Flexibility: it's what working women
want, but what many struggle to achieve at all stages of their
careers. These trends seem as true in New Zealand as elsewhere. A
2006 report by the Department of Labour into our local Work-Life Balance found that the occupational
group giving their lives the second worst balance rating was
"business managers and executives", a hairsbreadth better than
trained service workers like policemen. This poor showing will come
as no surprise to the corporate and professional women reading
these words!
The Holy Grail
Almost all the local women managers we
interviewed while developing this website wanted a better work-life
balance. Some wished for it for right now. Their wish was often
quite modest - to come in after the morning rush, or to work away
from the office occasionally, and to be "not so dictated to by
timetables".
Other women, mostly younger, knew they'd need bigger licks of
flexibility in the future, to allow for family care and broader
interests, like continuing education. A couple of the younger women
we interviewed were so certain their current employers wouldn't be
able to provide adequate flexibility that they expected they'd have
to leave, or dramatically curtail their career ambitions.
Wanted: Traditional Ideal Worker
Those two women are probably right. Even today, NZ firms still
seek the traditional manager. Despite the challenge of finding high
calibre candidates for key positions, companies continue to hunt
the person who'll work sixty hours a week, travel often and at the
drop of a hat, and with no plans to change those habits should
children ever arrive.
A head-hunter recently rang me about a full time strategic role
assisting a senior manager. Her client was after candidates with
such a specific set of skills and work experience I doubt there'd
have been more than a handful of us in New Zealand.
I told the recruiter I was looking for more, not less,
flexibility in my work. Her reply?
"Oh, don't say you've got small children, too." She made no
offer to explore a non-standard approach or discover what type of
flexible arrangement would attract me.
How serious was this client about finding the right person, I
wondered? And how realistic were the recruiters being?
Flexible definitions
Flexibility is a flexible term that covers a broad range of work
models as well as the necessary technologies to support them. Below
are four key categories of flexible work models (source: www.flexibility.co.uk):
- flexible contracts - a few of our interviewees
had moved to contracting, or were actively considering it.
This area includes outsourcing, use of agency
workers and casual labour. A more controversial
option is zero hours in which workers are effectively "on call"
pending the need for their skill set. This is my own model.
- flexible hours - the trend for those in full
time work to put in ever longer hours at the office becomes more
tolerable with flexitime schemes for altered start and
finish times around a core set of hours. Popular models among
working mums are part time work, annualised hours (also
called term time hours), and compressed working weeks. In
some industries, jobsharing can work, too. Lastly,
leave options fit here: m/paternity leave, sabbaticals and
career breaks
- flexible locations - also known as
location-independent working and teleworking. People
perform tasks at home, on the move, and from satellite
offices.
- flexible tasks - this area offers greater
diversity of work. Within a full time role, it can be achieved
through multi-skilling and removal of job demarcations.
Outside, the rise of portfolio working brings the same
benefits: typically older executives put together different tasks
such as consultancy and contract work and non-Executive
directorships to maintain income and intellectual interest.
Not a One-Off
What our interviews really brought home was that professional
working women's needs for flexibility change as they move through
successive life and career stages. This, we believe, poses a series
of challenges to employers who wish to retain them. One size will
not fit all. In the women's own words:
- [under 30, no children] "if I could make work a bit more
flexible as to how and when I get the work done, work from home
more, be able to get out of the office more..."
- [mid 30s, young children]: "roadblock is the constant
compromise between giving the most for my family and having my own
career. The greatest barrier in corporate is the lack of acceptance
that family is really important. If I take a full time role the
acceptance will have to be there from the start to allow some
flexibility."
- [looking ahead to being 50] "I'll be on a life style block
working for a boutique professional services firm... a general
manager for a non-profit organisation. And possibly doing something
on the side like a B&B."
It's striking that none of the women we spoke to expected by the
age of 50 to be with the same employer, or on the same career path!
And though none of our interviewees raised it, we'd expect the
demands of caring for ageing relatives to become an ever more
important driver of flexibility needed by women later in their
careers.
Barriers
Some employers have become convinced by the benefits of flexible
working to the benefit of all concerned (see the case study on
British Telecom in the takeaway box below).
Nevertheless, if our interviewees are any guide, many employees
remain dissatisfied with what's on offer. There appear to be three
main barriers to the spread of flexible working arrangements
- Trust is a major hurdle.
- Recent research for BT in the UK reported that those least
trusting of colleagues' and direct reports' flexible arrangements
are managers aged under 30, and men. We'd add that we've spoken to
high achieving women who've moved to part time work and who report
that their younger colleagues treat them with less respect because
their lower hours get equated with lower commitment. Modern work
practice is built on the industrial model of measurable output for
time and effort expended. It's hard to gauge the effective output
of many middle managers. That's why the proxy of hours spent at the
office desk is such a popular, if unofficial, measure.
- Employees need to believe their requests for flexibility will
be treated fairly and will not adversely impact their careers. In
the Department of Labour's survey quoted above, almost a third of
employees found it hard to discuss at least some workplace issues
with their supervisor.
- Fear of the unknown. This is particularly an
issue for employers. How will they supervise an employee who's out
of sight? If everyone asks for flexibility, will the business be
overwhelmed? Can the process be made fair to all employees even if
business needs vary across the organisation? Small businesses in
New Zealand are also concerned about compliance costs. Government
initiatives here and overseas are underway to help share best
practice and offer tools and templates.
- Mismatched expectations. Many local employers
report that they offer flexible arrangements. Closer inspection
reveals that common, minor gestures such as permission to
"occasionally vary start times to deal with non-work problems" and
"use personal sick leave to care for an ill person" are included.
By contrast, permission to work from home regularly is only offered
to all employees in 25% of firms. Perhaps the reason many local
employees say options are not available to them is that they are
looking for more far-reaching options than they see so far.
No Free Lunch
Even when women executives do manage to organise more flexible
work for themselves, they face significant compromises. After a
career break for family, even one as short as a year, it can be
hard to re-engage with work at the same level and pay.
Part time work and non-travel work in professional service firms
can mean less challenging "inside" or staff jobs, away from direct
client contact and with reduced career progression opportunities.
And contracting, while offering a greater sense of control, comes
with the strings of unpredictability and loneliness.
Of course, these issues need to be offset against the benefits -
lower stress levels, less travel, being with the family more during
never-to-be-repeated years, and often richer interactions with the
local community.
Are we dreaming?
Maybe we should take a long, hard look at ourselves and realise
that if we're serious about our careers we should just get on with
it. Maybe we read too many of those 'women can do anything' books
when we were young. Maybe, flexibility is an F word and we
should choose either to be in work for the long haul (which will
mean outsourcing care of our children) or to do the full motherhood
thing.
Obviously, we don't think flexibility is too much to ask, but we
do think it's worth a serious debate.
What are your thoughts? Are we dreaming? We would love to hear
what you have to say.
© Professionelle Ltd 2007