When Less Isn’t More: Swiss Managers’ Gendered Perceptions of Part-Time Work

Abstract

Aims of the Study: This study investigates how Swiss managers and HR professionals, referred to as organizational decision-makers, perceive part-time work at the intersection of traditional gender norms and increasing work-life balance emphasis. Specifically, it examines whether part-time work is viewed as a signal of lacking career commitment and how these perceptions differ depending on the gender of both the employee and the organizational decision-maker. Method: We conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study, combining qualitative interviews with twelve participants and an online quantitative survey of 119 organizational decision-makers. The survey measured whether part-time work is perceived as a sign of lacking career commitment. Regression analyses examined the effects of both decision-makers’ and part-time employees’ gender on these evaluations. Results: The majority of decision-makers did not interpret part-time work as a sign of low career commitment, and work–life balance discourses have increasingly entered organizational talk. Nonetheless, evaluations of part-time work remain gendered: Male part-time work is significantly more likely than female part-time work to be perceived as a signal of low career commitment, a pattern particularly pronounced among male decision-makers and in male-dominated fields. Conclusion: These findings highlight that gendered assumptions about part-timers’ career commitment continue to shape organizational decision-makers’ evaluations, particularly disadvantaging male part-time employees. Notably, decision-makers appear aware of this gendered reality, yet rarely acknowledge their own role in changing it, allowing gendered power relations to be reproduced. This underscores that simply offering flexible work policies is insufficient to improve work-life balance without simultaneously addressing underlying gendered discourses.