A think-tank report said that employers in the public sector had only low levels of commitment to changing standard working patterns and in some cases deliberately blocked people from undertaking flexible working, or granted requests only to selected favourites.
Source: Fiona Visser and Laura Williams, Work-life Balance: Rhetoric versus Reality?, Work Foundation (0870 165 6700)
Links: Report | Work Foundation press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2006-Dec
An article examined the implications for fertility of the government's strategy to allow parents to combine work with family responsibilities more easily. Recent demographic studies suggested that the strategy might stabilize or improve fertility rates, so mitigating the trend to population ageing: but the evidence was not conclusive, because relationships between female employment and fertility were complex and context-dependent. The article suggested several factors that might therefore merit further consideration.
Source: Ian Dey, 'Wearing out the work ethic: population ageing, fertility and work life balance', Journal of Social Policy, Volume 35 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-Oct
A report said that many working parents were at work during traditional 'family time', when their children were at home. In nearly 9 out of 10 working families where both parents worked, at least one parent worked unsocial hours - reducing the amount of time parents spent with their children and the kinds of activities they did together.
Source: Matt Barnes, Caroline Bryson and Ruth Smith, Working Atypical Hours: What happens to family life?, National Centre for Social Research (020 7250 1866)
Links: Summary | Relationships Foundation press release
Date: 2006-Oct
An article said that there were strong links between employment of females, having children, and union formation. Different levels of labour force participation by females did not necessarily lead to large changes in fertility events: but changes in union formation and fertility events, in contrast, had larger effects on employment.
Source: Arnstein Aassve, Simon Burgess, Carol Propper and Matt Dickson, 'Employment, family union and childbearing decisions in Great Britain', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, Volume 169 Issue 4
Links: Article
Date: 2006-Oct
A report said that being a father had little effect on men's working patterns, in spite of the fact that they cut back their working hours for a short time after a child was born.
Source: Esther Dermott, The Effect of Fatherhood on Men's Patterns of Employment, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: ESRC press release | Bristol University press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2006-Aug
A survey found a significant increase in the availability of most flexible working arrangements between 2003 and 2006. 87 per cent of employees said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with their current working arrangements up from 81 per cent in 2003.
Source: Hulya Hooker, Fiona Neathey, Jo Casebourne and Miranda Munro, The Third Work-Life Balance Employees Survey: Executive summary, Employment Relations Research Series 58, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Report
Date: 2006-Jul
The Work and Families Act 2006 was given Royal assent. The Act provided improved rights for working parents. It contained powers to extend entitlement to statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance from six months to a maximum of one year; and created a new right for fathers to take up to 26 weeks additional paternity leave, if the mother had returned to work before her maternity leave had expired.
Source: Work and Families Act 2006, Department of Trade and Industry, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | DTI press release | Carers UK press release
Date: 2006-Jun
A report said that the line between work and life would become increasingly blurred as technology continued to advance. The number of employees with always-on, mobile, e-mail access was set to rise significantly by 2010.
Source: Eye to the Future: How TMT advances could change the way we live in 2010, Deloitte & Touche LLP (020 7303 6410)
Links: Report | Deloitte and Touche press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2006-May
An article said that government policies since 1998 had only minimally helped fathers to reconfigure their paid work and care patterns. This was due to the "economistic rationale" under which the work-life agenda had emerged.
Source: Majella Kilkey, 'New Labour and reconciling work and family life: making it fathers' business?', Social Policy and Society, Volume 5 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-May
An article examined the consequences of structural shifts in family and work lives for a sample of elite, managerial women in dual-earner marriages. Although conceived differently compared to previous decades, the family remained central to respondents' sense of community, and structured their civic engagement. In contrast with previous generations of women, however, work was also important - for defining women's sense of self and community, and for offering an alternative venue for community service.
Source: Patricia Roos, Mary Trigg and Mary Hartman, 'Changing families/changing communities', Community, Work & Family, Volume 9 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2006-May
A report examined the social and business benefits of supporting working carers.
