Location: Home > Publications >The leadership Challenge: Women in Management (Hannah Piterman © March 2008)
8. Work/Life Balance
Increasing numbers of Australians are struggling to accommodate the demands of work and family life. Between one quarter and one third of all Australian employees are now believed to regularly work unconventional hours such as 50 hour weeks and weekends (HREOC, 2007).There is compelling evidence that these work patterns are contributing to worrying social trends such as rises in stress related health problems and increased family breakdown (Relationships Forum Australia, 2007). Indeed, these recent Australian studies express significant concern that the pressures placed on both the individual and the family unit from a 24/7 culture are immense and, ultimately, unsustainable.
Political recognition of the need for a systemic rebalancing of work and family life has been slow. Australia remains conspicuous among comparable economies for its reluctance to deliver a policy program that better supports the intersection between the commercial and domestic spheres (Relationships Forum Australia, 2007; HREOC, 2007; Charlesworth, et. al., 2002).
Research reveals links between the poor accommodation of flexibility and the loss of female talent from management (Hewlett & Luce, 2005). Australian research has found that while highly skilled women in full-time employment are more likely to have access to flexible work opportunities (HREOC, 2002), resistance to flexibility increases at the senior end of the organisational hierarchy, with women in management less inclined to take up flexibility options than women at general staff level (EOWA, 2003; Gray & Tudball, 2002).
Australian and international studies point to a prevailing belief among women and men that breaks in their careers or participation in flexibility initiatives may undermine their potential for promotion and career advancement (Hewlett & Luce, 2005: Smyth, et. al., 2005; HREOC, 2002; Gray & Tudball, 2002). Women who aspire to advance in their careers but take up flexibility options are often financially penalised and their career development sidetracked. Professional American women returning to work after breaks such as maternity leave, have a typical drop in earnings of 18 percent.This figure increases to 28 percent in the business sector (Hewlett & Luce, 2005).
The study finds that while there is increasing recognition that the requirement for long hours of work can interfere with health and family, there is little evidence of a reduction in hours of work, particularly at senior level. The demands of the 24/7 culture impact on the way work is organised, and indeed on the executive work ethic.Time spent in the workplace continues to be a powerful indicator of commitment. The impact on family life, health, and productivity affects men and women at work.
We had two full-time careers and two kids and that put a lot of load on us - too much pressure that killed our marriage. I was spending more intimate time with people at work than with people at home. (Male senior manager)
At the moment [we have] this huge policy of work/life balance and there are a lot of people with very good intentions. But how it works in practice is another issue. (Female manager)
I think the burn out rate on female roles is very high... It's very, very, very high pressure... I had a huge job... It was ridiculous. The sheer load, it wasn't physically possible to do. It was 24/7... I'm divorced...the hours that I worked and the pressure I was under, I didn't have time for a relationship... Work was interfering. I spent the entire Boxing Day on the telephone... I had two kids. It was impossible for me to hold that job and run my life at another level without me breaking...that is another reason why you don't see women continue on. (Female senior manager)
I'm married with two kids, they're 12 and eight... What I had seen was that relationship time was being affected by the job I was doing because I do reasonably different jobs and as well as that I manage stress. Most nights I would go home and I would be stressed and tired and Saturday I would be recovering from that and maybe Sunday afternoon I'd turn into a nice person and when that goes on week after week, month after month, that's not a terribly nice person to be around. Absolutely that affected the quality of my relationships with those people. (Male senior manager)
8.1 Recognising the benefits of flexibility
Australian business is responding to the work/life dilemma. Where the private sector once lagged behind its public counterpart in the provision of family friendly policies, large private employers are now gaining recognition for their design and delivery of flexible work initiatives. The provision of leave options such as maternity and carer's leave in the business and finance sectors has improved considerably over the past decade (EOWA, 2005; CASR, 2002). Widespread recognition of the flexibility needs of professional women now underpins business strategies to encourage diversity at all organisational levels (EOWA, 2006b). Nevertheless incorporation of diversity into business practices continues to be a major challenge.
