|
|
| Recession seen as a way to restore work-life balance |
| Family |
|
Large numbers of men wishing to spend more time looking after their children are accepting buy outs offered by employers hard-hit by Canada’s economic recession, the Globe and Mail reported. Many of these workers, usually in the manufacturing sector, appear to regard a voluntary separation package as a safer choice than risk being laid off in the future. But they also see it as a way to be able to be at home more, while seeking a new career. When General Motors offered workers at its plant in Oshawa, Ontario, a buyout in December, 40-year-old Randy Short took it. “Now I can spend the time with my kids and hopefully get into something that I am going to enjoy,” he told the Globe and Mail. Although it has normally been older workers nearing retirement who opt for a buy out, Linda Duxbury, a business professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, notes that many younger men and women are now taking advantage of it as well. “It’s absolutely not just the older people. It’s actually more likely to be Gen X,” she said. “They think, ‘I can hang tight for a year or two and when I go back I’ve got my pick.’” Chris Higgins, a business professor with the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, believes this decision reflects the pent-up desire of many parents to have more time for their families. “There’s a latent demand there and this event is triggering that latent demand,” he said. In fact, Duxbury has written a new federally-funded report that warns politicians and employers they risk prolonging the recession if they fail to adopt more family-friendly policies, the Ottawa Citizen reported. Duxbury urges them not to ignore the heavy burdens a shrinking and aging workforce already carries, including overwork from the massive downsizing of the 1990s that has caused many couples to postpone having children, if they choose to have children at all. “Governments aren’t paying attention to this issue,” Duxbury told the Citizen. “All the focus is on the economy and how to stimulate it. . . . We aren’t paying attention to fundamental issues like our fertility rates and labour shortages, which are as big, if not bigger, issues for our long-term competitiveness.” The Ottawa Citizen agrees. As the newspaper noted in an editorial, it is important that governments and employers not lose sight of the bigger picture. “In a recessionary period everyone tends to think short term. It’s all about surviving from one quarter to the next, or one paycheque to the next. This is an understandable, though ultimately inadequate approach,” it stated. “As Ms. Duxbury notes, workplace cultures that implicitly discourage having children, leaving instead a burnt-out and aging labour force, are the real threat to Canada’s competitiveness and security.” Duxbury’s report is her sixth and final investigation of issues that impact how Canadians try to balance their work and family lives. |
