Recognizing the needs of working fathers benefits everyone

(Article originally published by WFC Resources, February 2004, as a Guest Column written by executive director of the National Fatherhood Initiative West Region office and founder of workingfather.com, Robert Blodgett)

Employees have a life outside of work that impacts them in extraordinary ways. And yes, even working fathers are affected by the goings-on of their families, something often forgotten by today’s modern organizations.

When my son Garrett was only six weeks old, I almost lost him. “Your son is fighting to breathe, and he’s not winning,” said the doctor just before I watched the flight technicians wheel him off to the launch pad for the Life-Flight helicopter. I’ll never forget the sorrow and fear I felt as my wife and I watched as my son was taken away …possibly for the last time. Three weeks of hospitalization and a year’s worth of daily breathing treatments and Garrett finally emerged with a clean bill of health. But that day remains with me forever.

When Garrett’s emergency struck, my boss granted me all the time I needed to help him recover. After I finally returned to work, my boss and colleagues couldn’t have been more supportive. And when things returned to normal, I was even more determined than ever to prove my worth to the organization.

Since my experience with Garrett, I’m often amazed how often managers and corporations forget that working fathers need flexibility too. Sure, when we think of work/life effectiveness, its easy to assume those types of policies are for women only. But nothing could be further from the truth. Working mothers and fathers need an environment that allows them to adequately respond to the changing needs of their families. When this is done, both the organization and the employee will see the dividends they yield as a result of their commitment.

Peter Senge, author of the book The Fifth Discipline, said: “There is a natural connection between a person’s work life and all other aspects of life. We live only one life, but for a long time our organizations have operated as if this simple fact could be ignored, as if we had two separate lives.”

Helping working fathers also helps working mothers and families. Three out of four households today are dual-earner couples. Because of this trend, today’s employees with families report significantly higher levels of interference between their jobs and their family lives than did employees 25 years ago. And in particular, men report higher levels of interference between their jobs and their family lives than do women in the same situation.[i]

Over half of all fathers report they are under a “great deal of stress” dealing with the pressures of work with the demands of home.[ii]

Dads who work long hours tend to spend less time with their kids, and the negative effects grow steadily as hours at work grow.[iii]

Children less attached to their fathers at age five are more anxious and withdrawn and less self-confident at age nine. They are less likely to be warmly accepted by their peer group and well-adjusted at school, based on teacher and peer reports.[iv]

Is it any wonder that over 7 out of ten fathers say they would take a pay cut for more time with their families? Shouldn’t businesses take note? What happens when they do? Guess what? Men do better at their jobs AND being a father.

Men who successfully balance work and family life are better dads and are more successful at work. In other words, when dads balance work and family life, it is good for their children and careers.

· For men, those very skills [of a leader] are the ones most successfully learned and mastered by the well-adapted father.”[v]

· Fathers are more likely to have career success, as well as happy marriages…devoted dads on average were more likely to thrive in their careers. [vi]

· Fathers who cared for their children’s intellectual development and their adolescent’s social development were more likely to advance in their occupations.”[vii]

And when organizations make it easier for working fathers to find this work/life effectiveness fit, they do well also. This year’s Fortune magazine’s List of Best Places to Work posts Smucker at the top spot. The company boasts a workplace culture that celebrates the individual and promotes respect for all as if employees were family. The result? The company has not only had incredibly high worker satisfaction but the company's stock has had a total return of 100% over the past five years.

A Harvard University survey found that raising employee satisfaction by 20 percent can boost a company’s financial performance by more than 40 percent. DePaul University compared the financial performance of the companies on Business Ethics' list of "100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2002" with the S&P 500 and found them to be "significantly better," based on factors like sales growth, profit growth and return on equity.

I’ve dedicated my life to helping individuals and organizations and specifically working fathers find the proper work/life effectiveness fit because I sincerely believe it’s the best thing to do for families, for the employees and yes, for the organizations they serve. As more and more organizations come to this realization, I believe we will not only be more successful, but more fulfilled as well.

Please feel free to drop me a line to let me know how your feel. And if you or your organization needs help in creating a more Father Friendly environment, send me an e-mail.
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Robert Blodgett is the founder of workingfather.com, an organization focused and dedicated to helping fathers resolve work and family conflict. He is also the executive director of the National Fatherhood Initiative West Region office and is the author of Family First:Tales of a Working Father. He is the vice president of the Work/life Coalition of San Diego. He frequently speaks and consults on work/life issues and can be reached at Robert@workingfather.com.

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[ii] Career Builder.com, June 2003
[iii] Sandra Hofferth, University of Maryland, February 2003
[iv] Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium
[v] William Pollack of Harvard University
[vi] “How Fathers Care for the Next Generation”, Emory University psychologist John Snarey
[vii] “Childhood and Society” by Erik Erikson