Father’s Day is on 18th June. At SYJ we felt it appropriate to focus on fathers in this post.
“Because fathers are parents too and deserve to spend more time with their new babies”. Labour Party Manifesto 2017.
We’re not going to get overly political here; we wanted to highlight, with the upcoming election, that the main parties vying for your vote have thought about parents and work, taking into further consideration shared parental leave, paternity leave, flexible working and its provisions. This is all great news in theory and, should the right party win the general election, we are hopeful the party would keep to their word (or manifesto).
We highlight the Labour party’s quote above, not to show political allegiance, but support the statement itself. Fathers are parents. It should be their right to spend time with their new babies. Even if the change in political landscape shifts in favour of working parents, the proof is only evident with firms standing up for their working fathers. As we have previously shown, fathers are subject to a fatherhood penalty in order to balance work and family life, which, as we have said before, is not fair.
Flexible working is not working part-time as most had previously thought, and therefore should mitigate any stigma attached to working part-time. Employers can offer working remotely from home (which is a great option for those whose journey into work is longer and more expensive), a different working pattern (as opposed to the regular and rigid 9-5 option), or job sharing. These options would be greatly received by new fathers. Also this would make employers more attractive to potential applicants. The daily working landscape is changing and is less rigid as in times before, with greater means of technology available to support the changing working environment and flexible
If you are looking for flexible work or want to register flexible working positions in your firm please do get in touch http://shareyourjob.com/contact-us and we would be delighted to help.
