Is your workplace pro-family?

[happy to be mum]

I guess I am pretty much lucky then that my company's culture is pro family. All of us in my department and level leave on the dot daily at 6pm except for my immediate boss and one colleague. Boss is also very easy about leave, never once my leave was not approved Lateness is of 5 to 15 mins is never an issue but we will inform boss if later than that and she is okay too. I can't complain much.


The only drawback in my current place is promotion and growth are quite stagnant. And that draw me to ask a question: Will you still try to go out to venture for some other jobs that can pay you higher pay and growth but you don't know whether the company is pro family or not or will you stay put in the current that is pro family? I am no longer young, another few more years will hit the big \"40\"!

[rains]

happy to be mum:

I guess I am pretty much lucky then that my company's culture is pro family. All of us in my department and level leave on the dot daily at 6pm except for my immediate boss and one colleague. Boss is also very easy about leave, never once my leave was not approved Lateness is of 5 to 15 mins is never an issue but we will inform boss if later than that and she is okay too. I can't complain much.


The only drawback in my current place is promotion and growth are quite stagnant. And that draw me to ask a question: Will you still try to go out to venture for some other jobs that can pay you higher pay and growth but you don't know whether the company is pro family or not or will you stay put in the current that is pro family? I am no longer young, another few more years will hit the big \"40\"!

If I need the money, pro-family or not has no impact on me. In any job, if you need the money, you work your ass off and don't see your kids or spouse for days and it's justified. If you are happy with the current pay, you would be more inclined to want work-life balance and pro-family measures.

[Musings]

Joule:

ok lets flip it over


if you are the boss / manager

would you be 'pro-family' and how 'pro-family' would you be?

i think it depends on the industry you are in and the type of jobs involved.

We notice in my workplace where the admin/executive level staff (performing secretarial duties and the like) never fail to exhaust their 14 days entitlement of MC each year. Whereas the PMET hardly take any MC the whole year and may even come in to office to complete work when sick, this is also the group who cannot clear annual leave.

Year after year, this trend does not change - clearly people are abusing the system. Not surprisingly, the company is wary this group will likely also abuse any pro family policy. Besides, the nature of their job - to provide administrative support requires face time in the office.

For the PMET, to take time off to attend to kids etc from time to time is never an issue. But most times, you work closely with other colleagues and it is hard to discuss and strategise when you are not in office. Plus you cannot focus when kids are clamouring for your attention. So most will not like to work from home any way.

[Kissgurami]

delete

[Coolkidsrock2]

Both DH and my company take care of our family well so that we can work with peace of mind. But it also means we are driven hard. 60-90 hours work week is norm for us. So far, the company and management is supportive if we should need to take sabbatical as part of our work life balance initiative. I cannot ask for more.

[zarahsmom]

Nebbermind:

slmkhoo:

[quote=\"Nebbermind\"]I know certain coy choose to employ ladies who r rejoining the workforce. Why? Coz they r less likely to take urgent leave to tend to sick children

What industry and what area of work? I'm going to return to the workforce at 50yo so I'd be interested!

Should be admin, non-exec work lah.[/quote]am not sure if this kinda age-biased.. in our workplace there are a few women who just rejoined the workforce and they were 50+, and at least one of them is holding a Finance Manager role.. not a simple admin job.. and she is as sharp as any 28 year old girl..and yes, they kinda add some sort of \"maturity\" and \"stability\" to the team, as all of her children are now married.. so she tends to treat her direct reports as daughters/sons..

also she is very friendly to young mothers (or middle-age mothers who have very young kids).. certainly not the alpha female.. she actually promotes family friend atmosphere through her daily interactions with people..our company I would say is not pro-family but, some individuals do try to compensate for it.. by trying not to super impose stringent rules..

[Imami]

Joule:

ok lets flip it over


if you are the boss / manager

would you be 'pro-family' and how 'pro-family' would you be?

In my previous company in which i lead a team, I have never reprimanded my team when they didnt turn up on time, because they would stay to complete their work or bring work home (for those who need to pick their school going children). I understand how much it can pisses people off if I tell them to be punctual.

