Equal Lives: Parenthood and Caring in the Workplace

Chambraud, Chloe, Nagamootoo, Nadia, Radcliffe, Laura, Schaefer, A, Nowak, Vicky, Walne, Simon, Hardy, C and Mokhtar, D (2018) Equal Lives: Parenthood and Caring in the Workplace. UNSPECIFIED. Business in the Community.

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Abstract

Equal Lives reveals that men and women have very similar attitudes and desires in relation to balancing work and caring responsibilities. During 2018, over 10,000 employees told us about their experiences, attitudes and aspirations in relation to balancing professional employment with personal caring responsibilities for both children and adults. Equal Lives shows that caring responsibilities outside of work impacts how engaged employees are at work, their ability to progress and impetus to leave, as well as relationships within teams at work. It suggests that if employers are to create healthy and productive workplace cultures they will need to recognise individual employee needs and aspirations outside of work; taking steps to reduce the gap between their employees’ attitudes and the reality of day-to-day organisational behaviours. Currently, in the UK, nine in ten households with dependent children have working parents.