I'm wondering how many companies are good at filling in forms instead of changing the reality. Maybe we should have a moratorium on awards and have an honest conversation. (Elisabeth Proust in Fox, 2007:61)
The study finds a growing appreciation of the benefits to be gained from the establishment of flexible work options. However, execution needs to move beyond meeting a politically correct agenda, a brand for employer of choice recognition. There are limits to the take up of flexibility opportunities when the structure of business remains locked in a traditional heritage with the roles of men and women highly segregated
My concern in applying for the job was, at what point do they call meetings for a business manager? Is it at 2 o'clock in the afternoon? No,we find out there is a 5 o'clock meeting? What do I do about my children? How do I finish my day at 3pm? I can't. Am I prepared to not pick up my children two days a week? No I'm not. (Female manager)
8.1.1 Retaining talent
A number of managers acknowledge the negative outcomes of not engaging with flexibility.They recognise that talent is lost through a failure to better accommodate reasonable employee requests for flexible work conditions, particularly those of mothers.
The reality is we've lost some really good people over the last two or three years, mothers who wanted to return to work but only return to work two or three days.We were too inflexible and said, 'Nuh, can't do it'. (Male senior manager)
Flexibility enables organisations to retain vital experience and talent at the senior end of their workforce and avoid the substantial costs associated with staff replacement.
Organisationally, there are big benefits in job sharing. Five days a week I was at work and five days a week I was a full-time mum... There is always somebody in the chair. If I wasn't there, some other competent person was. (Female senior manager)
8.1.2 Improving productivity
A number of senior managers recognise that efficiency benefits flow from the flexi-work experience.
[I] would much prefer to recruit women part-time than a full-time male because women manage their time better and are more organised. They need to be because they have this other part of their life which is more important and to be able to balance those effectively, they've got to be very productive at work. (Female senior manager)
A lot of women who work part-time [are] in my view very, very productive. This is not the only place where people work, they have computers at home, they're on the phone, text messages, emails. So people can be in a variety of places and still provide the type of leadership and support that people need to operate effectively. (Male senior manager)
I want the highest calibre strategic brain and if possible a working mother...to do one of the most important jobs we have to do. (Male senior manager)
8.2 A more sustainable business model
A number of senior managers believe flexibility is essential to the pursuit of more sustainable business practices and the retention of high-level human capital. They recognise that workforce sustainability requires an integrated strategy that views family and community as complementary and indeed integral to the workplace.
We can't create a society where women, in order to fulfil their potential in a working environment, are not able to fulfil their potential and provide appropriate mothering. (Female senior manager)
I believe I could actually be a [senior manager]. I believe I have the credentials, certainly got the drive. What goes with that is really balance. I need to reconcile that in my head. How much am I prepared to give up? (Female senior manager)
There are a range of benefits to business in realising the need for work/life balance. The positive policy response of corporate employers is translating into flexible work opportunities for women in management.
8.3 Women's engagement with flexibility
For women, engagement with the flexibility agenda and their utilisation of options offered by employers is influenced by their personal circumstances, attitudes and the stage of their careers.
8.3.1 Flexibility supports working mothers
Flexibility allows working women to take the career breaks necessary to fill the pivotal roles they continue to play in Australia's social and family life. This is especially important for women at middle management levels who tend to reach peak childbearing age at vital stages of their careers (ABS, 2006b).
The study finds a belief among participants that to increase the pool of women moving into senior leadership positions, flexibility options must target women at middle management level.
Women don't tend to have children when they are a senior executive, they tend to do it earlier in their career and the real issue is to stay on a viable career ladder even though you have the children and have the breaks earlier in your career. It's the question of, let's not discount these women when they go off for a year and not discount them when they come back. (Female senior manager)
It's an indisputable fact, in my opinion, that if women have to leave the workforce because of children, it's a body blow to their career. (Female senior manager)
Two to three years [out of the workforce] can be dangerous, not only in terms of technical knowledge and confidence, you lose an edge. It's the same as if you interview guys that have been unemployed, something has been lost. (Male senior manager)
Women who leave the workforce at a middle management stage in their careers, gain from staying connected with employers through paid leave options and flexible work opportunities. Many see flexibility as a temporary solution and aim to return to more conventional modes of work at senior level. I've worked full-time.Then I had two children and worked part-time.Then I had job share and then back to full-time again. So to be given that opportunity and still be in an executive manager role is pretty good I think. (Female senior manager)
8.3.2 When flexibility doesn't work for mothers
For some working mothers, flexible work arrangements do not provide solutions that they feel comfortable with. They are sensitive to problems associated with working in unconventional ways and choose to remain in the mainstream. They see a danger in isolating themselves from office life and daily interaction with colleagues and communication processes.
