What Working Parents Really Need from Workplaces

5 min Source: TED TALK
PME All levels

BLUF

Many employees, especially parents, have to balance work and home demands—good employers know this and have strategies to help.

Summary

Looking after a home and children is essential to work and, when combined with paid work, can cause stress. However, many parents want and need to work. Because of COVID, many workers also have to balance paid work and domestic work, including homeschooling. Therefore it might be helpful if managers ensured that they have policies and processes to help workers adapt to the new requirements of the workplace.

Paternity leave is one strategy to support parents, but a holistic view of paternity should include:

  • Care of ageing parents.

  • Someone that you love and care about needing help.

Other strategies to support people includes: 

  • Taking an interest in how things are going at home.

  • Recognising that the hours between 5 – 8 pm are particularly critical for parents.

  • Focussing on what is being produced rather than measuring time spent at work.

  • Communication to determine what workers need and when do they need it.

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