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?   

    当你正在经历经济衰退之时，获得兼职或远程工作的安排可能并非易事。

    你的老板能接受灵活的工作安排吗？几年前，我曾想为《华尔街日报》做兼职记者，当时我的孩子很小，而经济在上一轮衰退中正在走下坡路。虽然我的老板尽最大努力为我寻找一份上班时间不长的工作，但成本控制加上我们的工作性质意味着所有适合我的工作都是全职而且经常出差的职位。这就要求我经常到欧洲，远离出生不久和刚刚两岁的两个孩子，经过短暂的考虑后，我选择了离职，从事一段时间的自由职业。

    在我为今天的《工作•家》栏目撰写在经济衰退中应如何获得灵活的工作安排时，这段经验又浮现在我的脑海中。最近，我发现拥有明确且可衡量的工作目标、与老板保持良好沟通、拥有高超技能和能力达到工作目标的员工会有合理的机会获得弹性时间、兼职或家中的工作。事实上，一些雇主似乎比过去更愿意接受这样的工作了。

    但是，这仍面临着许多障碍。单位中所有重要的工作可能都是专职、基于办公室中的安排。你的经理可能会有一种“一切尽在掌控”的心态，这增加了实行灵活工作制的难度。尽管你在努力平等地分担工作负荷，但同事仍可能会对你不到办公室感到不满。更糟糕的是，一些管理人员单纯地认为，每周没有工作到60小时的人就是不负责任和多余的。

    读者朋友们，你的单位对灵活工作制持何态度？在衰退中你是否曾得以保持非传统的工作方式？同事的灵活工作制是否给你的工作带来了问题？