Working from home doesn't fit into the current way businesses are run. I think it needs a broader change... It's whether it practically would set the person up for success. I mean, would I want to work three days at home? Let's say I did. I know that I'd struggle with it because I would know I wanted to be at that meeting, and I needed to be there to hear that. So there's a bit of isolation around that as well. (Female senior manager)
Women also express concern over breaking from the conventions of good parenting that dissuade maternal absence in the early childhood years (Sims, et. al., 2007). For a number of women working at a professional level, the decision to re-enter the workforce is not driven by economic imperatives.
We can't both work 70 or 80 hours a week and raise a child the way we would like to do it.Yeah, we could put him into childcare and have nannies but that's not the way we want to do it. (Female manager)
For these women, a return to the workforce after the birth of a child becomes possible only through family support, as in a stay-at-home husband. Indeed, the study finds a number of successful senior female managers attribute their professional advancement to the support of their partners.
I've got a fantastic husband...a lot of women will really battle because they are expected to still do a whole lot of the domestic stuff and the wife/mother stuff, because the husband has the intrinsic view that he's also working and it should be at least 70/30, 60/40 on her job. (Female senior manager)
I am actually the breadwinner of the family and my husband, although he does some part-time work, he is the parent, the carer. (Female senior manager)
I have a child who is five-years-old. I have a husband who cares for him full-time and a husband who supports me 100 percent...but if my husband had different aspirations then I would have some decisions around my values about how my child would be raised. (Female manager)
These opportunities are not mainstream. Men's identity is still linked to the workplace.
The prospect of looking after kids would drive me to suicide. I don't get my jollies going to playgroup... The women I deal with can slip into playgroup talk more easily. I couldn't get into those discussions about little Johnny. (Male senior manager)
8.3.3 When flexibility is unsustainable
Some women who take up flexible work options experience difficulty adjusting to and sustaining their new work patterns. The study finds a number of part-time, middle level managers work considerable hours at home and complain of being overloaded.They express concern about their ability to sustain this working pattern for any duration of time. Some choose to leave their careers temporarily rather than attempt to make flexibility work for them.
At the end of the day, working part-time, my responsibilities didn't change. So you still got the job done in less time. You just became more efficient. (Female senior manager)
I'm a four-day-a-week mother who basically works five days a week, lots of hours at home... I'm starting to get quite intolerant of some things that are and are not happening here. I can see myself over the next 24 months thinking long and hard about whether I'm going to stay or go somewhere else. (Female senior manager)
8.3.4 Flexibility and seniority
At a senior level flexibility is proving to have particularly limited benefits. It does not solve the problem of retaining senior female talent. Seniority bestows high commitment expectations on managers. To the extent that flexibility options are provided, the onus remains on the individual to accommodate the demands of the workplace and manage employer expectations (Charlesworth, et. al., 2002; Probert, 2002, 1999).
The study finds a majority of participants see little opportunity to accommodate flexibility with the demands of a management role at senior levels. Middle and senior managers perceive family friendly work options including part-time, job share, and telecommuting to be at odds with the grinding demands of a competitive, 24/7, client driven environment.
I don't think we should have executives who work four days a week... I'd never put myself forward for it in the context of four days because I know that just doesn't fit the role. (Male senior manager)
If I got made a [senior manager] first [before having children] then I think I would have to come back full-time... I don't think you can do this job and breastfeed and be woken in the night and things like that. (Female manager)
I think traditionally as an organisation, we say, 'If you can't be there five days a week, that's it'. (Male senior manager)
In the finance sector particularly, there is an expectation for senior managers to be available on a full-time basis.The business transaction cannot be confined within the framework of the eight-hour day. Effective players needed to be available around the clock to seize opportunities and respond to client demands.
