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Hot new trend: men balancing work and real life
Filed under: Media
There's nothing sexier than a man who changes
diapers and gets the baby to sleep. These days, a lot more men expect to have a heavier hand in the child-rearing than
previous generations, and employers are being forced to take notice. Increasingly, companies are offering more
reasonable work hours, flex time, and benefits like paternity leave. But are men who take advantage of these benefits
likely to find, as many women do, that their attempt to balance work and family life - what women have been doing for a
generation now on the mommy track - will take a toll on their career paths?
Let's hear from our readers - the mommies and the daddies out their with their noses to the grindstone. Does your
company offer "family friendly" benefits like flextime and paternity leave? Do you get dinged at bonus time for using
your leave to take sick kids to the doctor or for other family emergencies? Do you think you're perceived as less
serious about your career than colleagues who put their job ahead of their families? Tell us what you think!
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
12-18-2005 @ 7:13PM
Kthomas said...I don't think it is fair to say that men who go to work everyday are putting their jobs ahead of their families. My husband goes to work everyday FOR our family, and he works darn hard for all of us. He also is a parent who spends all of this "non-job" time, doing his other job which is jointly raising our children.
Reply
12-18-2005 @ 7:13PM
Kim said...KThomas,
The point is - a generation or two ago, it was unheard of for a man to ask for paternity leave or flextime, or to "cut back" his hours to 40 hours a week. I see this trend as more about men seeking - as working mothers have been doing for the past 30 years - to better find a way to BALANCE their work life with their families. To have a career and be financially stable without having to put in 80 hour weeks. To be the parent taking time off work to take the kids to the doctor.
This isn't about whether one dad loves his family more than the next dad (geez, don't we get into enough of THAT with the whole working mom-SAHM debate?). It's about how men today are demanding greater flexibility, and how companies are responding to that trend.
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12-18-2005 @ 7:13PM
Angel said...My husband jumped at the chance to work from home, since by its very nature, would be a more flexible work schedule. His company has been very good about working around things like doctor appointments, and school functions like fieldtrips.
There have been no negative effects from this; in fact, the people who 'went home to work' showed that their productivity actually went up ;)
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