Not all requests to work part-time go like this, for men or women. Part-time work for both sexes has risen steadily since the 1980s and more corporates have a better view of workplace flexibility and the possibilities of part-time work. Also, a new generation of fathers have a more enlightened view of part-time work and the benefits of spending a day or two each week caring for children. For them, the co-sharing of caring duties through part-time work is a sign of strength, not weakness. Sadly, the stigma of men moving from full-time corporate careers to part-time roles is alive and well. Numerous studies have shown men are discriminated against when they ask for flexible working arrangements, including part-time work. About 60 per cent of men wanted flexible working and they were twice as likely as women to have their request knocked back, a 2016 study by Bain & Co, a business consultancy, found. Study respondents said managers often frowned on men who asked for flexible working arrangements and some bosses saw part-time work as something mostly available for women. They resisted the push by male workers to move to part-time roles, and some who moved found it harder to get their full-time job back after part-time work.

Of course, care is needed with workplace surveys. It is dangerous to extrapolate findings of limited samples to all workers or rely on anecdotes or personal experience. Also, flexible working arrangements that involve different work hours or locations are not always the same as part-time work, when workers choose to give up hours or do a different role. That said, larger surveys show woman still vastly dominate part-time work; they made up 68.6 per cent of all part-time employees, according to February 2018 Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Much of the growth in part-time work has been through service jobs in healthcare and other sectors that tend to attract a higher proportion of women. Libby Lyons, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Credit:Janie Barrett I considered this issue after hearing recent comments from Libby Lyons, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, on ABC television. Lyons said employer resistance when men ask to move to a part-time role is a reason for Australia’s terrible gender pay gap.

Lyons is right. Having more men work part-time roles during various stages of their career would create career opportunities for others. By better enabling men to co-share caring duties, some women might spend less of their career in part-time roles that limit pay rises and promotions – and future earnings and superannuation. Lyons said employers should take the decision to allow men to work part-time away from middle managers and consider the request higher up the organisation. Middle managers, often under pressure to achieve targets with limited resources, were likelier to reject part-time work requests from men, particularly if they could not replace the lost hours. I get the logic: organisation leaders must take ownership of issues that face deep-seated cultural resistance. A senior manager or group executive who approves part-time work requests from male employees can send a powerful message throughout an organisation. Change must start somewhere. Still, I disagree with the view that the decision should be removed from middle managers. If organisation culture on men working part-time is to change, middle and senior managers must help drive change. I also disagree with calls for organisations to have targets for men working part-time. Gender targets can drive change – witness growth in female board directors in Australia over the past five years off a low base.

But they do not suit all organisations and gender targets sometimes lead to poor employment decisions because companies are more worried about being seen to meet targets than choosing the best person for the job. Part-time work and organisation agility A related issue is the inability of organisations to get the most out of part-time workers in white-collar roles. How many organisations have systems that genuinely measure workplace outputs rather than time spent at work? How many managers are sufficiently trained to manage part-time workers, including home-based workers and telecommuters, and do so? How many organisations give pay rises and promotions to part-time corporate workers? Do enough companies design part-time roles and view them as important positions in their own right? Or do they see part-time roles as “filler jobs” well down the pecking order?