New research released by Mumsnet is showing that although the number of family friendly employers is up from 2011, there are still a vast amount of us who are too afraid to ask for flexible working for fear of discrimination.
We were hoping the new flexible working legislation brought in earlier in the year, would go a way to address this, but in the survey, out last week, only 13 per cent of workers said their employer was family-friendly, while two-thirds said they were not. This is so disappointing as people are increasingly turning to flexi-time, compressed hours, job sharing and home work as a way of balancing their lives.
There might be a handful of forward-thinking companies that have embraced this new reality, but many have yet to reach the level of trust required to make these fluid agreements work. According to one study, more than half of employers who support flexible hours still worry whether employees are making the best use of their time. And while top management may fully endorse it, getting the message across to every member in the ranks can be a challenge.
And in a new twist, there could be evidence to show that men are actually suffering more than women when it comes to flexible working discrimination. In a recent case, an accountancy firm lost a discrimination case brought by a male manager whose application for part-time work was rejected. He was warned by a senior colleague in the group’s Cardiff office that cutting down his hours would harm his career progression while similar requests from women in his office were met with less resistance.
Despite a string of diversity and gender equality awards to the company’s credit, it seems this one senior manager subconsciously believed that flexible working to look after the family is OK for women, but not for men.
Apparently, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, it’s a common misconception and shockingly, fathers in the UK are twice as likely as mothers to be rejected for flexible working.
As far as we’re concerned, whether it’s a man or woman choosing or needing to work flexibly, we really hope the numbers of flexible-friendly companies start to rise…and soon.
