The threat comes in response to the right to disconnect laws, which allow workers to take their employers to the Fair Work Commission if they are penalised for failing to respond to out-of-hours contact.  

So is the right to “disconnect” really a victory for the so-called “anti-work culture” movement and a concession to the lazy workers of Australia? Is this the end of productivity as we know it?

Hardly. Rather, it’s an evolution of our times.

Just because we have the tech to be constantly on and available doesn’t mean bosses should expect to receive an immediate response to emails, texts and other forms of messaging. The now archaic Blackberry only found widespread adoption in the past 20 years, while the iPhone was first released in 2007 and arrived in major markets in 2009. Before that, most workers may have been sent emails out of hours, but they didn’t actually receive them until they logged into work, which for many would be at 9am the next morning.

But bosses seem to believe they have given enough away on flexibility to concede on putting limitations around what they can expect from workers outside of the hours they’re being paid to actually work.

Innes Willox, the chief executive of the Australian Industry Group representing big business in Australia, has issued a warning in The Australian newspaper that businesses are preparing for the new laws and, “unfortunately for employees, many are indicating that flexibilities in workplaces such as leaving early to pick up the kids or going to the dentist will be cut back.” 

He says that “flexibility cuts both ways and if employees want to play hardball, they can expect their employer to react accordingly. All of this is both sad and unfortunate.” 

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Peter Dutton is pursuing a curious election strategy, declaring he will repeal reforms and return the right for employers to expect a response from workers when they contacted outside of work hours.

While flexibility has also come a long way in recent years, it’s provided more options for workers to balance work and care responsibilities (across some industries) but it hasn’t cut down the number of hours they’re working. 

Seven in ten workers reported working outside their scheduled hours in a 2022 survey by The Australian Institute. For those that do report doing overtime, almost half (44 per cent) said they were “often” putting in additional hours to meet employer expectations. Thirty-eight per cent of workers said that overtime was an expectation in their workplace. 

And what does all this overtime do to Australians? It results in physical tiredness, according to a third (35 per cent) of workers, as well as stress and anxiety (32 per cent) and being mentally drained (31 per cent). 

Out of work interruptions also affect relationships. They can get in the way of family time and see people cancelling plans with family and friends. Ultimately, one could argue this “always on” mindset might be contributing to poorer physical and mental health outcomes for Australians and even to the loneliness epidemic, given just how much work interruptions have crossed into time otherwise reserved for hobbies, fitness, connecting with friends, spending time with family. How does that make for a productive Australia? 

Rates of psychological distress among young people have more than doubled since 2011 according to new HILDA figures out today, with 42.3 per cent of those aged 15 to 24 reporting they were psychologically distressed. This age group also now accounts for the highest proportion of people reporting loneliness. This group also includes those most likely to be starting a new career, working in more junior positions with less autonomy over their role.

There is still much more to be considered in these new laws; understandably, employers seek to know exactly how they’ll work.

But giving workers a “right to disconnect” won’t kill Australia’s productivity. Rather, it might just improve the lives and outcomes of Australians and their families.

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Today, new data released by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) on the strong take up in an “all roles flex” policy by employers puts solid numbers on this shift, and also highlights the industries that are falling behind. 

Of the 78 per cent of almost 5000 employers to answer the voluntary question on whether they had implemented an “all roles flex” approach to flexible work, 38 per cent said they had done so.  

That “all roles flex” approach means that staff can determine how, where and when they work. It puts an emphasis on work output and outcome, over hours physically spent in an office. Researchers suggest it’s a key tool for driving workplace gender equality. 

And other research finds that the overwhelming majority of Australian workers (nine in 10) want workplace flexibility. Australians have also grown to expect it, with a third of employees currently working flexibly saying they would quit their current role or start searching for another position, if they are told to return full time to the office. 

We know COVID significantly accelerated the shift to more flexibility, particularly in men accessing flexibility. But this data highlights how employers are quickly adopting the approach. 

Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that “all roles flex” was seen as particularly forward and progressive, notably when Telstra introduced the policy across its workforce many years before the pandemic. 

