Equity Issues in Work/Life Balance Programmes

Abstract

In the past 10 years there has been an increasing number of works published detailing the positive impact of family-friendly and work/life balance programmes on workplace culture and performance. While this study does not attempt to refute this body of literature, it does address all issue which has been largely ignored thus far. That is, that work/life programmes with an emphasis on family-friendly initiatives can leave some staff members feeling disadvantaged and create a subculture of dissatisfaction. This paper examines whether these feelings exist ill a small sample of New Zealand companies. Staff from two groups within Auckland City Council were surveyed and an email questionnaire was sent to a non-random sample of childless employees from 10 other firms. These results of these surveys did notified evidence to support the idea that many childless staff feel disadvantaged by family-friendly initiatives especially where the programmes were flexible and could be used by anyone who needed them.