Will males go for versatile doing work hrs?
Every single worker now has the appropriate to request their boss for flexible doing work hours, thanks to new legislation. But, with this even now observed by several as a ‘women’s issue’, will guys do it? 
Photograph: Alamy
From today, each and every employee in the United kingdom has the right to inquire their bosses for versatile operating hours, with their organization obliged to take into account the request “in a reasonable manner”.
Ahead of, employers were only legally obliged to consider “flexibility requests” from workers with young children beneath the age of sixteen or who were registered as carers.
Although men and females have been the two covered by this law, in reality the vast majority of people producing these requests have been new mothers rather than new fathers – and figures released earlier this year discovered that females have been twice as most likely as guys to have these requests accepted.
“There’s nevertheless this reaction that when guys have a child they are a bread-winner so they need to have to earn much more, whereas when girls have a child they’re a carer so they need to have to work significantly less,” says business psychologist Rachel Short of the leadership consulting company YSC.
For this cause, flexible workplace hrs have typically been talked about as a “women’s issue” with, Brief says, numerous males unwilling even to make these requests due to the fact of worries they may possibly look uncommitted to their jobs.
This is in spite of research which have recommended versatile hrs lead to happier, greater staff. A current survey by IBM, for illustration, found that 33 per cent of people with flexible timetables had been promoted two or more occasions above the last 5 years, in contrast with 24 per cent of people who worked normal hours.
Sarah Jackson, chief executive of the “work-daily life balance organisation” Operating Families , suggests this distinction comes from the higher sense of autonomy appreciated by folks with versatile operating hrs.
“It’s not versatile hours in themselves which are advantageous, it is the feeling of management it provides individuals. Studies have proven that if employees members have this and feel that they are trusted, they operate for you far better.”
And although it has historically been girls producing flexibility requests, Jackson says that with the widening of the legislation she sees no reason why males must not begin performing so at the exact same charge as their female counterparts.
“There are nonetheless these deep-rooted cultural assumptions that girls need versatile hrs far more than males. That’s simply because it has constantly been connected to childcare, which again, historically, is still thought of as a female obligation.
“It’s far more acceptable for a guy to say he demands versatile hrs so he can turn out to be a local councillor or be a rugby referee, which he’s now permitted to do. It is when men say they are a father and they are trying to stability it with their operate that men and women query their commitment.
“If you read through books by successful businesswomen in the 80s, prior to there was the proper to flexible hours, you see the same factor. When these prime businesswomen had to consider time off for their families, they’d usually give a ‘male reason’ for it, like they had to get the auto to the garage – simply because this is far more acceptable in a conventional office environment.”
Jackson expects that the amount of men asking for flexible hours beneath the new legislation will at first be reduced. Other individuals, this kind of as Rachel Brief, say there demands to be a higher target on altering the culture inside firms rather than the emphasis currently being place on the person – male or female – to make the request.
Alan Lewis, a companion in the law firm Linder Myers, predicts more men will now request versatile hrs for childcare motives since of the publicity produced by the new legislation, regardless of the fact that this alternative has been offered to them for the final ten years.
“The vast vast majority of claims are still brought by females, normally following periods of maternity leave,” he says, “but now more males will be requiring this.
“It’s an exciting level from a legal point of see simply because if male requests are turned down – as they have been disproportionately in the past – there’s fantastic prospective for intercourse discrimination claims to be brought against the firm.
“I haven’t heard of this occurring yet, but I think when a single man makes a stand about this it will lead to a lot of more claims going to tribunal. There is no purpose why employers who have agreed to a number of applications from women to turn down 1 from a man, just simply because it’s not often imagined of as a ‘male thing’.”