Still, it’s clear that certain industries — especially those with a strong mixed-gender workforce base — are offering this approach over others, with around half such industry types doing so (48 per cent). The number drops to 30 per cent across male and female dominated industries, a fall that WGEA suggests reflects the fact these industries can be more likely to require being physically present, like in nursing and mining. 

The WGEA data finds that in 2022, 71 per cent  of employers report having a formal policy for working from home, a massive jump from 35 per cent  in 2019 (pre-COVID levels) and even from 66 per cent in 2021.

But is it enough to simply offer some form of flexibility, when it comes to supporting staff? 

On the findings, WGEA Director Mary Wooldridge noted that flexibility needs to be creative, and extend beyond just offering remote working options. 

“Flexible work is a key driver for gender equality, but employers should be creative to enable their employees to have flexibility that meets their specific needs,” she said. 

“Innovative actions we’ve seen from employers include creating shifts specifically within or outside of school hours and offering job sharing or part-time work arrangements for managerial or executive roles. These types of measures make it easier for men and women to equally participate in the workforce – whether that’s from the office or home.”

The flexible working shifts some have experienced have also not always been positive. Some Australians report working longer hours due to hybrid work arrangements, while some report losing access to leadership and key career advancing opportunities 

As Wooldridge said: “COVID has undoubtedly changed how we think about remote working, and while that is a big shift, it risks creating a two-tiered system – one for employees returning to workplaces and another for those who are not – if it is not implemented well,”

It’s incredible to think how far we’ve come on workplace flexibility in just the past three years —from CEOs once claiming to work “flexibility” because they left the office early once a week to pick up their kids, only to log back on that night, and big employers making headlines on announcing “all roles flex” initiatives. It a now been proven how quickly adjustments can be made to accommodate needs and emergencies that are bigger than any one employer. But the fight for real flexibility that supports all careers and broadens access to opportunities for everyone is far from over. 

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That’s according to new research from Bain & Company which shows consistent career motivations across women and men, but outcomes that vary significantly due to occupation choice, prioritisation of flexibility, and the perpetuation of biases.

Comparing workforce participation between men and women across twelve countries including Australia, the study found that while both men and women prioritise flexibility equally early in their careers, it declines as a priority for men as they age.

Research shows that men value flexibility as a means of attaining greater balance in their lives, while women prioritise flexibility for caregiving purposes says Lars Verheyen, Bain Partner and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion lead for Australia.

“This indicates that there is probably still a bias existing around the responsibility that females and males are taking and assuming around caregiving,” he adds. And it’s this social expectation which continues to hinder the career aspirations of women.

According to the Wages and Ages: Mapping the Gender Pay Gap by Age data series, issued by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in June, most women are not in full-time work for the bulk of their working lives, which holds them back from management positions and widens the pay gap with men.

Between the ages of 35-44, 54 percent of women in Australia are in either casual or part time work compared to just 21 percent of men. And just 5 percent of men take up the primary caregiving role when they become parents.

An advocate for flexibility and dismantling harmful gender stereotypes, Rob Sturrock says that for decades men have felt trapped in a male breadwinner culture that tells them the best way to be a dad is to work long hours—but he now believes the tide is turning.

Noting that Bain’s research shows that Australian men have the highest preference for flexibility across all the various male international cohorts surveyed, he suggests that there has been a noticeable shift where men feel more comfortable challenging traditional gender norms and seeking flexibility to be present parents.

Sturrock, a public policy manager who took extended parental leave when his children were born and again in 2021 when he was made redundant at the height of the pandemic, says the critical question now is whether workplace systems evolve to better accommodate men seeking the time and space to care for children.

“For men, like any parent, there are so many benefits to having time to care for children,” he says.

“It gives you the time and space to focus on loving and caring for your baby, getting to know them, and beginning to understand what’s required in being a parent. My time at home was hard, exhausting, demanding and incredibly joyous”.

Sturrock notes also that his time at home gave him greater perspective on life and enabled him to hone a skillset that ultimately benefitted his career, including increased problem solving, time management, organisational skills, communication, and empathy.

“Caregiving makes you a better colleague and manager, without doubt,” he says.

Verheyen agrees, and says that successful companies of the future will embrace gender equality within policies along with a move to allow workers to take a “passport” approach to their careers— enabling individuals to explore different roles, flexible work, and on- and off-ramps as part of their career journey. 

