‘They’re not treating us like adults’: Women call for work flexibility

As a young mother with a fledgling professional career, the office was a difficult place for Lauren Bernays to navigate in 2012.

“When my first child was younger, I [felt I] owed the business my sweat, blood and tears. And my family always had to be put second,” she said.

Flexible work has allowed Lauren Bernays to balance her career and personal life. Credit: Jason South

“Flexibility at the time, for employers, was that you came in earlier and you could finish early … so I’d be working jobs where I came in at 7am just so I could pick up my daughter [from school].”

It wasn’t until 2018 that Bernays found herself in a truly flexible workplace. She was able to pick her children up from school and work from home without fearing repercussions or backlash.

“It was almost a shock to my system … I don’t even think they blinked an eye about it. It gave me a little bit more of a confidence to advocate for myself and my family,” she said.

Bernays is one of many women seeking transparency and flexibility when it comes to their jobs, according to a report by workplace equity business WORK180. Close to 90 per cent of women surveyed said flexibility was a top priority when considering a new employer.

Gemma Lloyd, co-founder and CEO of WORK180.Credit: Eamon Gallagher

“Flexibility can come in all shapes and forms,” said WORK180 CEO Gemma Lloyd.

“Obviously, remote working is the one that people immediately think of, but it could also be different start or finish times, compressed working weeks. It could be job share arrangements or different roster times.”

“Really, it’s designing roles to meet people’s needs. All the research shows that flexible working leads to increased productivity, lower staff turnover and greater engagement,” Lloyd said.

These working arrangements tend to mean the most to women in the workplace, who are typically juggling careers with greater levels of household labour.

In 2021, 1.4 million women completed more than 30 hours of weekly unpaid domestic work, according to census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, compared with 395,000 men.

“The domestic load still falls on their shoulders significantly more than men’s shoulders. And what we know is that women are the ones that typically take care of children and take care of ageing parents,” Lloyd said.

“Without supporting [women] with flexible working, it makes these tasks near impossible. And then you find that women actually have to drop out of the workforce.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this month announced that federal public servants will be expected to work from the office five days a week if the Coalition is elected.

Dutton’s comments have been described as “tone-deaf” to the needs of working women by national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union Melissa Donnelly. She argued that a rise in the number of people working from home aligns with an increase in women working full-time.

Lloyd agrees that the Coalition’s policy will negatively affect women in the public service. In fact, the research indicates that they are likely to simply look for jobs elsewhere, she said.

“What’s that going to do is really push women outside the public sector, and that’s going to increase employee turnover. An increase in employee turnover is hugely costly to any organisation … and they won’t be getting the best people in the door.”

Bernays is similarly critical of Dutton’s proposed policy. “It just means they’re not listening to their people, and it’s about control … and that they’re not treating [staff] like adults,” she said.

A supportive workplace has let Bernays balance career and family. She is now a senior employee at her firm and shares parenting duties with her husband, who also works flexibly.

“You can’t tell me that I need to be in the office five days a week because people need to see me. That just doesn’t make any sense when I can do my job anywhere … I would never go back to a company that didn’t allow flexibility.”

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