How does your company treat part time employees?

* Holidays are the same (don't come into work!). Depending on the company it could be either paid or unpaid, but it's generally the same for everyone.

* Vacation is accrued based on the hours you work. Exempt employees generally have N days, and non-exempt would accrue N days if they worked 40 hours a week. Most of the time you have to work at least a year to get the days.

* Free meals are the same. Whoever is there gets the free food. If your part timers aren't there for the free lunch, oh well. Note - if you have contractors, I think giving them free food could potentially cross the line into them being an employee. My previous employer was always very careful never to give contractors freebies, not even free soda.

- Vacation: None. But they pay you enough that you can sort it out on your own.

- Paid Holidays: None. But they pay you enough that you can sort it out on your own.

- Health Care: None. But they pay you enough that you can sort it out on your own.

- Free Meals: None. But they pay you enough that you can sort it out on your own.

If you want to ramp down from 40 hours to 30 hours when you're on a contract, you simply do so. You'll find your pay adjusts accordingly but you still have plenty extra to take care of all those above items.