I had a few working mothers in my team, with preschool children. I gave them the flexibility of going off earlier/ coming in later if their kid's were sick. They could work from home for a few days, if really necessary. We were all issued with laptop with VPN access, connected by msn/hp etc.

My own boss extended the same privileges for me.

In my current environment, there are pro-family measures in place. They are stated in the employee handbook but these are like taboo... We have flexi working hours in which staff can choose to start earlier/later than the norm. However, certain team leads would make it very difficult for one to apply for staggered working hours. They would say things like \"how would u know if you would be punctual, since there is hardly anyone in the office at such early timing?\" or \"if there are late meetings (after the official hours), will you stay around to attend?\"

We also have the \"blue sky day\" where employees can go home earlier than usual. But I don't see many managers/directors telling their folks to leave early.

Although it is a generally common observation that female bosses may be harder to please, my take is, individual, rather than gender that makes the diff. Also, having all such measures are of no use if the folks in the environment do not subscribe to them/are not supportive of them.

[mgnvr]

It’s easy for HR to include such incentives in the policies but difficult to execute. It has always been subject to the immediate supervisor. So it boils down to the individual.

[straffan23]

If the situation is reversed....


I previously managed a team of 5. We were in the IT industry then and life was hectic and forever busy; but I recall how I always made it a point to make sure that one of the female staff knock off early enough to pick her kid up from the nanny. Many times, I ended up being her chauffer, sending her to fetch her kid and dropping her off. Something I can do in 30mins driving, but it would take her over an hour with public transport.

The time-keeper nazi said, no, she will not understand (the issues of a FTWM) because she hasn't got a family yet. But she apparently has been so sick for so long (working all 4 days in the last 4 weeks!!)... she must be either pregnant, else she might be terminal? Like a colleague pointed out today... precisely, because she was only there one day a week, and that was the day we were late... so all the other days doesn't count! :siao:

And sometimes, people just don't make sense, right? Yes, if I arrive early everyday and start the day with breakfast at the table (like mrs nazi), that is okay... if they cannot have my soul they want my body present, anyway. :rotflmao:

[Joule]

straffan23:

If the situation is reversed....


I previously managed a team of 5. We were in the IT industry then and life was hectic and forever busy; but I recall how I always made it a point to make sure that one of the female staff knock off early enough to pick her kid up from the nanny. Many times, I ended up being her chauffer, sending her to fetch her kid and dropping her off. Something I can do in 30mins driving, but it would take her over an hour with public transport.

The time-keeper nazi said, no, she will not understand (the issues of a FTWM) because she hasn't got a family yet. But she apparently has been so sick for so long (working all 4 days in the last 4 weeks!!)... she must be either pregnant, else she might be terminal? Like a colleague pointed out today... precisely, because she was only there one day a week, and that was the day we were late... so all the other days doesn't count! :siao:

And sometimes, people just don't make sense, right? Yes, if I arrive early everyday and start the day with breakfast at the table (like mrs nazi), that is okay... if they cannot have my soul they want my body present, anyway. :rotflmao:

hmmm. ah.

Yes. I totally agree. My situation is sometimes I come in late. But I don't take 1.5 - 2 hr long lunches or teabreaks! Eh hello, don't need to work ah?

back to topic. Sometimes the way boss speaks to you can be misinterpreted. One of my friends had her kid sick and so had to rush off from work to cc to pick up. Her boss was a bit clueless that day and ask her to file time off thru sms(meaning officially report to HR that she left 1.5 hrs early). This lead to her being upset for the whole night and tears in the office the next day. Until the boss explained to her it was a miscomm, he purposely wasn't trying to be anal or give her a hard time.

on the personal side I quite like working with aunties. They talk nicely to people and they can get their work out of you (admin and stuff). Along with that they probably have grown kids so they might be more experienced in settling work disputes which happen time to time. Best part is sometimes they bring food that they make to the office for us to eat. = ) And they give me chance to practice my broken hokkien.