HUMAN RESOURCE 2

Human Resource

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Over the course of time, men have had to cope up with inflexible working hours at their places of work. From the beginning of civilization, men have always been seen as the part of God’s creation made for work while women were to stay back with the children as the men worked. This has created a tradition where women are forced to stop working so as to take care of their children. Coltrane et al. (2013) adds that these conditions have turned men into robots and workaholics.

Most women are employed in private organizations and therefore have to work full time in order to achieve their career goals. As is always the case when a woman conceives, the woman usually takes a paid leave of about three months so as to take care of the baby. Men on the other hand may take a one week leave and in most cases their salary is always deducted (Rege & Solli, 2013).This has tremendously reduced the role of men in their children’s life when they are young. According to Romero‐Balsas et al. (2013), children whose fathers do not take paternity leaves grow up less bonded to them.

In the recent years, there has been an increase in the number of men taking paternity leaves. This has enabled women to pursue their career goals even after giving birth. It has also provided an avenue for men to play a part in the lives of their children and develop bonds with them (Cools et al. 2015). However, there are still a large number of organizations that do not recognize or allow men to go on paternity leave. They do not have any laid down procedure where male employees can reduce the number of hours they work or take some time off when they become fathers. This can be very damaging to the career of the mother.

In this report, the focus is going to be on effects of inflexible working hours for men on women’s career.

To begin with, most women are forced to quit their jobs so as to take care of their children fully. For women who are just at the beginning of their careers, they may be forced to quit from their jobs if the father is not supportive (Galinsky, 2013). In most cases the father may not take into consideration the importance of the career of the woman. If they are considerate, they may not be allowed to take a leave or reduce his working hours with the company he works for. Forcing a woman to quit is a grievous consequence on her career. This will force her to start again if she wants to go back to work later in life.

Secondly, gender gap increases as a result of the inflexible working hours (Blau & Kahn, 2017). Currently men earn an average of two times of what a full-time working woman earns. Based on recent studies, the fields that illustrate the largest gender gap do not offer flexible working hours for their employees. Most of the graduates from both genders earn almost the same amount when they begin working. After a given period let’s say a decade you find the males earning way, more than what the female earns. This is a result of female preference of temporary jobs than men.

In Australia, the wage gap is at 14.6%. this means that men are earning $240 more than women every week which translates to almost $1000 every month (Blau & Kahn, 2017).in the united states, the income of men has been reported to be 20%more than what a woman earns. For India, the wage gap is around 25%. Most women in India stay at home with those that choose to work taking on temporary jobs (Munshi & Rosenzweig, 2016). A recent study in America found out that the leading cause of women having a lower wage than women was due to the flexible nature of their jobs. Women are allowed to work at the time that sits them best but at lower wages.

Women will prefer temporary jobs due to the large number of domestic activities they perform. They are usually in search of flexible working hours which is available in temporary jobs. Men due to reduced responsibilities in the domestic environment, will go for jobs that are permanent. Permanent jobs have higher chances of promotions and salary increments than temporary ones. As a result, women’s career are directly and indirectly damaged by their high affinity for temporary jobs as they search for flexible hours (Elias, 2015). . Men remain unaffected and do not in most cases support a woman in performance of her domestic activities.

Many employers shun to employ pregnant women and those with children since they believe those commitments may keep them away from work (Beechey,2013).These type of employers are usually the ones that don’t allow men to have flexible working hours at their places of work. Most women won’t concentrate fully if they leave the child with the nanny alone. If men would have flexible working hours, then the situation would have been different as women would have concentrated on their jobs. Shunning to employ women hinders their career growth.

A woman is in most cases fatigued by her role as a mother and also having to combine that with her work (Klein, 2013). Men remain unaffected as the society does not even make them feel that it’s their duty to help out the woman with raising the child or domestic work. This lowers the productivity of women which ruins any chance of promotion they had. Employers usually select people with lesser commitments outside the job when doing promotions. With this, most women find themselves not eligible for such and even don’t bother applying for them.

Women are also unable to take further studies when they get children. So far we have seen the burden of giving birth taking a toll on a woman’s productivity in the workplace. Being so busy, she will not find time to take on further studies which may better her career. For example, if the woman is an accountant, she may not be able to take complementary courses such as CPA packages and also ACCA packages. If in any case the woman may want to study let’s say a doctorate or masters, handling the child without support of a man may stop her from actually studying (Slaughter, 2015).

