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| Achieving real gender equality at work
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| Dads need to take a stand
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Dads all over the world are now taking a much more proactive and involved role in parenting, both by necessity and by design. Fathers are entirely up for sharing the load and for gender equality in both the home and the workplace, but employers need to get with the flexible work program.
With the best will in the world, it's not always easy for men to be supportive partners and dads when their employers don't understand or aren't willing to accept their needs.
In many ways schools and businesses are still stuck in the 1950s; school times and employer expectations do not encourage or facilitate dads to take an equal share in parenting.
Parenting is still seen to be very much one-sided. That's to say that it's expected that one parent (usually the mother) will be the one to do all the drop offs, pick ups, sick care, doctors appointments and school holiday leave, so therefore only one parent (the mother) needs flexibility.
This is no longer realistic for most couples, who both work and want to take equal and joint responsibility for their children as well as for their finances, yet employers still require male staff to be 100% committed and there is still a lot of discrimination of men who don't conform to this ideal.
Last year a survey commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission reported widespread discrimination in the workplace of both mothers and fathers.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said: "Despite taking very short periods of parental leave, over a quarter (27%) of the father and partner respondents reported experiencing discrimination during parental leave or when they returned to work".
"The data reflects what I have heard about negative attitudes towards men taking parental leave or working flexibly to care for their children".
In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald last year, Broderick said that too many men pretended they didn't have family responsibilities while they were at work and this created a distorted "ideal worker model, someone who was available 24/7 without any visible caring responsibilities".
She believes that 'the benefits of men making their family or "caring responsibilities" visible to their employees at work reverberated throughout a workplace'.
"When men step up and work differently… it says you can be a serious player at work and an engaged dad"," she said. "That role modelling, that sharing of yourself, your personal experience, your personal challenges is so important and it's what I call courageous leadership".
Broderick believes that if there is more visible and proactive sharing of both paid and unpaid work between men and women, then companies will have to act accordingly, making every role in a company flexible.
Telecoms giant, Telstra has had parent friendly policies such as flexi-time and home working in place for a while but in 2013 they went a step further by introducing their All Roles Flex initiative.
Lynne Barry, Telstra International's HR director, said that as a technology company that helps people to connect, they help other organisations introduce technology to enable their employees to work more flexibly and would therefore be remiss if we did not grab that opportunity themselves.
"We believe that the approach of other companies to flexibility starts from the full-time model and asks for what reason would flexibility be allowed", said Barry.
"At Telstra, we work from the premise that all roles can be flexible, and the question for a manager is why a role could not be done flexibly, rather than why it should be an option" she said.
All Roles Flex reflects the belief that flexible work should assist the individual and the business, and the more we embrace this as an organisation, the greater the benefits.
Instead of employees having to make a case to managers about how they could make it work, those managers must allow it now, unless they can convince their bosses that it is impossible.
Since introducing All Roles Flex, Telstra had reported a 300 per cent increase in the number of male managers taking primary parental leave.
CEOs leading by example
Westpac CEO and father of 6, Brian Hartzer has instigated a culture of parent-friendly flexible working, no early or late meetings and extra holiday purchasing.
He buys extra weeks holiday to help bridge the gap of four weeks statutory holiday versus the (up to) 14 weeks of school holidays.
This is ingenious and with the culture firmly set from the top, it's much more likely to be adopted by other managers and staff.
This sort of parent friendly culture and true flexible working means parents need no longer do the walk of shame for the 5:30 pick up.
Directives also include no meetings outside 9am and 5pm to accommodate working parents and the ability to buy extra weeks of leave to accommodate the (up to) 14 weeks off for school holidays.
Other things you should know
Dad & Partner Pay
Dad and Partner Pay has helped pave the way to greater quality and understanding of both mums' and dads' needs and larger companies are now offering greater flexibility with work hours for both parents.
Dad and Partner Pay is a dedicated payment for fathers and partners under the Australian Government's national Paid Parental Leave scheme. It means that fathers and other partners get financial support to take time off work to support new mothers in their caring role, and help them recover from the birth.
Eligible working fathers and partners receive two weeks Dad and Partner Pay at the rate of the National Minimum Wage.
For more on Dad & Partner Pay click here
Right to ask for flexible work
Under the Fair Work Act 2009, if you are a parent of a child of school age, you are legally entitled to ask for flexible work arrangements from your employer.
Your employer does not have to accept your request and can deny it on "reasonable business grounds", but they are legally obliged to seriously consider your request.
To be eligible for flexible working, you must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months on a full-time or part-time basis. Long term casual employees who have a reasonable expectation of ongoing employment are also eligible.
For more info, go to www.fairwork.gov.au.
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