No, Parents Aren't Clocking Off At 3pm – Saying They Are Is Deeply Unhelpful

I work four days a week – one of those is in the office, the rest are from home.On those days I’m at home, I get up at 6am, get my kids ready and take them to childcare for 7.45am. I sit down at home and start work at 8am. I work until 4.30pm (usually 4.40pm) and then I race to get the kids at 4.45pm before sorting dinner, bathtime and bedtime. It’s a military operation.I come downstairs at 8pm most nights and open my laptop, picking up where I left off. My partner, who has to go into the office three days a week, usually returns home after the kids are in bed. So I was more than a little shocked – and, dare I say it, pissed off – when I saw a headline on The Telegraph stating “it’s an open secret that parents don’t work after 3pm”.Excuse me?The article suggested mums and dads are clocking off at 3pm to pick their kids up because after-school childcare isn’t available (based on the writer’s experience of not being able to book after school slots mid-week) and it’s “impossible” to do any real work with kids in tow, so parents everywhere must just be coasting along to 5pm. The result? Productivity growth in the UK is grinding to a halt. (Yep, it’s all our fault).The reality is that some people are starting at 7am and finishing at 3pm. That is called flexible working and those people are still doing their hours. Those that work 9-5pm and are having to dip out to get their kids from school at 3pm are then (probably) working into the evening.The 2020 Modern Families Index by Working Families and Bright Horizons found 44% of parents felt compelled to work from home during evenings and three in five were working extra hours to cope with increased workloads.Unsurprisingly, 72% of those working outside their normal hours cited increased stress.In all fairness, the Telegraph’s money advice editor did acknowledge “many diligent people will continue working after their children go to sleep” and “in many professions, flexibility does work – a solo report might be just as good written at 9pm than 4pm”. Then he caveated: “But in most jobs, the end result is improved by collaboration and communication, not individuals working in silos late into the evening when they’re exhausted.” Ah, another warrior cry to get back to the office.To be honest, I’m actually more exhausted on the days that I do go into work.Why? Because I have a three-hour commute (round trip) to contend with, which means I have to get up a lot earlier, leave work earlier to pick up my kids at 4.45pm and then have to work well after they’ve gone to bed.Every time I leave the office at 3.30pm I feel like my colleagues think I’m the biggest shirker going (I know they don’t and it’s just my paranoid brain). It doesn’t matter that I was up at 5am and in the office before them that morning, or that I’ll be working until 10pm at home. Parents are doing their bit in very difficult circumstances – against a backdrop of awful statutory maternity and paternity pay, and sky-high childcare fees. We’re battling assumptions around being “not as committed to our jobs” and facing career stagnation.Oh, and then working hours and school hours simply do not add up. Maybe instead of headlines tarring all parents with the same brush, we should be considering how we can properly overhaul the system and how more companies can embrace flexible work – especially given 71% of workers view a flexible working pattern as important to them when considering a new role?Experts say flexible working can help tackle skills shortages and talent retention issues. Managers think it improves concentration and productivity.It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how it helps parents, too.Related...Supernanny Jo Frost Warns Parents To 'Wake The F*** Up' Over AII'm A Solicitor – This Is The 1 Major Mistake Parents Make During DivorceDo Parents Actually Want Kids Watching Adolescence In School?

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