Many parents are considering quitting if they are denied telecommuting by their employer. This trend is now taking hold.
Is telecommuting the royal solution for parents? In any case, it seems that parents are choosing remote jobs. Studies follow one another and all say the same thing. For example, in a survey by the Flexjobs website (2021), 62% of employees who are parents said they would leave their job for another one if there was no possibility of telework.
In order to have such an option, some surveyed parents are even willing to take a pay cut (19% offering even a 10% cut), 23% are willing to shorten their annual vacation time and 17% say they are willing to work more hours. This means that telecommuting is now seen by employees as a necessary choice that the company they work for must offer them.
Telecommuting: Mothers are particularly concerned
In fact, according to data analyzed by McKinsey, more parents have quit their jobs in recent months than their non-parent colleagues. The cause, explains McKinsey, is "exhaustion due to the competing pressures of working from home and juggling childcare responsibilities, as well as a re-evaluation of the overall work-life balance. This realignment of priorities is particularly present since the health crisis. This is particularly true for women, who are far more likely than men to carry the mental burden of childcare.
According to a Catalyst study (2021) that surveyed 7,400 employees worldwide, mothers (with dependent children) are 32% less likely to quit their jobs if they are offered the opportunity to work remotely. For Catalyst statistician Tara Van Bommel, the case is clear: "Access to telecommuting allows people to do their work in the best way for them at the best time for their schedules."1 Another way of saying that flexibility in the workplace is now a must-have.
But let's not be mistaken. Real flexibility, the one that employees are now demanding, is not, for example, telecommuting arrangements decided unilaterally by the employer (let's say, by way of illustration, two days a week and only from home). It seems to be the exact opposite. The vast majority of employees surveyed on the subject believe that they should be able to choose when and where they work.
Digital nomads too
A demand that is pushed to its logical conclusion by digital nomads, masters of their time and space. And surprise: these are not only young professionals without family responsibilities. According to Hila Klein, COO of Fiverr, the platform dedicated to freelancers, the opposite is true. "digital nomads are also people with families (...)", she explains.2
According to Hila Klein's statistics, 70% of the world's digital nomads are between 35 and 44 years old, 13% are between 45 and 55, 45% are married and 70% are parents.
As we can see, the spread of telework and more generally of flexible working arrangements (four-day week, etc.) goes far beyond the framework company organization alone. It contributes, in the end, to giving us the possibility to choose our own lifestyles. In this sense, it is indeed a societal revolution that we are currently experiencing.
1 Quoted by CNBC
2 Calcalist magazine website