He adds that flexible practices should be offered and practised at scale, encouraged by managers without judgement and adopted by men and women at all levels.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has presented us with a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity to redesign where and redefine how Australians work. Organisations across the country now have a significant opportunity to harness the full potential and talent of their workforce in how they reimagine the workplace,” he says.

At the public policy level, Sturrock highlights paid parental leave as a reform which would likewise have a significant impact in levelling the playing field between genders. Currently the federal government offers 18 weeks leave pay at minimum wage for primary carers and just two weeks for “dads and partners”.

During the 2022 election campaign there was pressure on Labor to announce a more generous scheme as well as paid superannuation contributions on top of leave. However, such a commitment is yet to be made. 

“The scheme needs to offer more time to each parent, greater flexibility for when and how it can be accessed and be paid at a higher rate than the minimum award wage,” he says. “This would be an investment in our communities and workplaces.”

This piece was written with support from our partner Bain & Company.

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Ryan, 36 who is currently pregnant with her second child, told The Age that serving her community had “been the honour of a lifetime” but that “with a little one at home and another on the way, it is time for me to seek a job that offers greater flexibility”.

“The greatest pleasure of this job has been the opportunity it has afforded me to meet everyday people doing extraordinary things”, she added. “I’m also immensely proud to have served as the deputy leader of the Nationals for the past eight years and to be the first woman in the party’s history to be elected to a leadership position, state or federal.”

While Ryan thanked her colleagues for the opportunities she’d received and and refrained from directly condemning politics as a hostile and archaic environment for women and families, the message was loud and clear: We need to do more.

There’s no reason that politics can’t follow in the footsteps of so many other industries in opening up a more level playing field.

We know the policies that will make a difference: Improved paid parental leave entitlements, universal childcare, leadership support and advocacy and remote work opportunities, to name a few.

But sadly for the Nationals and the broader Coalition, these are not policies generally backed. And, one of the consequences of failing to support long-term structural reform for women and families, is seeing talented women like Steph Ryan falling through the cracks.

Ryan said her community deserved an MP who could “devote 150 per cent of their time and energy” representing them– a commitment she could no longer provide.

“In reality, that means someone who can give [themselves] freely on weeknights and weekends and that, at this stage in my life, is not compatible with my wish to be more present for my family,” she said.

But those kind of rigid hours and requirements do not befit a modern nation nor do they align with the future of work.

For a party that’s critically struggling to attract and retain women, Ryan’s departure will come as a blow. The Victorian Coalition in particular, lost several senior MPs during the 2018 election.

Surely that’s a clear enough sign that the LNP status quo is no longer tenable for most.

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According to a new study from Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management, it is. And the culprit is the emoji. !

Death by emoji

As more and more businesses move online and increase their flexible working options, instant messaging platforms for professional purposes have also been on the rise.

Gone are the days of the sole mode of communication being a phone call or a long email, and with access to our colleagues at the touch of a button, communication has also — arguably — become less formal, as the lines blur between social media messaging and professional correspondence.

Interfaces such as Slack allow you to respond to messages via an emoji, and have even embedded shortcuts that turn certain character combinations into their emoji-counterpart. The tech we’re using in business is positioning us to use these images to convey our messages to those around us, so what’s the problem?

Well, according to the study, using pictures and emojis in favour of words is not doing you any favours if you’re wishing to “signal power to your colleagues, your boss, or your subordinates”.

Sad reacts only .

The game is afoot

In an experiment conducted for the study, participants were asked to choose one of two co-participants to represent them in a competitive game — one which was better suited to people with “high social power”.

One co-participant represented themselves with a pictorial profile, while the other chose the verbal route to represent themselves on their Zoom profile.

The experiment saw 62% of participants choose the co-participant with a verbal profile, allowing researchers to conclude that “employees who signal power by using words are more likely to be selected to powerful positions, compared to those who signal weakness by using pictures”.

But what does using a in my Slack name really say to my colleagues? That I wouldn’t be good at a… game?

A to work colleagues?

