Saddle Brook, NJ (June 1, 2005) – This Father’s Day, you may want to skip the tie and give dad some special time with the family. According to an Ajilon Office survey, a majority of Americans believe fathers have a harder time maintaining a work/life balance than mothers. The countless magazines, books, programs, websites and TV shows about achieving work/life balance have always focused on the plight of women juggling career, family, home and personal time, but what about the dads?

As women continue to increase their presence in the workforce, men are sharing more and more of the responsibilities at home, and are adjusting to the struggle to manage everything from grocery shopping to conducting conference calls from the family van. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women held half of all management, professional, and related occupations in 2004. Brett Muney, a telecommunications professional who has two children says, “I absolutely agree, fathers today share more of the responsibilities outside the office. I see evidence of it at work all the time. At my house, my wife does take on a greater percentage of the responsibility since she works from home, but I share a lot of it too.

In the same survey, Ajilon Office found a majority of men (55%) and women (63%) both agreed it’s harder to find work/family balance than it was five years ago. Rajene Hardeman, a communications professional and working mother of three says, “Work/life balance is harder to find now because the days have become faster and more hectic. We are told we can have everything, but the truth is we must make tough choices about where and how to spend our time and energy.”

“Men may have a more difficult time asking for concessions to help meet their family life obligations because historically, employers have focused on providing women with flexibility,” said Neil Lebovits, president and COO of Ajilon Office, and a working father himself. “Companies are recognizing working fathers today need more work/life balance and are finding smart ways to provide them with the flexibility they need,” he continued.

Ajilon Office suggests some basic ways companies can help dads achieve work/life balance too:

• Open Communication Lines: Men find it harder to talk about work/life balance than women. Make it easier for men to talk about their flexibility needs within your organization. Train your managers not to make them feel awkward or penalized about asking for things like flextime or paternity leave.
• Promote Your Programs to Dads: Evaluate the programs you have in place for working parents and make sure it’s clear that father’s have a right to them too. Once the programs are defined, make sure you promote them to both mothers and fathers equally, otherwise, dads may assume it’s for moms only.
• Measure Performance Output, Not Time At a Desk: This is hard to do because of perception issues in the workplace, but try to measure employees’ performance by their output. Show the working parents in your organization that it isn’t about how many hours you spend in the office, but rather what you contribute.

“We need to support all working parents, regardless of gender,” said Lebovits. “Companies need to provide fathers with just as many opportunities as they do mothers, to control which hours they work, and where. At the end of the day, it’s smart business because you want to retain those dads who add value to your company.”

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