Firms Should Give Parents More Time With Children

There is a daily sorrow in many working peoples’ lives. Parents and children are spending less and less time together.

When parents return to work after a brief maternity or paternity leave, often both are required to work full time--anywhere from 35 to 115 hours a week--either because of financial pressures or because they have to do so in order to keep their jobs. Women doctors in training in many hospitals, for example, work an average of 95 hours per week for up to three years after having a child and a short maternity leave.

As a working parent you feel an incredible ambivalence as you leave your baby at the sitter’s for the day. You often miss seeing the child’s first steps and other important developments. When your children are older, you will probably not be home when they return from school. When you get home from work, you must rely on baby sitters’ reports about the day’s progress. The time that you spend with your child is when you are both exhausted and winding down from a hectic day. Someone else gets to share the best part of your child’s day.

Parents and children truly are “missing” each other.

Neither parent should be forced to make a choice between the need to earn a living and adequate time with their children. Most employers, including some of our most progressive educational institutions and businesses, have not kept pace with our changing society. When these institutions set up their work schedules, society still relied primarily on full-time housewives to rear the children. Now that the number of full-time homemakers has decreased dramatically, employers need to make fundamental changes to accommodate working parents.

Current remedies to aid working parents often have resulted in even more time apart for parent and child. In San Francisco, for example, one hard-fought battle resulted in a “victory” for the women working 30-plus-hour shifts in a hospital--a 24-hour day-care center. Several Eastern cities have proudly begun programs that offer a “hotline” for 9- and 10-year-olds to call when they return to empty homes after school; the children tell the person on the phone about their day at school and are taught safety measures over the phone.

Providing longer and longer day-care hours for children to match their parents’ long work days is not the answer.

There is no single solution to this complex problem, but there are a number of alternatives that would benefit employers while allowing their workers to be successful employees and parents. They include paid maternity, paternity and sick-child leaves; on-site child-care centers where parents can visit during breaks, and flex-time scheduling by employers that would allow parents several mornings or afternoons free each week.

One company built an on-site day camp for the use of its employees and their children in summer.

Companies that have instituted programs to provide support to parents often find the measures a sound financial investment because they boost the firm’s recruitment potential, increase productivity and decrease employee turnover.

Harvard University recently implemented some innovative solutions that could be used in other workplaces. One of the graduate schools now permits faculty members to teach one less course each semester during the year after the birth of a child without a cut in pay; another school has instituted a one-year parental leave that is not counted in the seven-year time limit given for tenure.

One program at Harvard Medical School has created a half-time position to fill in for new parents who need greater flexibility in their work schedules. The medical school also has opened an Office for Parenting that serves as a resource and support center as well as a clearinghouse for those seeking job-sharing partners.

These ideas are only a start, and for each field the solutions might be quite different. But solutions are possible, and, whatever the route, we must take a critical look at what is fast becoming a national problem that could seriously affect our children’s development.

Employers clearly do gain by addressing needs of working parents. The highest-caliber applicant will be drawn to the job, will stay longer and will work more effectively. Parents also gain from these policies: If they miss their child’s first steps, they won’t get a second chance.