Juggling two roles puts women at risk of being disadvantaged at work and at home, bank CEO says
Working from home, which has become the norm for many Kiwis over the past two years, has many benefits, but unequal sharing of household responsibilities means the experience is different, and often more challenging, for women.
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This was according to new study by ASB and the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) titled Zooming into a better work-life balance? Gender and equity insights from New Zealanders' experiences with working from home.
The majority of respondents had an overall positive experience of working from home during lockdowns, with nearly a third of them saying they had a positive or very positive experience, agreeing that the ability to achieve a better work/life balance, avoiding long commutes, and overall cost-effectiveness were major benefits of working from home.
The report also found increasing recognition that flexible working arrangements did not result in negative productivity, with around half of those who prefer to work from home reporting they are more effective at home than in the office.
But while flexible working has many benefits, the experience is different for women and men, particularly when it comes to childcare and their work environment. Women were significantly more likely to do most or all of the childcare and home-schooling during lockdowns, potentially putting them at risk of being disadvantaged both at work and in the home, ASB CEO Vittoria Shortt said.
“COVID has created a challenge for families, with parents required to home-school their children during lockdowns on top of their normal work life, which is an unrealistic expectation,” Shortt said. “We can see from the research that this is a responsibility women tend to pick up more, with 56% saying they do most or all of the home-schooling. Only 22% of respondents felt the home-schooling load was shared fairly. We are likely to see this continue in the near term as families isolate due to COVID.”
Less than half of respondents said they had the ideal equipment or space to work comfortably and effectively at home, but women were significantly more likely than men to report this, with 34% of men saying they have a better work-from-home setup than their partner, compared to 23% of women.
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“For employers, it's important that we support our people with the right equipment and setup where we can, so they feel comfortable working from home,” Shortt said. “While we can't change household division of labour for childcare and housework, we can shine a light on this challenge and support our people with active conversations.”
Findings also showed that male managers were more likely than their female counterparts to prefer their staff be physically present in the workplace – often due to a lack of confidence managing remote workers. Men who prefer to work from the office are more likely than women to be motivated by the need to be seen at work, whereas women were more likely to value the professional and social connections in the workplace, the study found. This showed that the concept of ideal worker culture may be stronger in men than in women.
Meanwhile, women were also found to be more likely be disadvantaged by workplace cultures where employees are valued for behaviours that are not associated with productivity, such as arriving at work early and leaving late, taking few and short breaks, and minimising sick leave.
“We need to ensure our culture plays a role in supporting our people to work remotely if they choose to in a way that doesn't disadvantage them at work,” Shortt said. “It's important that we support our leaders to be more confident leading remote workers. They need to be actively encouraging work-life balance and may need to model working from home themselves.”
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Finally, the report showed remote working may be killing the concept of a sick day, with one in five respondents saying it’s harder to justify taking the day off when they were already at home – especially for women.
“Two key issues really come out of the research as critical concerns, particularly for women, and that is work-life balance and work-life separation,” Shortt said. “Leaders can help facilitate a shift in thinking and provide support to ensure they are doing all they can to mitigate this. Leaders need to be clearer on what they need from their people with respect to remote and on-site working and encourage active management of work-life boundaries.”
Shortt said there are many benefits to working from home and when done well, it's a win-win situation.