For women who may be in elected positions, not having support of a husband may badly ruin their careers. Politicians are required to spend most of their time tending to matters of public interest. If they leave their children with hired nannies, they will most likely have to keep calling to check home if everything is alright. Given the case that the father of their children also has full time work, they find out hard balancing on time on time to spend with their children as well as time to do their duties. In the end they may choose to forego their responsibilities for the sake of their children who will always come first before everything (Sandberg, 2013).

In order to create an equal society, employers should come up with measures to allow and motivate men to taking flexible working hours. This will be of advantage to women whose potential is always limited by the inability of men to have flexible working hours. Some of the methods that can be used to achieve flexible working environments include the following.

First, do not deduct men the salary for days taken off. So far the main reason men avoid taking days off is because their wages will be deducted (Romero‐Balsas, et al, 2013). Most of the men work in private organizations which do everything possible so as to maximize profit and productivity. Employees in those organizations usually have less than 14 days leave every year save for the weekends. When anyone takes a leave exceeding the days they are allowed to take leave every year, they are usually not paid the wages for those days.

To solve this, employers should come with policies and programs that will motivate men to take leave. For example, they can introduce programs such as working from home or allow workers to choose for themselves a routine where they will work best. One of the advantages of having a flexible schedule is increased productivity among employees.

Secondly, the society should shun the belief that leaves to take care of children are only for women. Another reason men shun off paternity leaves is because of the traditions and beliefs of the society (Vandello, et al, 2013). From the starting point of civilization, men have never been recognized as the primary care takers of children. This has led to development of a mentality that such leaves are only eligible for women. Organizations through corporate social responsibilities should come up with programs and activities that enhance men as caretakers of their children.

Most men may also be willing to help their wives in domestic duties such as taking care of their children but are discouraged by the present society. Most men who offer to take care of their children report of finding themselves as the only male among numerous female in children activities (Adler, 2015). Another man reported that he would not be assigned any responsibilities even if he volunteered because many people thought that he was probably on a week leave. This shows that many people are yet to be accustomed to men taking leaves like women after child delivery of up to four months.

Lastly, employers should stop gender bias. A study conducted by the New York post showed employers would prefer to employ single men with children rather than single women with children. This biasness is giving men advantage over women in their careers. According to (Brescoll, et al, 2013). The employers tend to believe that women are less reliable than men. This is because most women require flexible working hours so as to work efficiently. Men on the other hand work in all environments and don’t need much time off as women do.

In conclusion, it is clearly evident that inflexible working hours for men have grievous damages for women’s career. Companies and organizations should take up the necessary steps to do minimize the negative impacts inflexible working hours for men have on careers of women.

References

Adler, A. (2015). The education of children. Routledge.

Beechey, V. (2013). Women and production: a critical analysis of some sociological theories of women’s work. Feminism and materialism: Women and modes of production, 155-291.

Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2017). The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(3), 789-865.

Brescoll, V. L., Glass, J., & Sedlovskaya, A. (2013). Ask and ye shall receive? The dynamics of employer‐provided flexible work options and the need for public policy. Journal of Social Issues, 69(2), 367-388.

Coltrane, S., Miller, E. C., DeHaan, T., & Stewart, L. (2013). Fathers and the flexibility stigma. Journal of Social Issues, 69(2), 279-302.

Cools, S., Fiva, J. H., & Kirkebøen, L. J. (2015). Causal effects of paternity leave on children and parents. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 117(3), 801-828.

Elias, F. (2015). Labor demand elasticities over the life cycle: Evidence from Spain’s payroll tax reforms. Mimeo Columbia University New York, NY.

Galinsky, E. (2013). The Impact of Child Care. Child care in the 1990s: Trends and consequences, 159.

Klein, V. (2013). Britain’s Married Women Workers: History of an Ideology. Routledge.

Munshi, K., & Rosenzweig, M. (2016). Networks and misallocation: Insurance, migration, and the rural-urban wage gap. American Economic Review, 106(1), 46-98.

Rege, M., & Solli, I. F. (2013). The impact of paternity leave on fathers’ future earnings. Demography, 50(6), 2255-2277.

Romero‐Balsas, P., Muntanyola‐Saura, D., & Rogero‐García, J. (2013). Decision‐Making Factors within Paternity and Parental Leaves: Why Spanish Fathers Take Time Off from Work. Gender, Work & Organization, 20(6), 678-691.

Sandberg, S. (2013). Lean in: Women, work, and the will to lead. Random House.

Slaughter, A. M. (2015). Why women still can’t have it all (pp. 84-102). One World.

Vandello, J. A., Hettinger, V. E., Bosson, J. K., & Siddiqi, J. (2013). When equal isn’t really equal: The masculine dilemma of seeking work flexibility. Journal of Social Issues, 69(2), 303-321.