When a deal is on, a deal is on and they need people then. (Female manager)
If the client wants something you have to be there to do that. Someone coming in thinking you can do it in a nine-tosix environment, I don't think you can. (Female manager)
Only a small number of executive level players role model unconventional work practices. A majority of senior managers work on a full-time basis and are attuned to the needs of a 24/7 culture.This paucity of senior players operating in flexible circumstances reinforces the message that flexibility is not appropriate at a senior level.
There's very few role models at those senior levels that work differently. People who work outside the mould and challenge the stereotype are not recognised as leaders. (Female manager)
8.3.5 The shock of the new
The study finds a perception among participants that business leadership is dominated by a generation of men who have difficulty advocating a business model that reflects the values of a contemporary work environment. Identified as affluent and conservative baby boomers, this generation's work history has not provided the reference points necessary for managing the presence of women in the workforce, and at senior level. The baby boomer generation of leaders is widely perceived to be hostile to flexibility.
Older men, the men who are holding many senior positions, are people who are going to have to make an exceptional effort because nothing they have ever been taught is going to help them to get it right about getting women into the boardroom and into positions of power. (Female senior manager)
We've got a policy in place if you are the primary care giver, you are entitled to maternity leave, male or female is irrelevant. That's how society is changing. It's now an acceptable activity for a guy to actually be the carer. Still for the older generation it's not accepted.We have to get that whole culture up and if you look at your boards today, the majority are still 50 plus. So this is not normal and you are asking them to change at an age that is not normal. (Female senior manager)
We are the first generation of working mothers in the professional ranks at the senior level that the executive is having to deal with. (Female senior manager)
The [senior managers] and particularly the males are 35 to around 50.They generally are private school educated, they generally have a partner at home that takes care of their children or if their children have left home, the general running of the household, their shirts... Maybe part of it is how those male [managers] see the women around them. Maybe there are always people who are helping them do whatever they do rather than a peer of theirs. They generally have wives at home, they have female secretaries. (Female manager)
I don't think with the current management team in place, that they would support that fundamental change to how we operate because they are in their comfort zone.They are managing the way they have for 20 to 30 years, which is totally understandable. But without their support it won't happen. I don't think they really agree with the fundamental need to change. (Female manager)
While this older generation provides a formidable leadership role model, there is evidence that the next generation of men are questioning the precepts underlying the traditional model of work and seeking alternative options.
You've got to stop the generational link, these ideas are just being passed on.You've just got to stop it. (Male senior manager) Men 10 or 15 years younger than [the senior manager], they say if this impinges on family time then I don't want to be doing it. (Female manager)
A lot of women and men don't want this life. I was moved by my company at a complete whim. I saw my father do the same.Young people are saying,'I don't want this. I want to go wind surfing'.We need to radically revisit a list of basic assumptions that we have in engineering.Women want to have kids and people want a work/life balance. (Male senior manager)
I've got kids and I'm in at eight and leave at a reasonable hour to see them. If they don't like it, then I can always go somewhere else. (Male senior manager)
8.3.6 When flexibility and seniority are not aligned
When a 24/7 imperative drives an organisation's work ethic, there is little cultural tolerance for the intersection of the commercial and domestic worlds at a senior level. Female talent is lost as working mothers abandon demanding corporate careers. The onus to change remains on women.
At best, women who abandon their management careers are seen to be making informed choices and exercising good judgment in the face of competing domestic demands.
Women choose not to take on the positions at the top of organisations because it's difficult to balance these with other duties in the household. (Female senior manager)
When you are at work you think you should be at home. When you are at home, you think you should be at work. All that guilt, I don't know why anyone would do it. (Female senior manager)
At worst, women are seen to have failed to meet the demands of a contemporary 24-hour work culture.They have not been creative or enterprising in navigating and managing their work and family commitments. They remain influenced by a long abandoned culture of super mums. (Reciniello, 1999).
Something as easy as organising a cleaning lady or picking kids up from school, they're still trying to [do it], they are still trying to be super mum. But you are competing with other men and women who have better support teams and they will do better. (Female senior manager)
Nanny agency, house cleaning, car cleaning...they are exactly the sorts of cottage industries that females, if they want to work hard in an industry like this, need if they're to be parents too. (Male senior manager)
The uptake of flexibility options is seen to demonstrate a lack of commitment. Indeed, it is perceived as shorthand for a lack of interest in promotion.Women with senior career aspirations must hide their desire for family life.
