As little as 15% of male executives are taking advantage of their paternity leave after the arrival of a new addition to the family.
This is surprising news given that more than half, 52%, of men surveyed in the recent poll stated that their company allows fathers to 'flex' their hours to attend to parenting activities and a significant 61% feel their enterprise encourages a healthy work/life balance.
Furthermore, a whopping 76% of respondents believe that companies that offer paternity-leave benefits have a competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. So what is stopping dad from taking a break?
According to the poll, conducted by talent management provider Korn/Ferry, as many as four in ten new dads believe that doing so would actually slow their career advancement.
But what about mum? The pitter-patter of little feet has certainly not hindered the career of new mum and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. After taking only two weeks of maternity leave after giving birth last year, she decided to take a more drastic approach to the work/life challenge by building, at her own expense, a personal nursery next to her office so that she could bring her baby to work.
This tactic, however, has caused outrage among some stay-at-home employees following her announcement that all Yahoo staff could not work from home and her demand that all remote workers report back to the office.
It seems that, until attitudes towards paternity leave change, when it comes to juggling the life of work with newfound parenthood, for many the scales are far from balanced.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
