Which comes first - family time or careers?

Diane Robinson understands plenty about the workplace, especially its attitudes towards families and children.

And she can tell you from personal experience and detailed research that the corporate world isn’t the friendliest of places to families and children.

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge

Diane Robinson with a report on the benefits of family-friendly workplaces.

It’s not a big surprise, but it is an attitude she and a group of dedicated Calgarians hopes to change.

“What we have had to do is develop a sales pitch,” says Robinson.

“We have to prove to businesses that they can be flexible and accommodate workers and at the same time help a company’s bottom line. We know we won’t get business’s attention by selling the social reasons.”

The “we” Robinson refers to is the Family Friendly Workplaces action group that she serves on as volunteer chair.

It is a sub-group of the Calgary Children’s Initiative. The initiative was formed in 1998 by the United Way of Calgary and Area, and includes about 80 partners. Its goal is to improve the lives of all children – from conception to adulthood – in several ways.

Robinson’s group was formed two years ago and is attempting to convince local employers that it’s both important and profitable to ensure that organizations support staff in balancing work and family commitments.

Its first task was to cull research that supported the arguments for a family-friendly workplace.

From the research, a 52-page report was completed providing numerous examples where companies have introduced initiatives that led to positive gains for its employees, shareholders and customers.

In addition, the group’s research offers several suggestions to help the workplace adjust.

Now that the research is done, the job becomes more challenging, says Robinson. Her group is looking for a few private companies to make a commitment to changing their work culture. Three public organizations – two of them are major employers in Calgary – have said they are interested in taking part.

But convincing private business may be a tough sale.

Last month, the United Way and Robinson’s group invited CEOs, HR personnel and senior managers from Calgary’s private, public and not-for-profit sectors to a presentation by professor Linda Duxbury.

Private industry was the least represented group, says Robinson.

Duxbury (featured in Business Edge, Feb. 21-27 issue) presented findings of a 2001 study of more than 31,000 Canadian workers that suggest almost 60 per cent of workers feel overwhelmed trying to balance their work and personal lives.

Illnesses, depression and time at work are rising dramatically, Duxbury noted.

The presentation resonated with Robinson.

She calls herself a workplace statistic – a stressed-out worker who suffered from the demands of the job and trying to raise a young family.

Most insulting, she says, that when she decided that her children came first, she was “deemed not to be a valuable employee.”

Her crime wasn’t unusual. She had to leave her downtown office at 5 p.m. to pick up her kids at day care. She was at work by 7 a.m. (thanks to her husband who handled the children in the morning), but that wasn’t good enough.

A manager in a large company, she had been promoted on the basis of her hard work and talent. She also had received praise for significant volunteer efforts within the company and at the United Way.

But that all went out the door – eventually, she did too by finding another job – when the pressure was applied.

Although her immediate supervisor supported her, the word from above was unequivocal: work comes first, family and volunteer duties are secondary.

Robinson began to feel anxious and guilty.

“It was a slap in the face,” says Robinson. “It wasn’t a matter of even wanting to leave at five o’clock. I had to leave. They’re my kids, and it was up to me to get them.”

Today she works in a management position with a new company that is family-friendly and also allows her to contribute in the community.

She agrees with Duxbury that many companies, just like her former employer, have spent time and money developing wonderful policies and employee assistance programs that few people utilize.

“Implementing the policies and practices is a first step, but if the employees don’t feel comfortable using them, the policies are useless,” says Robinson.

She explains that her group isn’t set up to evaluate a company’s programs. Its mission is to create awareness that changing a company’s culture can be a win-win-win scenario for the employer, employees and the children.

“Eventually, I think companies will have to change because as Linda (Duxbury) said, the boomers are retiring and the younger kids coming into the workforce aren’t going to take it.”

Robinson believes young people will be more inclined to work in smaller businesses with their peers. And if they plan to go snowboarding on a weekend or go out after work, that’s what they will do. They won’t be prepared to burn the midnight oil.

Companies that don’t understand these changes will be left behind, says Robinson. They won’t attract the best and brightest of the younger generation.

Robinson suggests that many of Calgary’s large businesses, especially the energy sector, are led by CEOs that don’t understand today’s reality.

“I think that most likely many of the successful CEOs and senior managers had wives that stayed home while they worked those long hours,” says Robinson. Today, according to research, one in three traditional families would drop below the poverty line if one partner stayed home.

Robinson’s research shows that family-friendly workplaces lead to reduced absenteeism, higher productivity and increased employee loyalty.

Companies spend a lot of time and money, she believes, on creating policies and programs that look good on paper.

But it’s being able to follow up and commit at the CEO level to use these programs and enable managers to create an atmosphere of trust that would make the difference.

“I’m a prime example of where the policies were in place, but the culture didn’t work,” she says.

Robinson says that her employer was considered a good place to work. The salary, benefits and challenges were all satisfactory.

“But there was still this emphasis on putting in the hours.”

When she left work at 5 o’clock to pick up her children, she had convinced herself it was OK. But her colleagues were still working, and Robinson didn’t feel right.

Her anxiety grew to the point to where she started to experience depression.

In the 2001 workplace study, a disturbing 33 per cent of Canadian workers reported bouts of depression.

It’s just one example of the damage being caused in the workplace, one that has serious ramifications for adults and children.

It’s something that Robinson, and many other like-minded people, are now working to change.

E-mail: diane@svpcalgary.org