Caring for children while WFH - Daily Mail

In an ideal scenario, the employee, typically a woman with the main primary carer responsibilities, holds the reins. The pivotal point here is recognising that when she's working, she's not only expected to excel in her professional role but also bear the often invisible burden of childcare responsibilities. Our audience consistently voices the struggle of rising childcare costs, including afterschool clubs and it's continuing to force women with vast knowledge out of chosen careers, forcing countless women to work like they don't have children and parent like they don't have work. It's imperative that we acknowledge and address this issue head-on. We need to be more flexible and accept that our childcare system is in a mess and is forcing more talent out of the working market at a time of rising costs and skill shortages. Now we see employers going back to office-based roles from our readers' comments.

We have seen the landscape of work change dramatically since the pandemic, almost giving employees a tool to bargain with when looking for jobs. Businesses that are failing to understand the need for employees to work flexibly, remotely and with a better work/life balance are at the back of the queue when people are making decisions on who to work for. The cost of childcare, particularly amid a cost of living crisis and higher mortgage rates, is dictating the need for more working at home, not always to provide the care itself, but often to make pick-up and drop-offs easier. However, it is important to remember that if people are working at home, then they should be working, and if they are being carers to young children in particular, how much work is actually happening? Whilst I advocate and encourage flexible and remote working, we have to be sensible, and as well as ensuring employees are productive, that we aren't advocating an unsafe care environment for children.

There's certainly been a whole shift in the legal sector. Companies like Nexa Law, which offer solicitors the freedom to work how they want on a self-employed basis, are leading the charge. So-called alternative working is becoming mainstream, allowing lawyers to work the hours they want to achieve the right work life balance, which plainly includes childcare. I personally went from missing lots of time with my kids, missing school events and half terms etc, to now being around and with them as much as possible, and it has been genuinely life-changing. For my clients, I would say there is probably an equal number of employers who hate WFH and want everyone in the office as there are more modern thinkers who are happy for staff to work remotely and outside normal office hours provided work output is not affected. What is crucial for any employer is that they have a well-written working-from-home policy.

Watch the tide turn in the next few months. In the past few weeks, we have seen a real shift in the employee/employer dynamic. Companies are reviewing costs following revenue declines in some sectors. Employees need to make sure they are adding value/making a real difference to the organisation. This can be tricky if they are not in the office, especially if they are spending employers' time on their personal priorities and not achieving the desired outputs that the company requires. My advice: add value to that business, as a minimum at least pay for yourself. Stop expecting more and more until you are achieving this, then, and only then, are you in a position to ask for more. This will put you in a strong position because half your colleagues may believe the world is still in 2020 with handouts being offered for doing very little.

Historically, our recruiter's first question from a candidate would be about salary/package. Post-pandemic, the first question we now get asked is: can they work from home? Based on recent conversations with candidates, it's very clear that a healthy work-life balance is becoming more important, with many job seekers preferring employers that offer flexible working arrangements - such as remote work or flexible hours - to accommodate their personal lives, and that are culturally aligned with their own values and beliefs.

I think there are 2 different issues here. One is around childcare while working, the other is around shifting power dynamics. I could write an essay on the broken childcare system in this country. The nonsense "free hours" that aren't properly funded by the government, the crisis of recruiting staff on minimum wage, and the lack of quality available childcare options this results in. There was also a mindset shift for those parents who had children during or just before the pandemic when nurseries were closed and they didn't know what it was like to have proper childcare whilst working. The second issue is the shift in the power dynamic, which has certainly happened. I have an example of an employee who said they were unable to attend a client meeting as it clashed with their midday swimming lesson. Not an HR issue I would have dealt with 5 years ago. Negotiating the number of days employers see their people in the office is another issue no one could have predicted pre-pandemic.

Hybrid working has allowed employees greater flexibility to fit in their home demands including childcare during the working week. However, whilst this can offer benefits to mental health and quality of life, trying to fit in work around childcare can also increase pressure and demand, loosening boundaries between work and home and reducing time for recovery. For many, hybrid working may not be a choice, and will contribute to increased stress levels as they find themselves constantly contactable and unable to switch off work.

Not sure if you are looking for solutions as well, but we support parents by giving them the ability to manage informal childcare amongst their trusted network of friends and family. We initially developed our app to help working parents where the working day is longer than the school day.