Source: Sue Yeandle, Cinnamon Bennett, Lisa Buckner, Lucy Shipton and Anu Suokas, Who Cares Wins: The social and business benefits of supporting working carers, Centre for Social Inclusion/Sheffield Hallam University (0114 225 5786)
Links: Report | Carers UK press release
Date: 2006-Apr
A survey found that more than half (56 per cent) of all private companies and public organizations in the United Kingdom with more than 10 employees had flexible working-time arrangements in place. In terms of flexibility, this ranked United Kingdom companies and public sector bodies fourth among European Union countries: but the degree of flexibility offered by flexi-time arrangements in the United Kingdom was less advanced than elsewhere in Europe.
Source: Press release 5 April 2006, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (+ 353 1 2043100)
Links: EFILWC press release | Survey summary
Date: 2006-Apr
The government began consultation on proposals to offer fathers the opportunity to choose to take up to 26 weeks additional paternity leave to care for children under one. This additional leave could only be taken if the mother had chosen to return to work, and both parents would not be entitled to take leave at the same time.
Source: Choice and Flexibility: Additional Paternity Leave and Pay, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500)
Links: Consultation document | DTI press release
Date: 2006-Mar
A report said that parents were taking more time off form work to be with their new-born babies, and were benefiting from flexible working arrangements to help them balance their home and work lives while they had young children.
Source: Deborah Smeaton and Alan Marsh, Maternity and Paternity Rights and Benefits: Survey of Parents 2005, Employment Relations Research Series 50, Department of Trade and Industry (020 7215 5177)
Links: Report | DTI press release
Date: 2006-Mar
A new book examined the multiple difficulties in combining paid work with other parts of life, and the frustrations people experienced in diverse settings. It said that there was a myth that work-life balance could be achieved through quick fixes, rather than challenging the place of paid work in people's lives and the way work actually got done.
Source: Richenda Gambles, Suzan Lewis and Rhona Rapoport, The Myth of Work-Life Balance: The challenge of our time for men, women and societies, Wiley (01243 779777)
Links: Summary
Date: 2006-Mar
A report by the equal rights watchdog said that many fathers were working long hours, struggling to balance work and family, and feared that requesting flexible working would damage their careers. Men wanted to take a more active role in caring for their children: but 4 in 10 fathers said that they spent too little time with their children.
Source: Working Better: Fathers, Family and Work – Contemporary perspectives, Research Summary 41, Equality and Human Rights Commission (web publication only)
Links: Report | EHRC press release | NCT press release | Fatherhood Institute press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Telegraph report | Personnel Today report | Guardian report
Date: 2006-Jan
A study used a survey of manufacturing firms in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States to examine management practices and work-life balance. It was found that well-managed firms did not work 'harder', but 'smarter' - employees in well-run firms typically had a better work-life balance. Management practices associated with good 'people management' - such as fostering talent, rewarding and retaining well-performing staff, and consistent training opportunities - were likely to be found in conjunction with good work-life balance practices.
Source: Nick Bloom, Tobias Kretschmer and John Van Reenen, Work-Life Balance, Management Practices and Productivity, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics (020 7955 7673)
Links: Paper | ESRC press release
Date: 2006-Jan
A report said that women in Britain were happier with 'non-traditional' domestic arrangements. The recipe for personal happiness, satisfaction with the family, and lower stress at home seemed to be a combination of liberal attitudes to work outside the home and a fairer division of household chores.
Source: Rosemary Crompton, Families Employment and Work-Life Integration in Britain and Europe, Economic and Social Research Council (01793 413000)
Links: ESRC press release
Date: 2006-Jan
The Work and Families Bill was given a third reading. The Bill was designed to promote rights for working parents, It contained powers to extend entitlement to statutory maternity pay and maternity allowance from six months to a maximum of one year; and created a new right for fathers to take up to 26 weeks additional paternity leave, if the mother had returned to work before her maternity leave had expired.
Source: Work and Families Bill, Department of Trade and Industry, TSO (0870 600 5522) | House of Commons Hansard, Debate 18 January 2006, columns 848-908, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | Explanatory notes | Hansard
Date: 2006-Jan