With Father’s Day right around the corner, we thought we’d take a look at how flexible working effects all the dads out there.
Father’s Day is the day of the year that we celebrate all things dad. we make special time for our dads and let them know that even though the awful jokes, we really do love them. With fathers day this weekend and dads in mind, we thought we’d take a look into how job sharing and flexible working can benefit the dads in our lives as well as the women.
When it comes to parenting, dads for the most part get much less time to look after the kids. While statutory maternity leave covers women for up to 39 weeks, only 29% of men take more than 2 weeks off after a child’s birth to look after their newborns (almost 1 in 10 don’t even take any time off at all!). These sorts of numbers mean that women are more often than not the primary care givers, sometimes at the cost of their own career progression.
This is pretty common among men to spend more time at work than women especially when children are thrown into the equation. Currently we have nearly 3 times as many women working part-time as there are men working part-time here in the UK. Compare that with full-time workers and we have nearly twice as many men in full-time employment as women. Millions of are men spending time away from their families and potentially striking a poor balance between work and personal life but, are men happy with the way things are?
As part of a YouGov poll, a third of people said that being able to work more flexibly would allow them to be more productive while at work while 43% said it would help them lower their stress. Men and women are both starting to see how working on a reduced basis, be this part-time or as part of a job share, can help them regain a much needed work life balance. So with that in mind, why don’t we see more men job sharing if so many people believe it will benefit them?
A recent Australian survey may give us a little insight in to why we don’t see as many men job sharing. The study revealed that men were twice as likely to be turned down for a job share application than women and even those who are successful were worried their career may have been jeopardised. With so many men in full-time employment not opting to work on a reduced hours basis, it’s easy to see why these men are concerned.
In reality, Job sharing is there to help keep sharers on the career path while allowing them to take a little more time for themselves and their families, not to put a career at risk. As more men and fathers look to job share and regain control of their work-life balance, we should start to see these misconceptions start to disappear. Of course it won’t happen overnight, but we’ll get there!
Until that point though, guys, if you think you could benefit from job sharing it’s time to help educate your employers on the benefits of job sharing for both yourself and to them.
If you’re a looking to regain a little balance in your life, whether you’re a man or a woman, be sure to join our job sharing community. You might just find what your looking for.