If you work in management consulting or some other client service, I feel comfortable assuming you have a certain level of intelligence…but that doesn’t make you invincible. After a while, all the hours and the lack of oxygen from all the air travel goes to your brain and how you process information changes.
As part of your survival instinct to seek air as quickly as possible, you might even consider going to part-time, especially if you have a family, but here’s the thing:
Part-time gigs don’t exist in the client service world.
The only thing a part-time work arrangement will reduce with 100% certainty is your salary. With many consultancies already sporting thin bench resources, the much more likely scenario is you shift when the hours you work get done but the total amount of work you put in doesn’t change. So instead of grasping at the first thing that looks like an oasis in your attempt to reclaim your life, you might want to try brokering a deal with your firm where you work a compressed work week or a modified work week. This way you keep your pay in tact to match the amount of work you’re putting in for your client.
What do you think? Am I a realist or a cynic jaded by my climb up the corporate ladder? Let me know in the comments below.
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