Ultimately, the researchers argue that becoming accustomed to communicating with pictures and emojis on social networks for fun has led to a lack of seriousness in “some situations” like a work or business environment. Or when being chosen to lead a competitive game.

The researchers say emoji-use can raise a “red flag” to those around you, because it signals low power — as though a CEO with 40 years of business experience behind them would immediately be disregarded in their position of power by sending a to their subordinates.

But there’s also research that argues the opposite, stating that the increasingly digital means of communication means employees can often misread the “tone and intent” of correspondence they receive.

“Plain and simple, emojis help employees communicate more effectively with each other,” CEO of unified communications platform company 8×8 Vik Verma told Forbes in 2019.

My humble take? Someone who refuses to use emojis is a walking themselves. It signals a behind-the-times approach to communication, a stringent mindset as to what professionalism should look like, and a blatant fear of change.

So whether you want to take this article and its emojis seriously or not, and whether you believe emojis should be relished or rejected in corporate correspondence, one thing is for sure: the digitalisation of workplace communication is here to stay.

And if my 85-year-old grandmother can learn how to use emojis, so can you.

This article was first published by Smart Company. Read the original article here.

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Carer labels have long been identified as a major driver of inequality in workplaces, cementing gender stereotypes from the moment a person becomes a parent.

But this latest policy shift comes after another notable milestone of progress for Lion: undertaking a pay audit, discovering the firm had a problem and then spending more than $6 million to close its gender pay gap.

CEO Stuart Irvine, who has spearheaded a range of gender equality initiatives during his eight years at the helm, believes the policy will pay for itself when considering the calibre of talent Lion has been able to attract and retain.

Lion announced its new paid parental leave policy last month, expanding its already impressive suite of pay equity achievements.

The company also announced they’d be paying superannuation on top of both paid and unpaid leave, a new initiative offering miscarriage leave, uncapped domestic violence leave, as well as COVID-19 specific policies, including vaccination leave and other programs aiming to support the wellbeing of staff and give them the flexibility they need.

I spoke to Irvine for the Family Friendly Workplaces Podcast, an initiative of Parents at Work and UNICEF Australia, which explores the ways that leaders are creating more supportive workplaces that acknowledge the needs and caring responsibilities staff have outside of work.

For Irvine, it was his own experience of having children that inspired him to pursue a better way for staff, especially for parents experiencing miscarriage.

“When my wife Tammy had to go to the hospital, the company [a former employer] said, ‘Well, that’s just what happens. You have to carry on working’.” At that moment, to be honest with you, there was a significant break in trust with the people that I believed that I worked for.

“It just gave me this insight into the bond of trust that you have to have if you really want to have the engagement of your people.”

Irvine spoke about having three children under six at one point and the challenges, sacrifices and decisions he and his wife made in order to make it work. He said these experiences have aided the empathy he feels for all staff trying to balance careers, parenting and other caring responsibilities, with almost half (45%) of Lion’s almost 2000 strong workforce in Australia having some kind of child caring responsibilities.

During lockdowns, that’s been especially tough, with so many staff trying to manage their roles while taking on additional caring and home school responsibilities. Irvine says they’ve done what they can to help, including offering early bonuses to support families financially, setting up home offices, and changing start and end times on meetings to ensure they better work with what’s going on at home.

Now with this new leave policy, Irvine says the employer wants to provide even more choices for staff.

The firm now offers 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all new parents, that can be taken at any point over a two year period. They also now offer 18 weeks of superannuation paid on top of both paid and unpaid leave.

Closing the gender pay gap

Lion was surprised to learn it had a gender pay gap, given it had always prided itself on being equitable and fair.

“But we still thought we’d better check it,” Irvine says. They discovered a 3.2% pay gap. They questioned if it could really be right, and so they checked it again.

“Then we went, Okay we’ve got a problem here,’ says Irvine. “​​And later on, I discovered that perhaps organisations that believe themselves to be fair and equitable are more at risk of this actually than organisations that are not.”

They moved to fix the gap immediately.

“So we went to the board and the board was super supportive and we fixed it up straight away and that cost us around six million bucks. But we check every six months to make sure that we stay in a plus or minus half percent from that equity level.”

