Parents say flexible work leads to productivity, fulfillment and relief—but 1 in 3 worry about it resulting in a career hit
Before Neha Mehrotra became a mother, she didn't think having kids would have a big impact on career. "But as I became a parent, I realized it has a massive effect, and you need to re-carve yourself in your personal life and in your career," Mehrotra, 32, tells CNBC Make It.
She had her first daughter 6 years ago, took a 3½ month maternity leave, and returned to her work in-person five days a week as a full-time student and researcher. Her mental health took a hit — reporting onsite and having to be productive on a specific schedule changed how she showed up at work, for herself and for her family.
But by the time she had her second daughter 7 months ago, the world was used to remote work.
Mehrotra, who started a new hybrid job as a marketing manager at PayPal a year ago, says being able to work remotely from her Silicon Valley home after another 3½-month leave made a world of a difference. For one, her mental health improved when she traded a commute for meditation. Two, because everyone has learned to work virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic, she feels more connected with her global team of colleagues across New York, Sweden and India.
Finally, she adds, she has more time and energy to bond with her newborn and care for her growing family. "I feel more comfortable in my role as a mother and as a working professional," she says. "I feel that I can achieve more in both of these roles."
In the three years since the business world was forced to embrace flexible work during Covid, parents say the ability to work remotely and hybrid has been a lifeline. More than half, 58%, of working parents say increased flexibility in their schedules is a source of "fulfillment and relief," according to a recent report from Bright Horizons, which surveyed over 2,000 working parents in the spring.
With that said, workers report big barriers to flexible work that's truly supportive of parents.
After pandemic-era empathy for parents, bosses are focused on productivity and return to offices
More than one-third of working parents feel choosing to work from home will negatively impact their careers, and 42% worry that bringing up any complaints or challenges about working from home will result in a return to working in person.
Stephen Kramer, CEO of Bright Horizons, says pandemic-era empathy for working parents has subsided. While Covid highlighted challenges for working parents without reliable child care, Kramer says, these days many feel pressure to keep productivity up while working from home as return-to-office expectations ramp up.
"It's shifted quite a bit from early in the pandemic when it was normal that working parents would have that full flexibility, to now where employers are really looking to return to offices," Kramer says.
Some parents are more concerned about managing parenting and work: While working dads are more likely than moms to say their employer does a good job supporting caregivers, they're also more likely to worry that taking advantage of caregiving benefits like remote and hybrid work will result in a hit to their careers.
Even as caregiving responsibilities have become more equitably split between mothers and fathers in the household, Kramer says, men may feel a greater stigma around prioritizing family over work, which is often assumed of women who face a well-documented motherhood penalty.
Isolation is another big issue. Roughly half of hybrid and remote workers surveyed report feeling isolated, particularly for Gen Z and millennial parents, who are more likely to go days without going outside or speaking with anyone outside their household on days they're remote.
Parents feel the need to hide their caregiving responsibilities at work
Kramer says one big problem comes down to communication: Having remote-friendly benefits is one thing, but it's another for management to be explicitly supportive of people who make use of them and promote them in a "really positive way" so people actually feel empowered using them.
Some 41% of hybrid or remote working parents say they feel the need to hide their personal obligations from the workplace because they haven't been given guidance on how to manage expectations for working remotely while balancing caregiving responsibilities.
Not only can senior leaders use the benefits themselves, Kramer says, but they can communicate the benefits of doing so — like how it improves their productivity and decreases their personal stress levels.
All employees can benefit from a work environment that's thoughtful about the remote work experience, Kramer says. For example, people on-screen should be able to contribute to meetings in the same meaningful ways that in-person colleagues can.
On the isolation front, Kramer says workplaces can provide better caregiving solutions, like child-care stipends, to help employees get to the office on their own terms.
Affordable child care is still out of reach for many: 40% of parents say they don't have access to the care they need, 41% cite cost as a barrier, and 48% say arranging it is a full-time job in and of itself. Meanwhile, 77% say having child-care support is crucial to their work productivity, and many wish their employers would do more to help by offering to help pay for child care, providing emergency child-care benefits, or by having on-site child care in the workplace.
It's not about a return-to-office or productivity debate, Kramer says: "I don't have a view of in-office versus remote, but I do have a view that working parents have supports in place" to be "successful in work and in life."
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