A friend of mine was having a hard time balancing her career at a large financial firm with her family demands. She worked at one of those all-too-typical workplaces where employees are expected to log 60 hours or so a week — a perfect illustration of what I call a “culture of overwork.”

She told me she was going to take the part-time work option her employer had offered. She would work about 30 hours a week at reduced salary, and would get to keep her benefits. To her, this sounded like a good solution.

However, I counseled her that, in my experience, these part-time arrangements hardly ever work out well for employees. First, she would be “outing herself” as an involved parent, which in many toxic overwork cultures is code for “not dedicated enough to have a good career here.” Second, because all her coworkers and supervisors would continue with their 60-hour weeks, she would face subtle (and not-so-subtle) pressure to increase her workload.

I hate to say ”I told you so,” but I told her so.

She wound up averaging 45–50 hour weeks, which is no one’s definition of part-time, and not much less than she was working before. But she was making a lower salary and was now marked as a lesser employee, despite her continued high performance.

It didn’t take her long to see her arrangement as a dead end. She hit the job market and changed employers to one with a genuine commitment to employee well-being. She’s now more successful both at work and at home.

With her story fresh in my mind, I was skeptical when I first heard that Amazon would begin offering a 30-hour workweek option. Part-time professional arrangements hardly ever work out, especially in a work environment as intense as Amazon’s. My friend was living proof.

But after learning more about how Amazon is structuring its program, I am more optimistic. I think this experiment can work, benefiting Amazon and its employees. And this experiment, if successful, could have positive spillover effects for other employees at other workplaces.

Here’s how the plan works. Amazon is launching a handful of technical units in which everyone will work 30 hours a week. That means all employees in these units, including supervisors. Everyone gets 75% of typical pay and full benefits. To me, having intact units work the same reduced schedule seems to be a smarter strategy than having a few 30-hour employees mixed in with more-than-full-time employees.

Because of this, Amazon may avoid many of the obstacles working parents face in their pursuit of success at work and at home. It is well documented that, like my friend, employees who work formal alternate schedules tend to be stigmatized. But if everyone is working an alternate schedule, that stigma should go away. Moreover, because all employees in Amazon’s units will be held to the same expectations, they should avoid the gradual “work-hour creep” that my friend experienced. There should be less informal competition among employees to curry favor with their bosses by putting in extra (but often inefficient) hours or giving off the appearance of “heroic” work schedules.

Amazon itself may also stand to benefit. This arrangement can help it attract and retain great employees who otherwise wouldn’t seek employment there or stay long-term. Considering Amazon’s reputation as an intense workplace, those who are concerned with work-life balance may never have considered working for it. Now they might. Reduced schedules may also be a way to hold on to current employees balancing work and family who would move on. This could reduce the costs associated with turnover.

Finally, Amazon is nothing if not data-driven. This experiment could lead to further experimentation, and perhaps the realization that long hours don’t correlate with high performance. If the experiment is successful, arrangements like these could help reshape Amazon’s workplace culture by sending a clear signal that performance is more important than face time.

Finally, it must be noted that Amazon does not currently have a reputation as a caring employer. There have been multiple high-profile reports of its high-pressure culture and callous treatment of employees. Perhaps this experiment is simply a ploy to change the narrative and generate positive publicity.

Regardless of the merits and potential obstacles, Amazon’s 30-hour work arrangement can help us think through this issue at our own workplaces. Here’s some advice for managers and employees to make the most out of reduced-hours arrangements:

For the employee:

• Provide clarity as to whether you are agreeing to a temporary or long-term reduction. A reduced schedule for a few months — to care for an ill family member, for example — will have different implications than a permanent arrangement.
• Understand the potential trade-offs a reduced schedule may have for your ongoing career trajectory. In some workplaces, a reduced schedule can be a career killer. In others, it will be seen much more favorably. The consequences will vary based on employer culture, work unit norms, and supervisory attitudes.
• Set clear boundaries with your manager, coworkers, and clients on what constitutes a reasonable workload for your reduced schedule. Set up check-in meetings with your supervisor to discuss how the arrangement is going and to determine whether “hours creep” is starting to occur.
• Create a plan on whether and how coworkers and others can reach you outside of your 30 hours. It may be best to have firm boundaries. In other cases, after-hours access may be mutually beneficial. Talk this plan through with affected parties.
• Keep track of your performance and document your accomplishments. These may be useful if others underestimate your contributions.

For the manager:

• Examine your motives for agreeing to this arrangement. Do you see this as a positive way to support a valued employee and enable them to stay with you long-term? Or are you grudgingly going along? Your answer to this will be instructive for whether and how you should proceed. Maybe increased flexibility is a better solution for a particular employee situation.
• Monitor the workloads of all your employees to reduce chronic overwork and to abide by the terms of reduced schedules.
• Be up front and clear on your expectations. Check in often to ensure the arrangement is working well for everyone.
• Keep an ear out for grumbling or dissatisfaction among full-hours employees.
• When it comes time for performance evaluation, make an extra effort to focus on performance relative to goals, as opposed to overemphasizing long work hours as a proxy for performance.

It will be interesting to see how Amazon’s experiment unfolds. If its full-unit 30-hour arrangement proves successful, it is likely that other firms will start adopting similar policies. This could mean better employment options for working parents. More broadly, it can also lead to an increased recognition that everyone’s priorities are different, and that there should be more than one path for career and life success.

This blog first appeared on Harvard Business Review on 09/26/2016.

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