While that money was primarily spent on fixing the pay gap for women, Irvine says it did also go to men — with their goal to close gaps in like for like roles.

He says that as an employer, they’ve gotten more than their money back, which gives them confidence again to pursue their bolstered paid parental leave package. He says they see the evidence in their engagement scores, as well as in some of the organisation’s women in leadership positions who he says know that they are working for a fair and just employee.

He adds they also now attract talent differently, and ultimately get better people.

“If you believe in people and you trust people and they know that they’re valued and trusted and paid fairly and equitably, then they want to work for you,” he says.

Irvine describes it as the difference between creating a place where people just show up to work because they have to, and where people are passionate about what they do.

“It’s about that discretionary thought, that extra magic that comes when people are so passionate about what they do.

“If you have an organisation where people know they’re not paid as well as the next person, they don’t believe their leaders have their care at heart.”

Irvine’s advice to other leaders is to work on your empathy.

“Get out of your office, go and sit down with people and have real, genuine conversations about how they’re feeling and what is happening in their lives,” he says.

“And think about yourself as a human, is that fair and right for those people? And if you fix that up, how would those people feel about putting that extra effort in for you? And I think you’ll be very pleased with the answer that you can do both things at once. It’s a win-win.”

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Courtesy of COVID-19, we are now six months into the biggest experiment ever run on remote working. Some people have thrived (hello introverts) while others are desperate to get back to the office (hello untrusting managers). While every organisation is different, here are three predictions of how we might work in the future.

Asynchronous communication will trump synchronous communication

A recent Gartner poll showed that 48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after COVID-19 versus 30% before the pandemic. Working remotely comes with many benefits such as eliminating time spent community, being able to spend more time with family, and wearing pyjamas to work.

However, many workplaces have simply switched face-to-face activities into virtual ones. We are experiencing Death by Zoom and according to Microsoft, virtual meeting fatigue is indeed a real phenomenon, setting in at around the 30-minute mark.

I recently interviewed Gitlab’s Head of Remote, Darren Murph, for the How I Work podcast, and he pointed out that we are hardwired for synchronous communication from a very early age – at school.

“Synchronicity is the default for a lot of people. It feels very productive. It makes you feel like you’re contributing meaningfully to the organisation, but in truth, these types of meetings and ad hoc interruptions are massively disruptive to the bottom line. It’s very difficult to get into a state of flow and make meaningful progress on any line of work if you’re continuously being interrupted,” Murph explained.

Instead, organisations need to default to asynchromous communication such as email and collaborative documents such as Google Docs. “A bias towards asynchronous is one of the sub values of our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging value because it allows for a more inclusive chorus of voices to contribute to a project,” Murph describes.

And it also means less interruptions.

Building a workplace community will become a critical activity

Most people have realised that they don’t want to be in the office all the time, nor do they want to work from home 100% of the time. The new normal will most likely involve a hybrid model where work location is highly flexible.

In the past, having a central office where people gathered was key to building a work community and culture. Now that work is more flexible (and most probably staying that way), organisations need to think about how to build a strong sense of community within teams and across their entire company given they can’t rely on a central office doing this.

Instead of believing that co-location is key to community, the importance of intangible things such as shared values becomes more important. When people share values, it helps breed connections to each other. Employees who lack this feeling of being part of a community are more likely to look for work elsewhere.

The death of (perceived) hierarchy

Remote work is the great equaliser. We are all working from our studies / bedrooms / living rooms. We are all just a face on a screen with a view into our personal worlds. No one can sit at the head of the table anymore.

Leaders who have embraced the meshing of their personal world with their working persona have flourished during this time. They have been able to build high quality connections, as Professor Jane Dutton describes, with their team. And these high quality connections lead us to feeling more open, confident and alive.

When organisations do move back to the office, at least in part, leaders need to deliberately maintain these connections and be mindful of signals that they may indicate moving back to strict hierarchy. Instead, deliberately embrace the inclusivity that is bred through the remote environment.

While it can be tempting to return to the way things were, leaders who embrace the positive changes that COVID-19 have given us will be the ones who thrive in the new working world.

Dr Amantha Imber is the founder of behavioural science consultancy Inventium and the host of How I Work, a podcast about the habits and rituals of the world’s most successful people.

