Working dads want better work-life balance

Around 60% of dads say they don’t have a working pattern that suits them, according to new research. 


Childcare consultants My Family Care found that over a quarter (28%) of all fathers say they are unhappy with their work-life balance, and more than half (53%) say they want to work in a different way to their current working pattern — either by having the ability to work remotely from home or to leave the office an hour earlier.


However, half of the fathers surveyed said they felt that working flexibly was perceived as a sign of lack of commitment and, as a result, were afraid of asking. Over two-fifths (42%) also said they worried it would affect their career progression.


The survey, of 1,000 working fathers, and 30 one-to-one interviews with fathers from a range of sectors and seniority levels, found that most respondents believe that old-school attitudes in the workplace still prevail.


Many of the one-to-one respondents felt this was down to a generational gap, where male senior managers, with grown-up children, were married to stay-at-home mothers, meaning they don’t understand the issues that modern-day fathers face.


Only one in five fathers said they had seen any impact of shared parental leave in their company or organisation. However, almost half of fathers (49%) who were planning another child were open to the idea of sharing parental leave with their partner, showing the likelihood of a rise in take-up in the future.

https://www.myfamilycare.co.uk/news/update/research-fathers-struggling-for-work-life-balance.html