I really want children and I have spent a lot of time analysing how to fit that in and when to fit that in. In fact, one of [my managers] said to me,'If you want to be a senior manager, wait till after you are a senior manager to have your children'. The message was, you will be perceived differently if you have children before you are a manager. (Female manager)
Ultimately, it is women who are responsible for managing the work/life balance. Research indicates that women typically bear a disproportionate amount of responsibility for home and family. It is therefore incumbent on women to negotiate a satisfactory outcome.
I went to see the new head of [the organisation]... He said to me, 'This job is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Can you do that?' I said,'I'll say two things to that. If it really is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, then you have structured the job incorrectly because nobody can do that and quite frankly if that's the position you've got, I'm not the person for that anyway'. What transpired was I walked away and said I don't want to know... What came back was if I worked every second Friday, then that was acceptable. (Female senior manager)
8.3.7 The stigmatisation of motherhood
There is evidence that Australian working culture struggles to accommodate motherhood. Pregnant women in the workforce have been found to experience cultural difficulties and discrimination such as 'inappropriate or negative comments' and 'missing out on training and promotional opportunities' (ABS, 2006b).
The study concurs with these findings. While motherhood has been accepted at a policy and rhetorical level, in practice tensions remain in fully accommodating motherhood in the workplace. Women fear the stigma associated with motherhood as this may suggest a lesser commitment to workplace demands.
Successful women are single, no kids. (Male manager)
[The organisation] is user friendly for a working mother but I guess you kind of get a little bit labelled.The men see the women getting all these benefits and feel they're kind of missing out. (Female senior manager)
I've read about hiding the children... When the kids were sick I said I was sick. I wouldn't take a family leave day. Oh my god, that was just unacceptable even though they were offered because I would be seen to be unreliable. (Female senior manager)
Working mothers experience subtle resistance on a number of levels.
Is this a career woman or does she want to have a family? It's always a concern. It's one of the questions you can't ask. (Male senior manager)
Some of the girls who do have family...they all openly admit that they come to work, do their job and go home... They say, 'I'm leaving the floor today, that's what I've agreed'. [They are] not willing to be flexible, not willing to put themselves out at all. (Female manager)
This resistance is most manifest through the exclusion of working mothers from key roles, projects and opportunities.
Before I announced I was pregnant, I was always in demand, given work by the managers.When I was pregnant, it was almost like I'd resigned, I was coming back in a different capacity. I'm not treated like I was beforehand. I was always the first port of call, whereas now I'm not. Now I'm finding the managers, who used to give me a lot of work, don't give me a lot of work and have been giving work to other senior people who are always there. I can't be here 24/7 like I was previously but to be completely ignored by some of the managers is quite difficult. (Female manager)
Working mothers are often unable to break from entrenched feelings of guilt and unworthiness. They do not recognise their flexibility needs as legitimate.
When I used to come in late I used to make excuses but I could never say it was nappies and babies. (Female senior manager)
I guess when I first came back to work from maternity leave, four days, I always felt I wasn't doing enough. (Female senior manager)
We've got one lady on our team who is part-time...but it's interesting to watch her in action. It's like she always has to justify why she's not full-time with us... She'll come in half-an-hour late and go into a total spin about why she is late. (Female manager)
She's just recently come back to work after 12 months parental leave... For the first three months she was very apologetic. If she had to leave work early because her daughter was sick or she was late in because something happened at childcare... It wasn't just,'Hey, something happened, my car broke down' or something like that. It was coming from the point of view of, 'I'm a mother, I've just come back from maternity leave returning to work, I'm really sorry'. (Male manager)
A number of women go to extreme lengths to hide their parenting responsibilities.