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Unemployment is on the rise for a start. In the recent AIFS study, ‘Life During COVID’, almost half (43%) of respondents reported they or their partner had lost employment, or reduced hours or wages.

The impact on mental health has been significant with two-thirds of Australians reporting that they ‘felt anxious or worried for the safety of them self, close family members or friends, due to COVID-19.’

Deeply concerning is the rise of family and domestic violence. And poverty is growing in Australia with an estimated 13.6% living below the internationally accepted poverty line.

The proportion of people working from home rose from 7% before COVID-19 to 60% during it, and 40% of parents working from home were ‘actively’ caring for children at the same time.

And, as expected, this impact flows through to our children as we as parents and carers continue to bear the emotional and financial brunt of juggling the deepening divide between work and caring for loved ones, not to mention home-schooling!

Issues simmering just below the surface before, like the unequal division of household labour, or unaffordable child care, have well and truly bubbled over.

This all paints a grim picture, in particular for women and children.  

The chasm between how Australians combine work and home life is no longer invisible and the current crisis has exposed the heart of the issues that are holding back progress. Caring for others in the community is not an individual’s problem alone to bear. It is a society challenge to solve – and that includes the business community too.

As the government and employers continue to respond to the economic and health impacts of COVID-19, there has never been a more critical moment in time to invest in the way Australian’s combine work and care – and it’s vital to our economic recovery that we do.

Why? Because the economic wellbeing of business and family households are interlinked.

Financial hardship and challenging health and care situations impact the ability of families to adequately meet the demands of work and family commitments. As such, employee engagement, retention, productivity and absenteeism are negatively impacted. 

If we want to recover quickly from the economic shock that the pandemic has had on business and households, it’s time to bridge the divide between work and family once and for all. 

Our workplaces need to be more family friendly – and employers and the government must be prepared to lead the change head on.

If we want a thriving economy with a healthy level of workforce participation, there are some fundamental work-home issues that need to be addressed.

We need urgent action on childcare  

This current situation has shown the desperate need for more affordable, easily accessible early childhood education and care. 52% of Australian parents used approved care before COVID‑19, but only 26% during, despite the government’s temporary Child Care Relief Package. And now that fees are returning, many parents say that they will need to significantly reduce the number of days their children are in care or remove them altogether. This has a direct impact on work and home life, as parents reduce their hours to be able to care for children.

Being able to access appropriate care for children is a key piece in the working parent work-life puzzle, and both employers and government have an obligation to ensure parents are able to access educational, high quality childcare for their children while they work. Employers can support parents in doing this in a variety of ways, including providing areas in the workplace that are child friendly, offering subsidies, salary sacrificing for care, back up or emergency care, respite support, and vacation care programs.

Flexibility to manage the juggle

Australian working parents currently don’t have enough access to flexible work and paid family leave. These sorts of family-friendly policies, alongside a workplace culture that encourages a healthy balance of career and family life, support working parents to thrive in their career whilst feeling fulfilled at home. When parents are unexpectedly asked to both work and care for their children in a crisis like COVID-19, family-friendly policies become all the more important.

The current crisis has forced employers to adjust their business policies, allowing for more flexibility in work hours and of course, location. One major positive outcome to come from this is that employers and employees are realising that productivity remains the same, if not increases, when people are allowed to work from home and at flexible times.

Questions are arising – do we really need to be sitting in the office from 9-5? Are the face-to-face meetings necessary, or are the Zoom calls equally effective? Does it matter if employees work 7-3 instead, if it means more time at home with their families?

The whole way we previously worked has changed, and it seems highly unlikely that it will return to the exact same. Now is the perfect time to reassess policies and culture, and make those positive changes stick.

Equality at home and work

With so many working from home at this time, the line between work and home has become increasingly blurred, and our attention goes to household chores and caregiving – more specifically, who is doing what.

Despite the huge increase in both men and women working from home, studies are showing mothers continue to do most of the housework. The AIFS report found that among heterosexual couples both with and without children, 43 per cent of women were ‘always or usually doing the housework’ prior to COVID-19, and this remained almost the same at 41 per cent during COVID-19. When it comes to caring for the children, the survey had similar results – 54 per cent of parents said it was ‘always or usually’ the mother who ‘typically’ cared for the children prior to COVID-19, and dropped only to 52 per cent during COVID-19.

