Dive Brief:
- Most of the workers in a new CareerBuilder-sponsored survey (78%) believe they can be successful as both professionals and parents. The Harris Poll of 1,012 full-time, private-sector working parents found that only a quarter of them would quit their job if their partner earned enough to provide the household with a comfortable living. And the majority (65%) said they're not willing to take a pay cut to stay home and take care of their children.
- More than half of survey respondents said they feel equally successful at raising their children and performing their jobs. However, more men (56%) than women (47%) shared this view. And while a third of women feel they're successful at parenting, fewer men (22%) described their role as dads the same way.
- Despite the overall positive attitude of the respondents towards work and parenting, survey results showed that striving for work-life balance can be burdensome for some. Although 66% of respondents spend three hours a day with their kids, 38% have missed an important event in their children's lives. Nearly a quarter of respondents said work is having a negative impact on their relationship with their children, and 24% said work is negatively impacting their relationship with their partner.
Dive Insight:
The takeaway from these kinds of surveys is that working parents want to work, regardless if they need to financially — meaning employers have serious impetus to offer benefits that encourage work-life balance for parents.
Parents who don't have to choose between their families and their work are usually freed up to focus on both and are also likely to be less stressed out and more productive, especially with support from employers through paid parental leave and flexible work schedules, various studies have said. Employers that land on the "best places for parents to work" lists typically offer generous paid parental leave benefits and flexibility as part of their benefits package.
Even retailers are offering the benefit to their hourly workers, increasingly desperate to attract and retain talent in a tight labor market. PTO remains a key driver of employee engagement overall. But an employer's culture has to enable workers to feel they can take the time allotted to them for PTO or paid parental leave to see real success.