‘Many City bosses still lack trust in flexible working’

A report from Cityparents find many parents feel they are not trust to work from home, even though they feel as productive as when they work in the office.

Woman works on laptop in cafe

 

Many parents working in the City see flexible working as not genuinely encouraged by their firms and 44% say it has a negative impact on their career progression, according to a survey for diversity network Cityparents.

The survey of nearly 700 employees found 38% of respondents see flexible working as not genuinely encouraged within their firms and many said they prefer to stay in their current roles for fear of losing the flexible arrangement in a new job.

Many mentioned a lack of trust shown by organisations to employees wishing to work remotely and yet 89% felt at least as productive when working from home compared with the office. The role of technology, the need for flexibility around longer-term career paths, the impact of high stress working environments and the flexible working ‘trap’ all emerged as key themes in the survey.

The topic of mental health was a big concern, with intense workloads and expected availability adding to stress. Over a quarter of respondents said they would change jobs in search of a better work / life balance. When stress levels are at their highest, 58% said that personal relationships suffer, 54% find it difficult to sleep well and 30% believe they are more likely to make a mistake at work.

Helen Beedham, Director at Cityparents and of Cityworks, the employer network, said: “We know many employers are investing substantially in resilience and wellbeing policies and support which is good progress, but our survey reveals that practical daily challenges of workload and resourcing are still often ignored. We encourage employers to be bolder in implementing more flexible and adaptable resourcing models that deliver results and respect different working patterns, and to work jointly with clients to move towards more efficient, sustainable ways of working.”

Meanwhile, a survey by recruitment group CV-Library has found that 45.5% of senior employees admitted to slacking off at work during office hours because they are bored and de-motivated. However, 66.7% claimed they still managed to deliver results and that their colleagues had never commented on their moments of relaxation.



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