Recession bites in workplace for family-friendly policies too

Many employees feel under pressure to work longer hours in order to hold on to their jobs, writes SHEILA WAYMAN

WORK-LIFE balance was all the rage for a few years in the heady days of the Celtic Tiger. Flexible hours, career breaks, term-time arrangements and home-working were not just perks for civil servants but on the agenda in all the more enlightened workplaces.

Increased workloads in the booming economy and the employers’ need not only to hold on to staff but to lure more stay-at-home mothers back into the workforce were the driving factors behind the move to make employment more “family friendly”.

With a bit of understanding from the boss, it seemed working couples could have it all: job satisfaction, a dual income to pay the mortgage and the childcare, and even the chance to spend time with the children during daylight hours.

What a difference a decade makes. For many of the Republic’s nearly half a million unemployed in 2010, family life is much grimmer. To them the luxury of achieving a work-life balance is as irrelevant as those designer handbags people queued outside Brown Thomas to buy not so many years ago. Meanwhile, those still in jobs work harder than ever, to make up the shortfall by colleagues who have been “let go”.

So, has the recession halted or even reversed the movement towards the family-friendly workplace?

By the end of 2008, both employers and unions were indicating that broaching the topic of work-life balance was a “no no”, says Paul Cullen, who is head of the Industrial Relations Unit at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and chairman of the National Framework Committee for Work Life Balance Policies. The committee, which evolved in the context of social partnership, faces the challenge of how to address the subject in changed economic circumstances.

In ways, it is “even more vital now”, he stresses, because such work practices may help a company survive the recession. “It is a matter of trying to get around the omerta,” he explains. “If you mention work-life balance, people just turn off.” The committee offers a free consultation service to small- and medium-sized companies interested in introducing work-life policies but is struggling to find enough takers.

The recession is a double-edged sword for the promotion of family-friendly policies. On the one hand, employers have to cut costs, so they may have already cut hours and are very open to unpaid leave options. On the other hand, after pay cuts, employees may no longer be able to afford such a choice. They may also be afraid it would be perceived as lack of commitment, which will be remembered when it comes to the next round of redundancies.

“There is a culture of fear among workers and it is unfortunate that that environment has been allowed to be created,” says Esther Lynch, legislation and social affairs officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. If employers work with staff they can come up with a range of flexible options that suit both sides, she suggests.

But some employers regard “frightening people as the best way out of the recession”, she comments. “If the employer has created a climate of fear, then nobody is going to say anything.”

Watching The Apprentice on TV3, she says she was struck how Bill Cullen said to one contestant, “I will own you 24 hours”. It is, she comments, the type of leadership model that unfortunately a lot of businessmen seem to see the recession giving them the opportunity to reinforce.

The need for family-friendly workplaces does not go away when times are tough. No matter how grateful parents of young children are for being in a job, they can’t be expected to turn their backs on the family until the recession ends.

Yet authoritarian employers, a climate of fear and increased competitiveness among colleagues fosters the culture of long hours and “presenteeism”. Some workers make sure they are at their desks first thing in the morning and last thing at night to show how much they are needed.

There is a lot of pressure on people to stay longer than they are being paid for, says Lynch, which has consequences for families and is particularly difficult for parents rushing to collect children from creches or childminders.

Increased workloads also keep people in the office longer as staff numbers are cut. It can be a particular burden in small companies, as Jim Curran, head of research at the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME), observes.

“Where there is smaller staff, it does to an extent increase the workload of remaining staff, but the reality is those staff realise they are effectively working to save their jobs. There is a fine line because obviously it is better to be in employment than out of employment, consequently those who remain in employment are making an extra effort, along with the business owners, to try and maintain the company. It’s all about survival.”

Even people who could afford to take part-time options are afraid to because they are unsure about the stability of their partner’s job, or their own chances of being able to resume full-time working.

Current fears over availing of work-life balance policies are acknowledged by Mary Connaughton, the head of HR development with the employers’ organisation IBEC.

“What we’re finding is that job security is what most employees are concerned about. Are people who might work part-time or flexible hours less central to the operation of the organisation and therefore a role that would not be retained? That is probably leading to fewer people applying for it.”

The national debate around work-life balance arose at a time “when there was an expectation on individuals to work hard because workplaces were very busy and when it was difficult to get resources”, she points out.

But IBEC would work, she adds, on the assumption that people who have a work-life balance are better because they value what they have and are good performers.

“Where employers value the contribution of employees generally and where the employee is willing to give a degree of flexibility we usually see that compensated. We would believe in the main that employers try to work that, but it is not always feasible.”

Some flexibility over hours is what parents crave, so that they can quietly work around a child’s medical appointment or the school play. But even where family-friendly options are available, they are of little use if management does not really believe in them.

