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If your parents didn't have any children, there's a good chance that you won't have any.  ~Clarence Day

Working parents.

Most parents work.  Many, many parents flex their family around their work needs.  This is not going to change, but there is growing understanding that workplaces can expect benefits from adapting work practices to suit families.

Edges of work syndrome.  This is a common experience for many working parents, particularly office bound workers.  The portion of their day, week or year that is mostly work is enjoyable and productive.  The portion of their day week and year that is committed to their children is mostly enjoyable.  However, when work and family overlap, a disproportionate amount of stress is created that adversely impacts on the family time and then consequently the work time, making the working parent stressed, unproductive, and less effective as a parent.  The phone going as you leave to pick up a child from crèche can mean your child is left waiting leading to an unpleasant evening, disrupted night and reduced performance the following day.  Finding out on Friday that you have to work in the weekend means that miss you child's sport or a special occasion.  Trying to cover twelve weeks of school vacation with four weeks of holiday means a lot of juggling for many families.  Often the amount of stress that this overlap causes can be disproportionate to the time involved - but then kids can do that to you.

Turning the pressure down.  Some work places are introducing practices to reduce this.  Having a policy of meetings starting no earlier than 9:00 and finishing by 4:00 or 4:30 enables staff to accommodate their children's needs and finish their day at a consistent time.  One multi-national found that this simple measure resulted in projects finishing on time.  Using technology, where possible, to enable workers to do 'extra' work from home, or at a time that suits them, is another way that workplaces can reduce stress on working parents.  Similarly either helping workers find holiday programs for school children, or creating an employment package that allows them to trade pay for longer holidays may suit some families.

The good employee/good parent struggle.  The needs of parents change as their children grow and it would be useful to families to have workplaces recognise this and look at creating a flexible work-life balance culture in their organisation.  While many organisations are working hard to create good parental leave packages, the notion that parents only need that flexibility for the first few months of their children's lives is a myth that has become pervasive.  Early teen years are recognised as a critical time, where the more parents can 'be around and available' can make all the difference to the children growing into a well adjusted adult.  As the saying goes, no one have ever made a deathbed confession of wishing they had spent more time at the office.  As well as avoiding the new legislative requirement for ensuring workers are not over stressed, organisations can gain productivity by taking some simple flexible measures that enable their workers to be good parents as well as good employees.

For more information

EEO Trust.  This worthy organisation is taking an interest in work/life balance issues

Council of Trade Unions.  Have accumulate some of the leading thinking on 'edges work'

Department of Labour.  Have created two projects, Future of Work and the Work/life Balance