I had to go to the children's hospital once a week for three hours. So I said, 'I don't have a choice. I can share with my husband every so often but this is the reality'. [My boss] said, 'I don't want you to tell anyone that's what you're doing', which I sort of understand was the right thing to do. But it wasn't the right thing to do because it doesn't allow the transparency of the family thing to happen. [My boss] felt the culture didn't allow it to happen. She was protecting me. (Female senior manager)
Widespread cultural resistance to motherhood results in significant 'body blows' to many women's performance and career aspirations.
I've been going with the flow and just see how things pan out. I'm trying to stay positive. I mean, the main thing I want is a challenging career and...to come in and be respected for what I do and know I'm valued. [But] my level of confidence now has gone down in terms of what I'm capable of and what I can achieve in terms of my career progression. (Female manager)
Some women decide to abandon working life.
It definitely did have an impact... I had to make a decision about what I would do careerwise. I guess I've just sort of come to the conclusion that if I want to maintain a healthy involvement in my daughter's life, that I can't do that [maintain career] and I'll just put it on hold for a while. (Female manager)
Underpinning these comments is a discomfort and anxiety with the presence of working mothers, particularly at senior level. Men do not experience the same challenges from the working environment. Male sexuality and the fatherhood role that this portends are aligned with leadership (Sinclair, 2007, 2004a, 2004b; Fletcher, 2004; Calás & Smircich, 1993).
Premier John Brumby's decision to give the Treasury job to John Lenders over Tim Holding, at least partly on the grounds that the former is a father, goes to show how people - and especially politicians - still see fatherhood as the mark of commitment, reliability, competency and hard work in men. (Fotinopoulos, 2007:17)
8.3.8 Negotiating flexibility
Where diversity and flexibility policies fail to be formally integrated into the organisation's formal workplace and market place processes and practices, negotiating flexibility is rendered a function of good negotiating skills and market power. A piecemeal approach to implementing flexibility strategies places the onus on women to negotiate work/life balance.This renders them particularly vulnerable in cultural settings where diversity policies are fluid and ambiguous, opening the way for interpretation by individual managers.
At [the senior] level I know there is a lot of different agendas, but they do walk the talk more than at the level below them. I think that's where we lose it, the level below them and the one below that. That's where things haven't changed. [The senior manager] can talk until he's blue in the face about all the changes we need in the business but it just gets lost as it filters down and someone else puts their spin on it. (Female manager)
I support women working at home.Ten percent of my staff is on part-time employment working from home. Productivity does not suffer. I make expectations clear. (Female manager)
The study finds that flexibility is not seen as a right but a privilege that must be earned.Women employ a high level of strategy in negotiating work/life options ranging from selling the benefits of flexibility to their organisation to adopting a highly proactive stance and seeking out environments that are more culturally aligned with their flexibility needs.
Whenever I take a new role I talk about the way I like to work and whether it's important that I'm there at the crack of dawn. Often that gives me an indication of the type of person I'm working for because often, if they are really rigid around time, they are probably not someone from a style perspective that I'm actually going to work with ... as you get into a more senior role, you want some autonomy. People I work best with are actually outcome focused rather than what hours do you do when you sit behind the desk. (Female manager)
An uncompromising 24/7 work ethic remains a dominant force in many organisations.While this is more pronounced in some industries, it is nevertheless an ongoing part of organisational life. Tension exists between the policy intent of flexible work programs and the prevailing management work ethic. This 'tacit resistance' (Hewlett & Luce, 2005) sends a message to ambitious managers that adopting unconventional work practices may jeopardise their careers. Stigmatisation of flexibility can result.
The study finds stigmatisation of flexibility inhibits the effective uptake of initiatives by women. Women who negotiate a part-time return to work only to find their full-time responsibilities have not diminished, avoid negotiating for a more manageable workload. They accept a 'Clayton's' flexibility in its place.