This unequal distribution of caregiving and household work is exasperated when employers instil the same gendered expectations in the workplace, through their policies and culture – for example, only giving ‘primary carers’ (usually mothers) parental leave while expecting fathers to take minimal time off. Gendered caring policies that continue to burden women with an unfair proportion of the caring load all need to be challenged.

Employers need to review their employee policies to ensure they are available in equal parts to both mothers and fathers, especially during this crisis when the effects of COVID-19 are not gender-specific. When there are gender-equal policies at work, this challenges the traditional gender norms by reflecting the value of equality and thus the importance of redistributing the unpaid care and household labour.

The pathway to change

Today, I stand united with UNICEF, Parents At Work, PANDA, Karitane and APLEN in releasing nine key family-friendly workplace recommendations to support working families on the pathway to economic recovery:

1. Normalise flexible work
2. Strengthen health, family and wellbeing
3. Provide new parent support
4. Address family and domestic violence
5. Provide financial wellbeing services to families
6. Review family leave policies
7. Support childcare
8. Educate leaders
9. Promote gender equality

These recommendations will help to bridge the work and family divide post COVID-19. The government, employers, community services and families must work together to build a pathway for recovery – the health and wellbeing of individuals, their families and our economy depends on it.

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Workplace flexibility is one of the major game-changers for the future of work in Australia ⁠— and something that disproportionately affects working women. For Deidre Willmott, Non-executive Director, Australia Post, this was best exemplified by trying (and failing) to squeeze in grocery shopping after work.

When she first returned to Perth to take up the position of Executive Director of Policy at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Western Australia (CCIWA), she knew there would be some things she would miss from the east coast – she didn’t expect shopping hours to be the biggest one.

A busy executive and the primary caregiver in her household, Deidre was suddenly struggling to manage the weekly grocery shop because the restricted trading hours in Western Australia meant supermarkets were closed at 6pm on weeknights (other than Thursday), and all-day Sunday.

“Balancing family and work and having to get to the shops before they closed was just so frustrating,” she says. “So, I really grabbed that issue and hit the streets talking about it. I gave presentations to community groups, to business organisations, to anybody I could find who was interested in discussing it.”

In the end, she succeeded in extending hours to 9pm on weeknights and between 11am and 5pm on Sundays.

“It’s much, much better but still confusing. To this day, if I am in a room full of women in WA, and I mention the issue of retail trading hours and the work that we did, I get a response of cheers.”

In many ways, it’s a clear example of how businesses and governments can fail to address the changing expectations of the modern workforce– something Deidre is passionate about addressing.

She spent four years from 2014 to 2018 as CEO of CCIWA, and in that time saw great changes in the way that working and trading occurs in Australia. Now, as a non-executive Director of Australia Post, she continues to see traditional business models being disrupted.

“Over time we see that it’s not just young women who need flexibility, but young men are also seeking flexibility to be more involved in parenting, to share the family work with their partner,” she says.

With technology rapidly taking over traditional work roles in many industries, there is an exciting opportunity today to reinvent the world of employment.

“This is actually about freeing people up to be retrained, to do different jobs that make a lot more use of their emotions, imaginations and their human skills. And as we free people up and focus more on where customers want that human contact, I think we will be seeing a lot of new jobs, and in many ways, better jobs than the repetitive tasks that are being replaced.”

Deidre will be speaking on the future of the workforce and responsibilities of the corporation at the Governance Institute of Australia’s National Conference in September, and she is particularly excited to be appearing alongside Taj Pabari, CEO of Fifty Six Creations.

“Taj set up his first business at 11. He’s now established Fifty Six Creations, which is teaching young Australians how to be entrepreneurs, and they’ve already educated over 50,000 young people. What I’m looking forward to talking to him about is the extent to which young people are not actually waiting to see how the world is changing, they’re going to be in there driving it.

“And I think the challenge for people like me, on Boards of existing companies, is how do we actually work with these young people who in many cases will be disruptors in our markets, and who are already successful by the time we would have expected them to be entering the workforce?”