“If a company has policies in place, but the workers regard using them as ‘career suicide’ then uptake is likely to be low,” says Victoria Hogan, lecturer in Occupational Health, at the School of Health Sciences in NUI Galway. Does she think the recession will halt or even reverse the spread of such policies?

Irish businesses have made great strides in providing more work-life balance options over the past five to six years and “some of these are led by legislation and cannot be removed”, she points out.

Those that are offered at the discretion of a company are unlikely to be withdrawn if they are popular, she suggests, but may be reviewed where take-up is low.

For more information, see www.worklifebalance.ie

MATERNITY LEAVE: AN EASY TARGET?

EMPLOYERS NOW see not replacing staff who go on maternity leave as one way to save money, says Esther Lynch of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. As a result, a new mother returning from 26 weeks leave paid by the state and possibly topped up by the employer - and an additional 16 weeks unpaid if she wants it - can find her role has disappeared and colleagues who have had to cover for her resentful. While she is entitled to work of "same standing and value", there is no guarantee of her old job back.

A TALE OF TWO FAMILIES AND TWO EMPLOYERS: THE FLEXIBLE v THE RIGID

LIZ EDWARDS, a senior marketing manager with BT Global Services, can decide when she gets up in the morning if she will go into the office. She is an "occasional home worker", which means she has the flexibility to work there when it suits.

"It doesn't make a blind bit of difference where I work – from the office, from another office, from a coffee shop, from home – as long as I have internet access sorted and so my mobile number is my number," she explains.

The big advantage of working from home is cutting out the commuting time. "I can drop my daughter to the creche at 8am and start work at 8.15am." Whereas if she goes into the office, she can only work 9am to 5pm before she needs to go and collect 18-month-old Hazel.

Although she works for BT Global Services, she can use BT Ireland's Dublin office in Grand Canal Plaza.

Why bother going into the office at all? "It's for the social interaction," she replies. "I came in today so I could have an adult conversation with someone other than my husband."

She has worked with BT for 10 years and credits the company "hugely" for being a mature employer and regarding work as something you do, not a place you go.

"My boss doesn't care if I work 8am until lunchtime and then 5pm-8pm as long as I don't miss meetings. He is not going to count the hours I do, he counts the output – it is management by objectives."

Despite what some people think, home-working does not eliminate the need for childcare.

"It is not an option to work from home with the child because you don't get anything done," she stresses. "Even if the child is sick, you can't work with the child at your feet – you have to make alternative arrangements."

It is also important to have the right technology to make working from home possible. "I have access to audio conferencing, video conferencing, all the usual in-house systems: e-mail, instant messaging, etc."

The company set her up with the necessary equipment and it also contributes towards her home heating bills.

BT is seen as one of the market leaders in flexible working, says the HR director for BT in Ireland, Maureen Walkingshaw. About one-quarter of its 2,500 workforce, North and South, opt to be "occasional home workers". They can also apply to work part-time or term-time, to job share or to seek compressed hours – such as working four long days instead of five.

Parents need such flexibility and should not be made to feel that they are wrong for asking for it, she stresses. BT has found that offering these options is a win-win situation: it has more motivated employees and makes substantial savings, such as on office space.

In contrast to BT's family-friendly scenario, mother-of-two Amy McDonnell* works for a small firm in the service industry and is frustrated with her employer's rigid insistence that she be at her desk from exactly 9am to 5pm every day.

"Unfortunately it is one of those companies that hasn't moved with the times, where the management hasn't the experience of having children and don't understand the need for flexibility," she says.

Being able to work 8.30am to 4.30pm would be a big improvement, she says, because getting out before the "five o'clock rush" would save her about 20 minutes on the commute home to north Dublin.

"That would make a huge difference in the evening because the children are tired and things need to be done sooner rather than later."

Such small flexibility would have absolutely no negative impact on the work that needs to be done, she insists. "On the contrary, I would be even more motivated."

To be fair, she points out, "I can leave at five on the dot and there is never any question about that. It is the only reason I took the job. It's crazy but it is the main attraction."

However, it is still a rush to collect her three-year-old before the creche closes at 6pm and then pick up her 18-month-old from a childminder.

Luckily her partner's employer, an IT-orientated US company, is "completely flexible", provided he puts in the hours. As a result, tasks such as bringing the children for their swine-flu vaccinations in the morning, fall to him.

Working from home is certainly out of the question for her. "They don't contemplate it but I would be perfectly able to do pretty much all of my work from home, bar a few meetings.

"They don't seem to be able to entrust their employees to deliver, even though they have proven themselves time and time again," she adds. "I find it offensive; it is treating us like children."

*Name has been changed