Why not hire part-time developers?
I experienced this in the extreme recently. I&#x27;m a very experienced dev in a very in-demand field. Money is not a huge priority for me in my career. Flexibility is. I have a proven track record of success in part-time roles after converting to part time at my previous company (after 2 years of full-time, of course). I spent 3+ months trying to get part-time engagements, and was willing to consider both consulting and W-2 arrangements. I got interviewed and then ghosted by two companies, was offered a laughably low rate by a third, and a fourth showed interest but then basically told me that I&#x27;d need to work a 40-hour week. I know that a vocal minority has success in part-time consulting, but it&#x27;s quite difficult to accomplish if you live outside of a tech hub (I&#x27;m based in Central Oregon) and don&#x27;t have SV connections.<p>Contrast that with when I gave up and decided to make myself available for full-time (remote) work. In the span of about 5 weeks, I got over 200 recruiter emails, interviewed at 10 companies, and received 10 offers, mostly in the upper end of the $200k-400k range.<p>I firmly believe that this is a cultural block, rather than one that&#x27;s rooted in rational&#x2F;pragmatic concerns. Tech companies want to feel like they&#x27;re getting your full intellectual output, even if that&#x27;s demonstrably false in the status quo. There&#x27;s also this issue that gets brought up of &quot;if Bob is gone half the time, isn&#x27;t that going to breed resentment with his full-time coworkers?&quot; (answer: only if you have a shitty &quot;butts in seats&quot; management culture).<p>I honestly don&#x27;t think we&#x27;re going to see meaningful change in this area for a while. The 40-hour work week is something that&#x27;s heavily ingrained in tech culture, to the point where certain companies&#x27; &quot;perks&quot; are heavily tuned towards incentivizing you to stay at the office longer and frequently turn that 40 hours into 60. I think it will take an external disruptive event on the scale of COVID-19 in order to change this aspect of tech culture.