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Pregnant then Screwed: Why flexible working matters more for charities

"By flexible working, do you mean people working from home?"

This week, the fantastically calm and eloquent Joeli Brearley, Founder of Pregnant Then Screwed gave evidence in Parliament on flexible working and pregnancy discrimination, and was faced with Alexander Stafford MP (pictured) who didn't seem to understand what flexible working actually means.

Temporarily putting the discrimination point of Joeli’s session in Parliament to one side, there are too many examples still of employers with outdated and transactional views of the employment relationship, which struggle to grasp the needs of modern families and fail to support women who don’t want to give up their career just because they had children.

These are employers who are focusing on the short term demands of their business and neglecting the long-term dedication of their employees who give everything to make their businesses a success, and who are often sat on the sofa at 11pm still working on their laptop because the nursery called earlier and sent their child home with a sneeze.

This feeds very much into class too.  My daughter’s nursery fees are £1,364 per month – she doesn't go to a special nursery; this is just very typical of full-time nursery fees. But my wife and I are incredibly lucky to have each other working as a team, and to be able to afford that (even though it stings).  But we drop our daughter off each day to carers who we know have children they can't afford to put into the nursery themselves.  So, if you are in a low-income household, you are forced to make a choice between your work and your children.  How do we ever expect to close the class divide in our employment and education systems if parents can’t afford to put their children into nursery?

You are, literally, pregnant then screwed.

But this is where the charity sector has to – and can – stand out. The pandemic has offered an invaluable reset of attitudes towards flexible working; however, charities must lead the march for modern ways of working and not fall back into old habits, particularly where we can't compete in other areas, such as salaries. This is a sector with so many exceptional, values-led leaders who are not afraid to do things differently, so we have a real opportunity to set the benchmark for other sectors.

We don’t all have to go down to four-day weeks (albeit, on a side note, I am a personal fan of the 4.5-day week, i.e. keep Friday afternoons free), but challenge yourselves on what you really need. Stop making new mums (or dads for that matter) come into London 3-4 days a week when they get charged late fees by the nursery if their train is cancelled.  Last year, thanks to the open mindedness of our clients, we appointed candidates based in Aberdeen, Newcastle, Leicester and Dorset for organisations primarily based in London, and I applaud those organisations.

The main thing, whatever you do, is treat your staff with compassion and look after them. With so much competition for the best talent, the only way to build a successful business is by creating an environment that people want to work in rather than because they have to, otherwise they will go elsewhere.

You can watch a snippet of Joeli's session in Parliament here.

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