It can be tough to hang onto a part-time or telecommuting setup when you're going through a recession.

    I tried working part-time as a reporter for this newspaper years ago when my children were small, just as the economy hit the skids in a previous downturn. Although my bosses did their best to find a reduced-hours beat for me, cost controls, coupled with the nature of our work in that bureau, meant all the professional jobs suitable for me were full-time, heavy-travel positions. After briefly considering a beat that would have required me to travel often to Europe, far from my infant and two-year-old, I chose to leave the staff to freelance for a while.

    That experience hovered at the back of my mind as I reported today's Work & Family column, on how to hang onto your flexible work arrangement in a recession. These days, employees with measurable, clear job objectives, good communication with their bosses, essential cutting-edge skills and the ability to hit performance targets have a fair chance of hanging on to their flextime, part-time or work-at-home setups, I found. Indeed, some employers seem to be more amenable to this than in the past.

    But so many obstacles can still get in the way. All the important jobs in your office may be set up as full-time, office-based gigs. Your manager may have an 'all-hands-on-deck' mentality, making it harder to work flexibly. Co-workers may resent your absences from the office, even if you try to split the load equitably. Worse yet, some managers simply assume that anyone who can't work 60 hours a week is uncommitted and unnecessary.

    Readers, what's the attitude toward flexible work arrangements at your office? Have you managed to hang onto a nontraditional work setup through this recession? Do colleagues' flexible setups cause problems for you at work?   

    當你正在經歷經濟衰退之時，獲得兼職或遠程工作的安排可能并非易事。

    你的老板能接受靈活的工作安排嗎？幾年前，我曾想為《華爾街日報》做兼職記者，當時我的孩子很小，而經濟在上一輪衰退中正在走下坡路。雖然我的老板盡最大努力為我尋找一份上班時間不長的工作，但成本控制加上我們的工作性質意味著所有適合我的工作都是全職而且經常出差的職位。這就要求我經常到歐洲，遠離出生不久和剛剛兩歲的兩個孩子，經過短暫的考慮后，我選擇了離職，從事一段時間的自由職業。

    在我為今天的《工作•家》欄目撰寫在經濟衰退中應如何獲得靈活的工作安排時，這段經驗又浮現在我的腦海中。最近，我發現擁有明確且可衡量的工作目標、與老板保持良好溝通、擁有高超技能和能力達到工作目標的員工會有合理的機會獲得彈性時間、兼職或家中的工作。事實上，一些雇主似乎比過去更愿意接受這樣的工作了。

    但是，這仍面臨著許多障礙。單位中所有重要的工作可能都是專職、基于辦公室中的安排。你的經理可能會有一種“一切盡在掌控”的心態，這增加了實行靈活工作制的難度。盡管你在努力平等地分擔工作負荷，但同事仍可能會對你不到辦公室感到不滿。更糟糕的是，一些管理人員單純地認為，每周沒有工作到60小時的人就是不負責任和多余的。

    讀者朋友們，你的單位對靈活工作制持何態度？在衰退中你是否曾得以保持非傳統的工作方式？同事的靈活工作制是否給你的工作帶來了問題？