{"id":123,"date":"2015-03-10T01:15:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T01:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helencarter.com.au\/?p=123"},"modified":"2016-01-15T02:14:25","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T02:14:25","slug":"work-life-balance-the-actu-and-a-jar-full-of-condoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/?p=123","title":{"rendered":"Work-life balance, the ACTU and a jar full of condoms…."},"content":{"rendered":"

This article<\/a> late last week, about the ‘work-life’ balance statements of Southern Cross Austereo executive Linda Wayman, \u00a0was reacted to with immediate controversy.<\/p>\n

As parental rights at work are currently\u00a0\u00a0a hot topic\u00a0in Industrial Relations\u00a0and HR circles (our own firm\u00a0publishing this update just last week<\/a>), I have to admit being more amused by her comments than anything else.\u00a0\u00a0 She claimed that ‘work-life balance’ was ‘bullshit’, and that she had\u00a0a ‘jar of condoms’at work which she offered to her employees for free, to discourage her employees from having children. \u00a0An SCA chief executive defended the comments as ‘obviously tongue in cheek’.<\/p>\n

But reading some of the comments on the article, this has clearly has not been accepted as tongue in cheek, and while she has had one or two supporters, Ms Wayman is described in at\u00a0least two comments as a ‘horrible’ person, and by many others as having a ‘disgraceful’ attitude. \u00a0However in my opinion Ms Wayman at least should be applauded for the healthy dose of realism her comments provided, even if the infusion of ‘shock value’ was lacking in refinement. \u00a0 And credit where it is due, a successful career woman with two children should be entitled to express her opinions freely on this issue.<\/p>\n

But this is\u00a0very important socially and \u00a0and philosophically, and \u00a0will not be solved long term by ‘tongue in cheek comments’, nor by \u00a0knee jerk internet hysteria. \u00a0Above all, as an issue it is not being served well by\u00a0\u00a0interest groups such as the ACTU and ACCI tossing it around like a poker chip.<\/p>\n

The first major problem is that contemporary discussion has tended to confuse the issues of ‘work-life’ balance and ‘gender equality’. \u00a0These are not the same thing, and to conflate them in discussion is extremely damaging to the progress of either cause. \u00a0 To discuss ‘work-life balance’ as if it is an issue that concerns women more than it concerns men simply reinforces and perpetuates the notion that woman inherently hold primary\u00a0responsibility for the care of children. \u00a0At the same time it undermines the rights (and obligations) of men in society in asserting their own interests in balancing home and family. \u00a0While it is accepted that woman are required to\u00a0contribute more\u00a0to the biological process, this is a short term factor. \u00a0There is no practical\u00a0reason why women should be disadvantaged at work. \u00a0There is also nothing in the ‘black letter’ law of employment that currently \u00a0differentiates between men and women with respect of parental rights. \u00a0 But the pay gap refuses to close, the ‘glass ceiling’\u00a0holds strong, and there are more men named Peter running ASX200 companies than women<\/a>. \u00a0 \u00a0Conversely, those men seeking flexibility at work to contribute to their families often face greater resistance from employers than their female colleagues. \u00a0This issue is not a legal<\/em> issue, it is a cultural<\/em> issue. \u00a0And it will continue to pervade until it is properly addressed as such.<\/p>\n

Secondly,\u00a0when it comes to concepts of ‘work’ and ‘life’, there are no objective truths. \u00a0Each to their own. \u00a0It is common place to find people on the internet and social media spruiking their own family values – and this can often spill over from the subjective and anecdotal to the objectively prescriptive. \u00a0“I live this way with my family and it works for me, …….\u00a0so you should too”. \u00a0However any occurrence of someone publicly indicating that they have factored\u00a0career\u00a0considerations into\u00a0their family lives is met with controversy. \u00a0The mere suggestion that one has considered having less children (or dare I even say \u00a0“no” children) to focus on other aspects of their life is often met with criticism. \u00a0Ms Wayman being described as ‘horrible’or ‘disgraceful’, for example,\u00a0\u00a0are very strong\u00a0responses\u00a0to someone merely advocating contraception in a tongue in cheek manner to those seeking a career. \u00a0At no stage did Ms Wayman suggested that having a career was in any way preferable to having a family,\u00a0and even if she did, is this opinion really that offensive to families? \u00a0The media and internet is littered with the mantra that family is everything, and career means nothing –\u00a0and we rarely see career \u00a0minded individuals with small families (or no kids) describing this view as ‘disgraceful’. \u00a0As a parent myself I understand how much family and children become your ‘whole world’, especially while they are young. \u00a0In some ways this is instinctively ingrained into our evolutionary identities. \u00a0But herein lies the subjectivity – your children are your<\/em> ‘whole world’, not the actual<\/em> ‘whole world’. \u00a0Expressing a view that having less children has some advantages is not a criticism of your<\/em> children.<\/p>\n

Finally, we need to take ownership of our choices, and the consequences of those choices. \u00a0There is a considerable difference between a legal ‘right’ to pursue a particular course within life, and an ‘entitlement’ to every benefit accrued by that course. \u00a0In a free society such as ours, life\u00a0is full of a wide range of opportunities for fulfillment. \u00a0 \u00a0We have the opportunity to do many things, but unfortunately we can’t do everything, and I believe it’s important to acknowledge these choices. \u00a0There are a great number of people that chose to pursue large families and \/ or quality family life as a priority far above career or work. \u00a0There are many that forgo families all together to focus on work. \u00a0(Not forgetting the very broad category of people for whom having a family is simply not an option for whatever reason.) \u00a0But our rights to pursue our own course through life is not the same as having an entitlement to the whole package. \u00a0 \u00a0Those people, like myself, that chose to balance work and family have to accept that their careers will not be quite as high reaching as if they had not chosen to put time and value into their family life. \u00a0Conversely, they cannot expect to have limitless opportunities at home. There are sacrifices to be made in the pursuance of any active or full life. \u00a0But like everything involving the word ‘balance’, there needs to be some give and take.<\/p>\n

* Helen Carter is the Director\u00a0and founding\u00a0solicitor at PCC Lawyers<\/a>,\u00a0a team of employment practitioners based in Sydney, with many years of combined knowledge and experience in workplace law, industrial relations, workplace investigations and training. \u00a0They provide a high standard of excellence and an exceptional level of personal service to a variety of clients in the Sydney metropolitan area, Central Coast, regional NSW and interstate.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article late last week, about the ‘work-life’ balance statements of Southern Cross Austereo executive Linda Wayman, \u00a0was reacted to with immediate controversy. As parental rights at work are currently\u00a0\u00a0a hot topic\u00a0in Industrial Relations\u00a0and HR circles (our own firm\u00a0publishing this update just last week), I have to admit being more amused by her comments than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[46,36,44,45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}