By ELIZABETH CHURCH,
Globe and Mail
Wednesday,
February 13, 2002 – Print Edition, Page B1
When it comes to balancing the competing demands of work and family, a
massive new study points to one overwhelming conclusion -- work is
winning.
"People are desperate. It's really horrible," said Linda Duxbury, a
business professor at Carleton University and one of two researchers to
work on the Health Canada project, which involved more than 31,000 workers
and is by far the biggest study of its kind in Canada.
Canadians, Prof. Duxbury said, are meeting work expectations by making
many compromises in their personal lives. They are getting less sleep,
working longer hours, taking work home, and in many cases delaying having
children or deciding not to have a family at all because of their
careers.
"People are finding ways to have balance. They are finding that the way
to balance is to not have kids," Prof. Duxbury said.
She will release the preliminary findings of her research at a seminar
today in Calgary sponsored by the United Way.
More detailed reports of the research, done with Chris Higgins from the
University of Western Ontario's Ivey School of Business, will be released
this spring.
What the research shows is that more than 40 per cent of women in
professional jobs have not started a family because of work and 30 per
cent of male professionals say they too do not have children because of
their careers. One in four women in these jobs and 15 per cent of men said
they chose to have fewer children because of work.
Karen Schucher, a partner in a Toronto law firm, is one of those women
who decided to wait for children because of her career.
Ms. Schucher said she did not become a lawyer until she was in her
early 30s and delayed starting a family for a few years until there was a
break in a case she was involved in.
"I certainly had friends who questioned that choice," Ms. Schucher
said. "We were lucky. I got pregnant and we had a healthy child."
But she said she was not so lucky when she and her partner tried a
second time and she wonders whether her age was a factor.
"I'll always have that question," she said. "The reality is it's harder
to have children when you are older. I wonder if women are making informed
choices."
Prof. Duxbury, who has conducted research in the area of work and
family for more than a decade, said the demands being place on Canadians
by employers are mounting and this new research leaves little doubt that
this is taking a toll on the home front.
Job stress is up from 10 years ago, job satisfaction is down, workers
are less pleased with their life in general and are more likely to say
they are depressed.
"It's pathetic really," she said. "We've come out of the decade in
worse shape than when we went into it."
What is most alarming, Prof. Duxbury said, is the number of respondents
who reported that although their workplace has programs to foster better
balance with their personal life, such as part-time work or flexible
hours, the general feeling is still that taking advantage of such programs
will limit their careers.
More than half of the people surveyed said that not working long hours
would limit their job advancement and close to half also said refusing to
take on extra work was unacceptable.
"Organizations can talk all they want, but the culture is that you work
long hours and put work ahead of family," Prof. Duxbury said.
Only about one-third of respondents said they work in an environment
that supports a balanced lifestyle and about the same number said their
employer makes them feel comfortable about using programs to support more
work-life balance.
"Some senior leaders would have you believe that they have talked about
this issue, they have put policies in place so therefore it's done," Prof.
Duxbury said. "The reality is that policies have to be the first step, not
the last. Policies are no good if people feel that to use them will put
their career in jeopardy."
Ms. Schucher, the Toronto lawyer, agrees. Since having her child eight
years ago, she has worked part-time and still managed to become a partner.
But she said that kind of support for alternative arrangements is rare,
especially in the legal world. "You have to allow people to choose
different patterns. It's nice to say people can take different paths, but
then you should not be critical of the decisions people make."
That kind of continued resistance to change in work culture is why
Prof. Duxbury said a study of this magnitude is so vital. "It's hard to
argue with it," she said. "You have to have the numbers to convince the
unconverted."
Prof. Duxbury said all employers should be concerned about her findings
because the pressures faced by workers are directly linked to the bottom
line in such factors as increased absenteeism, problems with mental
illness, higher prescription drug costs and a drop in productivity.
As well, she said, having fewer or no children is not an acceptable way
for a society to address this issue, especially given the looming shortage
of workers that will develop when the baby boom generation begins to
retire in five years. "It's easy to say 'it's your problem, you solve it,'
but this is not a sustainable solution for Canada."
It also is not a solution, Prof. Duxbury said, given the aging nature
of the population and the growing number of workers who are facing elder
care responsibilities.
"That's where the rubber really hits the road," she said, "because you
can choose not to have children, but you can't choose not to have
parents."
For that reason, she predicts far from being old news, problems
surrounding work and family issues will become more severe in the coming
years because there are so few supports available for the elderly -- even
for those who are willing to pay for them.
"The time has come when you can't just talk about it any more," she
said. "There is a real cost to not doing something. How can we continue to
operate this way?"
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