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We’ve teamed up with Governance Institute of Australia to offer a $300 National Conference discount for Women’s Agenda readers. Simply use the code WOMEN_300 when you buy your ticket.

Conditions

• This code must only be used for the two-day registration option.
• This discount code is limited to the first 50 people who use it.
• If you’re already a Governance Institute of Australia member, you cannot use this discount code as you’re already eligible for the discounted member rate.

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Myth #1: ‘I need to prove myself again’

Coming back is not starting again. It’s un-pausing the clock; picking up where you left off, with all of your existing skills and talents plus many new ones picked up along the way (multi-tasking through severe sleep deprivation, hello!)

Even if you’re returning to a changed role or working with a new manager, remember that you’re in that role for a reason – your reputation precedes you and your skills and strengths are within you.

Believing that you need to start over can lead to unrealistic pressure and internal expectations that are generally much higher than what anyone else is expecting of you.

Instead of worrying about proving yourself, reconnect to your strengths and accomplishments, and actively seek opportunities to raise your profile and visibility. Map out your key stakeholders and reflect on what they know of your attributes and achievements already, and what you can share about your priorities for the next twelve months and beyond.

Myth #2: ‘I can’t say no to a request in my first week’

It can be tempting to avoid setting boundaries early on, justified by being in the immediate return period or having additional support at home on your initial return. ‘I’m just catching up, it’ll settle soon’ you might say. Or ‘I don’t have to do childcare pick up in the first month, so I can use the extra time to get my head around everything’.

This can create a perfect storm for challenges down the line as you then need to re-communicate and renegotiate your boundaries.

Get clear early on: what does a sustainable way of working look like for you? More than anything, effectively managing your boundaries requires consistency. Be unapologetic and confident in setting up your sustainable way of working from day one, and in doing so provide your colleagues with the transparency and consistency they need to work effectively with your schedule.

Myth #3: ‘If I go part-time I’ll end up being paid for four days and working five’

It’s the word on the street among mums particularly: there’s no point working part-time because you’ll end up working a full-week anyway. And that’s certainly true for some part-timers. But there are a whole host of part-timers who have an entirely different experience, and contrary to popular opinion this is not dependent on the busyness of their role, their seniority or their industry.

Those who make their part-time arrangement successful take responsibility for creating a way of working that suits them. They have robust discussions upfront so that their responsibilities and deliverables are adjusted to reflect their reduced hours. They’re clear on where they are and aren’t willing to be flexible. They check in regularly with themselves and their teams to make sure it’s working. And they don’t shoulder sole responsibility when it’s not – they table it as a resourcing issue with their team or manager and figure it out together.

Myth #4: ‘It’s too early to have a career conversation’

It might seem sensible to hold back on talking about your career aspirations until you’ve settled back in, and got a couple of wins under your belt. Suddenly months pass and by the time you have the conversation to get the ball rolling, you’re well past ready for the next challenge.

Flag your intentions for promotion or the next step in your career early on in your return, well before you feel ready. This sends a powerful message to your manager and may help position you firmly for new opportunities that arise.

Raising it early also factors in the inevitable time lag between first raising your intentions and the advancement actually happening. As with many things in life, if you wait until you’re ready, you’ve probably waited too long.

Myth #5: ‘It’s not the right time for promotion’

You may have clear family priorities which at first glance seem to conflict with taking on a bigger role. But underpinning this thinking may be untested assumptions about how you’d manage the role and what it would be like.

We might look at the incumbent and tell ourselves there’s no way we want that stress and those hours. But their way of working doesn’t need to be yours. Ask yourself, how could I approach the role differently? What resources do I have to craft a way of working that works for me? How might this senior role offer more flexibility and autonomy rather than less?

Of course, going for promotion shortly after your return or with young ones at home isn’t going to be the right path for everyone. But it’s worth gently testing your thinking to ensure you’re making the decision of whether or not to go for it based on your own wisdom, rather than the often-louder voices of others’ experiences.

Busting through your own misconceptions and assumptions is only part of the puzzle. Your manager and your organisation more broadly are responsible for creating an inclusive culture that supports a successful parental return.

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