9]

I’m not software, and my career was in aerospace so perhaps nothing applies to you. That said, I’ve seen engineers go part time by being a known and useful resource and then ask to drop their hours in the same position and/or same org. I almost never see reqs for new part-time positions.

[Retireatee1]

My experience has been that if you have some years of time at your company AND you have what management deems to be a "good reason", you might get 4 days a week.  A good reason is caring for a child, caring for a parent, or dealing with a health issue yourself. 

If you ask, you're no longer thought of as "serious" and you won't get bonuses or raises.  If you do get it, you'll lose more than 1/5 of your compensation - the one day + the bonuses and raises.

It might still be worth it to ask, of course, if you're planning to quit otherwise.

It seems to me like I'll have three options if I decide to leave my employer: 1) to work full time at a more lax workplace, 2) do one year contracts, or 3) build some apps on my own and see how they do.

Not planning to quit, I'll be toughing it out for a while.  I guess I was hoping for a way to ease into FI.  The employer appears to hold all the cards.

[MayDay]

I’m not software, and my career was in aerospace so perhaps nothing applies to you. That said, I’ve seen engineers go part time by being a known and useful resource and then ask to drop their hours in the same position and/or same org. I almost never see reqs for new part-time positions.

Same.

I've been 3 and 4 days a week at different times. I'm currently unofficially 4 days a week (ie 4 10's). A senior technical manager has been doing 4 days for 4 years as he approaches retirement. Another manager is 4 days currently because of distance learning.

If your boss values you, and they aren't in the dark ages, they'll say yes.

[ixtap]

Have you looked into becoming a consultant?

[secondcor521]

I was a FT software engineer and software engineering manager.  You can sort of combine techniques to get to a 3 day week and proportional compensation.  This is sort of what @mtnrider said above, with a few tweaks:

1.  Start as a full time engineer.
2.  Work for a while and build up / save up vacation time.
3.  Ask for FMLA / personal leave.  At my last company personal leave could be intermittent and taken in 4 hour chunks and you could get up to 12 weeks of personal leave, but it had to be approved by a VP.  Most everyone qualifies for FMLA as long as you've been FT for a year.  I think California even has "enhanced FMLA" if you're there.
4.  Take FMLA leave in one hour chunks every Friday.
5.  Start taking your accrued vacation time by taking every Monday off.
6.  Voila, three day weeks.

If you're really burned out or are in reorg-ville or between projects, or can work from home, you can even stretch not working very hard during those three day weeks.  But @mtnrider's comments are accurate - if you do this then you'll be viewed as a short-timer and will not get promoted and won't get stock options and risk being put in a layoff pool if that happens to happen around the same time (which can be good or bad, depending).

The only other option I know of, and it's hard to find, is if you can find two engineers who work well together and an accommodating company, you can do a job share where each of the two engineers works 20 hours a week and serve as a sort of conjoined-twin FTE.

[GillyMack]

I’ve pulled it off twice, once as an employee and once much later as a contractor, so it can be done.  I wanted 30 hours and got it.  Both times, I worked full time first for the company and was a known dependable commodity. Read the FU stories thread for quiet inspiration and then negotiate.  You have to have a reputation for being very good and they have to need you.  So that a part-time you is better than no you. 

The warnings about losing prestige/promotions are valid, but in my case, I didn’t mind. And there was a continual mission/hours creep to handle going forward.  I always worked whatever it took if there was a crisis.  You just have to find a place where there’s not a continual crisis. Hah!

[Retireatee1]

I’ve pulled it off twice, once as an employee and once much later as a contractor, so it can be done.  I wanted 30 hours and got it.  Both times, I worked full time first for the company and was a known dependable commodity. Read the FU stories thread for quiet inspiration and then negotiate.  You have to have a reputation for being very good and they have to need you.  So that a part-time you is better than no you. 

The warnings about losing prestige/promotions are valid, but in my case, I didn’t mind. And there was a continual mission/hours creep to handle going forward.  I always worked whatever it took if there was a crisis.  You just have to find a place where there’s not a continual crisis. Hah!

Yeah it sounds like the best option is to negotiate with the current employer.  I'm not ready to have that conversation.  It would be within a year or two of full retirement, so promotions are a non-issue.  I'm just looking to chart out some longer term options at this point.

[FIRE 20/20]

I worked with a lot of part-time SW engineers pre-FIRE, and my partner also went part time for the last 1-2 years she was working.  I did a DIY part time schedule for the last year I was working by using up hundreds of hours of accrued time off.  While I don't think I ever opened a job req. for a part-time position, it was never a problem when an established engineer switched to part time. The only time I would have ever rejected a request for someone to go part time was if I already wanted to get rid of them. 
We found that when my partner went part time, it really was to her benefit.  She didn't want a leadership position, and being part time helped avoid that.  The cut in pay is much smaller than the cut in hours.  In other words, while her hours were cut from a nominal 40 (actually 45-50) a week to 32, she actually worked 32-35 hours each week.  In addition, her benefits stayed mostly the same and the lost income was taxed at her marginal (highest) rate, of course.  I wish we had both moved to part time work much earlier. 

[mm1970]

I’m not software, and my career was in aerospace so perhaps nothing applies to you. That said, I’ve seen engineers go part time by being a known and useful resource and then ask to drop their hours in the same position and/or same org. I almost never see reqs for new part-time positions.

+2

It's much easier to get it within the company.  I've done it twice (had babies), and two of my nearing-retirement coworkers have also done it.  One is still doing it - he's at 30 hrs (to keep his medical, though he's Medicare eligible now!  But I guess his wife is younger.)