There's a lot [of senior women] that have families. How have they done it? The hard way. I know that a lot of them are strict around their time in terms of when they physically leave or physically get into the office but I also know a majority of them go home and do the night shift in terms of work. (Female manager)
There is no senior executive role that is four days a week, there is no such thing. And the stress of doing a five-day job in four days is huge. Because what happens is, I used to work very long hours to make sure everything was upto- date. I had everything sent home to me on Friday night and I would do it over the weekend so I could hit the ground running. So the fact that I worked four days didn't impact on performance even though I got less pay for it... Part-time females in executive roles overcompensate like nothing I've ever seen before. I've got three part-time females working for me and, I tell you what, I get five days a week work out of them...that's actually what's expected. (Female senior manager)
Unfortunately there are a number of senior jobs that can't be divided.That's part of the reality of corporate life. (Male senior manager)
Women feel powerless in the face of real and perceived hostility.They remain sensitive to both their marginality and a lack of cultural accommodation. This impacts on their ability to negotiate satisfactory work/life options. Many conform to the accepted status quo or abandon careers.To take the role of change agent is considered too risky, particularly when the overriding message from management is 'business as usual'.
The signals that people clearly get from their direct line management,This might be organisational policy but not in my patch. (Female senior manager)
A senior male manager in an organisation that was in the early stages of engaging with diversity and designing flexibility options described how onsite childcare was abandoned at concept stage because the female managers were not supportive.
I'm told our crèche thing hasn't been very successful. I thought we tried or we offered it but it didn't get off the ground because not a lot was made of it or there wasn't enough enthusiasm for it. (Male senior manager)
Participants from this organisation acknowledged women did not feel secure enough to reveal their needs as mothers. Rather, they went to great lengths to appear unencumbered by family responsibilities.
There's a female manager who kept her pregnancy quiet for five months. So if that's what senior women feel they have to do, then that sends a pretty clear message to me. (Female manager)
The study concurs with research findings that women comply with the dominant mindset rather than champion alternative work practices (Probert, 1999).
8.3.9 Men and flexibility
Flexibility is understood as a female agenda item. Women continue to bear the burden of domestic care responsibilities and have pressing work/life balance needs. Juggling work and family commitments does not impinge on men's workforce participation in the same way that it does on women.
A small number of middle and senior male managers adopt flexible work practices.These men utilise their status as valued members of their organisations to exert personal authority and successfully and confidently negotiate flexibility options.
I work four days a week. Primarily that is around wanting to have a different balance and not being so sucked into my job. I'm generally regarded as being reasonably good at what I do. So I'm considered to be of some value to the organisation and I think that makes a big difference. Organisations on the whole are quite happy to meet you half way, compromise, when they've got something of value. (Male senior manager)
I leave at five o'clock for my family. I know I'm of value to this organisation.They accept it. If they didn't like it there are plenty of other options. (Male senior manager)
Men's experiences with flexibility underlines the importance of negotiation skills and confidence in achieving positive outcomes. This confidence emanates, no doubt, from being part of a cultural majority that takes its rights for granted.
8.4 The leadership challenge
The flexibility option has not been a panacea for the management of work and family life. It suits some individual situations and does not suit others.The difference in women's experiences suggests that achieving successful flexibility practices is a complex task that requires a coordinated management effort.
At its core, leadership needs to challenge the alignment between long hours devoted to work and individual performance. Pressure to work long hours is relentless and on the increase, a reflection of a masculine construct of career that emphasises self-elevation, a construct that advantages men (Spearrit, 1999; Sinclair, 1994).
It's rubbish that people are working to full effect for 12 and 14 hours a day. Sometimes they are just socialising. So I think in some ways people have built that culture and that culture is quite excluding of certain sorts of women and certain sorts of men too, who want to have some balance in their lives. But it's not necessary and people really need to rethink how they do it. (Female senior manager)
I don't accept the most senior people should have no time.We'll have better people in senior positions if they have work/life balance. (Female senior manager)
You've got to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week but I think we allow ourselves to get away without testing that proposition too often. (Male senior manager)
8.5 Conclusion
The 24/7 work culture has come under scrutiny in the broader community (Relationships Forum Australia, 2007; HREOC, 2007). Corporate engagement with flexibility is still in its early stages and Australia has yet to follow many western economies by adopting a more co-ordinated response to work/life balance. Managing diversity successfully in organisations requires a thorough understanding of management infrastructure that is consistent with diversity, especially structures of work, policies, and procedures that institutionalise and build diversity. High profile business leadership support is vital to ensuring the issue remains firmly on the agenda and the narrow demands of day-to-day business are reconciled with a broader consideration of relevance, resilience, and sustainability over the long-term.