Freelance or employed, one dilemma has always troubled graphic designers…Working full-time or part-time? The field of graphic design is such that requires utmost dedication and commitment. But one cannot overlook his obligations to family and friends. To strike a perfect balance between work and home life is the biggest hurdle that every graphic designer faces.

Full-time or Part-time – Time really matters:

Freedom or limitation of time both can prove to be adverse in graphic design. Lack of time given to your projects can make you lag behind your schedule and result in not meeting the deadlines. While on the other hand, excessive time employed on graphic designing can be stressful and frustrating when you don’t have time for social life.

Working Full-time – Vocational Dedication:

In order to arrive at a logical conclusion, we have to analyze both facets of work timings. Let us first look at the consequences of graphic designers working full-time.

No time for family & Friends:

Those who prefer to follow the 9 to 5 routine face serious dearth of time for their family and friends. Although the advent has social media has eased this situation to an extent, but providing private time to your loved ones is essential in maintaining a balanced life. You need to prioritize your work, private and social life accordingly.

Inflexible timings:

Working in stringent timings can bound graphic designers within limitations. As discussed earlier, graphic designers cannot work to their fullest when they work under excessive limitations and inflexible timings. Graphic designing requires flexibility and freedom of time. A full-time job limits the designer to a restricted domain.

Stress and Overload:

All work and no play can be stressful and frustrating at times. After graphic designer spends hours in painstaking graphic designing, they are left with severe stress and tension. Working under mental strain and cerebral pressure is unadvisable in graphic designing. Hence, a little time off is needed for graphic designers to beat the heat.

Personal matters are left unattended:

Working in the full-time mode gives us less time to attend to personal matters and private issues. After arriving late in the evening, we really don’t feel like completing our household chores. This is especially very troublesome for married people working full-time. Personal issues if left unresolved can hinder in your professional life as well. Hence it is better to attend both workplace and private affairs in equilibrium.

Drop in productivity:

Excessive stress and anxiety leads to a drop in productivity of graphic designers. After spending continuous hours tackling difficult clients, the energy levels of graphic designers deplete, causing extreme mental exertion. When you work non-stop, drenched in intense graphic designing projects, it ultimately results in a severe drop in your overall output and productivity on the job.

Working Part-time – Personal commitments:

Decrease in Benefits:

Fair or unfair, it is true that part-time graphic designers reap fewer benefits as compared to the full-timers. They don’t obtain the same remuneration as the people who work 9 to 5. While it is obvious that you earn more when you work more, but part-time workers generally get less paid that their counterparts. The benefits and perks they receive are also not analogous to the full-timers.

Job Insecurity:

Another problem that the graphic designers face working part-time is a sense of insecurity related to their jobs. You never know when you can be terminated as part-time job is not as secure as a full-time job. If you are a freelancer and working part-time, chances are you will get fewer project opportunities to work on. Although job insecurity is everywhere, following the great recession, but working part-time is still considered more vulnerable.

Unable to meet deadlines:

While those working less than the customary time can spend more time with their loved ones, they lag behind their professional schedule. Moreover, graphic designers working part-time fall prey to procrastination as you are mostly at you own free will. Working on a fixed 9-5 job you are bound by the official timings to get the work done within time. But working part-time, you tend to procrastinate and in turn fail to meet deadlines.

Lose focus from work:

Working part-time, graphic designers can lose focus from their work. Consider you are working on a certain design project part in day and part at night; you are bound to lose your focus on the details of the assignment. Sometimes it is required to work in continuation on a project in order to reach its conclusion.