European Parliament: How should we help balance family and career?

(EP Press release)

Equal opportunities for men and women, equal pay for equal work, freedom from unfair discrimination: these are fundamental European values. But how far should we go to achieve them?

How far should we go to ensure that people don't have to choose between career and family? How much do we invest in making these things happen? There are practical choices to be made, laws to be enacted and action to be taken. The choices are yours, when you cast your vote in the June 2009 elections.

Times have changed. Many may recall times when women were expected to bring men their...slippers and a woman's role in life was to have and raise children and obey their husbands. Maybe times haven't changed as much as we think.

More women than ever are managers or involved in politics. In 2006, the number of female managers in the EU was 32.6% and the number of women MEPs rose from 16.3% in 1979 to 31% in 2009.

But women in Europe still earn on average 17% less than their male counterparts and one person in 10 has suffered at one point in his/her life from some form of bullying, harassment or violence at work.

According to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, a woman working full-time works 40 hours a week, while men work on average 43 hours. But can we say that men work more than women, given the unpaid hours that many women put in caring for children, sick or elderly relatives and doing household chores?

And in a world where people live longer and have fewer children, is work-life balance really an option or more like an obligation for the legislator? And are men being given the choices they deserve?

In any case, the MEPs you choose will be the ones to decide on what more (if anything) needs to done in Europe on many issues that could affect your work-life balance, such as job sharing, teleworking, flexitime and compressed working (where full-time is compressed into fewer days), maternity leave as well as part-time and temporary work. What else would you like them to do? Make your choice clear with your vote on 4-7 June!

Working from home: Pros and cons

Working from home has a lot going for it. For a start, you don't have to put up with office politics or people standing over you. And the only commute you have is from your bedroom to your desk.

That said, working from home is not for everyone. You need to have a certain sort of mindset to be able to work on your own, without people around you. And there are some pitfalls to watch out for. Read more on the Sydney Morning Herald blog.

I find working from home is a bit of a double-edged sword, but I think the pros out-weigh the cons, horses for courses.

The freedom and flexibility I now have are great, my work/life balance is greatly enhanced, I don't miss the commute or the office politics, but I do miss the camaraderie, the banter, talking work and kicking ideas around. These are things that can be covered over the internet but it isn't the same as human interaction.

On the bright side you can take as much holiday as you want, when you want. If you work over the internet and are going somewhere with a good connection, you can take your work with you. On the other hand, you don't have paid leave, sick leave or compassioante leave. You don't work, you don't earn - simple.

It can be distracting to work from home as there is so much going on around you, wheras an office is simply a workplace. Therefore I find a certain amount of self-discipline is required if you are to be productive, motivated and focused.

It's a good idea to leave the house at least once a day, and to exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes. If you have the space, keep your working area seperate so you can walk away at the end of the day. Try to maintain a routine, but change it every now and then.

Lots of tips and advice like this will be on http://www.atworkanywhere.com/ when the beta goes live in March 2009 and we'd love to hear your opinions!

Do you work from home? Do you prefer it from office working? What advice would you give other people working from home?

Website review for teleworkers - Directgov

Are you employed and working from home or thinking about it? A question commonly asked is, ‘What are my rights?’

This page on Directgov (UK government website) explains the difference between homeworking and teleworking, and the pros and cons of each. It also covers security risks related to your work and the equipment you use.

Whether you want more flexible working hours and a work/life balance or not, Directgov provides information on working time regulations and contracts of employment, as well as a section and links on where to get help.

To commute or not to commute - for that is the question

What are the benefits of working from home? What makes it different from working in an office environment? Is it that moment of irate and carbolic fury upon the discovery that your crucial delivery deadline is likely to be stalled by the idiocies of your broadband provider, who naturally cannot be reached other than via a longwinded call centre in India?

And as charming as the young lady is in her endeavours to assist you, your fury is only increased when she informs you how wonderful the weather is at her location in comparison to how foul and cold it is at yours.

Or is it that moment when your oldest child decides to go cross-eyed, spurt quantities of blood from her nostrils and promptly passes out in a flopping backward motion across your dressing table whilst trying to explain, ‘Mummy, I don’t feel very well’.

Of course, had I been working in an office, after a two-hour commute through the lightly snow-covered excuse for a railway infrastructure, I would have arrived to find that our internal network was down due to a scheduled upgrade the previous evening and to be told by the IT support fascist that of course all my files would be safe and that the system would be up and running in the near future. The word future conjuring up decades of delay rather than minutes.

Then there is the moment when the spotty IT geek goes a slight shade of pale, gulps, apologises for the inconvenience whilst whispering on his mobile phone to his supervisor, smiles, and departs rapidly. Needless to say the network revives itself after four hours to which my workstation looks remarkably clear of the clutter that usually is strewn across the screen.

This would seem a bonus if the same did not apply to the ‘My Documents’ folder. Upon contacting the IT department as to where my files are, a quiet all-pervading silence is their only response and ‘We are working on it’ before the phone is put down.

At which point my daughter’s school has finally got through to me and the first lines of the school nurse, ‘Ah, Mrs Player, it’s so good we’ve been able to reach you. We have a slight problem, we believe that your daughter might be carrying a bug and we therefore would be grateful if you could remove her from our establishment as we wish her not to infect the rest of the school.’

The realisation that my workday has now just been cut in half at the cost of half a day’s leave and the damage to my professional reputation due to a lack of deliverance on commitments due to a combination of circumstances out of my control dawns on me like the resounding thud of an unwanted tax bill.

All of this is topped by the scintillating garnish if another commute back home.

Rewind, phew, that could have been my day, but it wasn’t, for my partner and I work from home developing a site for people who work from home or anywhere (www.atworkanywhere.com).

My daughter did pass out with blood spurting from her nose (she’s OK now), but my husband was able to accompany her to hospital for a check-up while I laboured in peace curled up under my warm duvet.

I did experience problems with my internet, but fortunately didn’t lose any work or miss any deadlines as the issue turned out to be a minor inconvenience caused by an OS upgrade conflicting with our router which did not affect Vista but crashed XP.

After completing my daily quota, I cuddled up with my oldest daughter on the sofa, lit the fire and watched some dubious TV. About to go out training now and tomorrow is another day and another dollar. I think the benefits of working at home outweigh the considerable tribulations of working in an office, despite days like this.