In Pursuit of a Greater Work-Life Balance for Families

There was a time when corporate culture and the concept of work-life balance seemingly stood directly opposed to each other, particularly for women with ambitions of having a family. 

However, as opportunities for women in senior management have increased (relatively speaking – gender imbalance is as much of a challenge as it always has been) so too has the understanding that corporate culture must change to allow its employees to have a life outside of the demands of their professional careers.

These changes have stemmed from a need to ensure women balancing work and family commitments are not disadvantaged in their careers as a result. But, today this issue no longer applies to women alone.  

Many modern couples would like to share duties when it comes to child-raising and care arrangements, so that both partners can continue their professional careers. As such, a growing number of men would also now like to take a more family-orientated approach in their lives – for their own sense of fulfillment, as well as to support their partner.

This puts more pressure on corporate culture to pay greater attention to the work-life balance. Otherwise, talent retention could present a challenge. 

Inge Woudstra, an associate at Ashridge Business School, is the director of W2O Consulting & Training and started the web-portal, Mum & Career for professional working mothers.

She has noted an increased desire among fathers, as well as mothers, to spend more time with their families and explains how professional mothers balancing work and family have already had an impact on company policy.

“There are lots of companies that, over the past ten years, have introduced flexible working policies or work-from-home policies. At the policy level and at the target level, I think a lot has happened,” she says.

Woudstra cites a UK government figure which proudly reports that 80-90% of official requests for flexible working are granted, but then points out that this statistic could be misleading because it does not account for those who feel unable to request this from their employer.

Elsewhere, a recent article in Der Spiegel explored the developing trend of men in Germany now balancing work and family commitments and points to examples of those giving up full-time work, even in a cut-throat industry such as banking, as evidence that corporate culture must become more progressive.

Indeed, government measures in Germany have tried to encourage shared ownership of family duties. Since 2007, the Elternzeit policy has brought the idea of ‘partner months’ into play, where new parents can take a total of 14 months of paid parental leave if that leave is split, rather than the 12 months normally at the mother’s disposal. 

Plus, Germany’s new coalition agreement, signed in 2013, explicitly refers to ‘active fathers’ for the first time in the country’s history and shows its intention to provide better conditions ‘to allow fathers and mothers to share family and professional duties fairly’.

Woudstra thinks this policy stance is quite clever because by offering an incentive, men are encouraged to take up their entitlement, which she says in the UK, they often don’t. She also mentions the case of Sweden, whose own arrangements, including leave ‘reserved’ for both the father and mother, are detailed and compared with the UK here.