The impending work “flexidus” further exposes our gender unequal professional world

In 2019 we first had the idea for what eventually became Flexa. It was inspired by my own experience - I had been sacked from a role at a prominent investment bank after I requested a more flexible working arrangement to accommodate my autoimmune disease. Back then, my flare-ups would prevent me from walking roughly once per week. I therefore asked to work from home once a week and was sacked just 10 days later.?

Sadly, my experience is not unique. In fact, a recent study by LinkedIn shows that a staggering 52% of women surveyed in the UK have considered leaving, or have left their role because of lack of flexibility.?My reason for working flexibly wasn’t “good enough”, and millions of other women have suffered the same experience.?

Flexible working has traditionally been portrayed as a “female” way of working, enabling women to drop off or pick up their children. For too long, it’s been common practice for employees, particularly women, to have to request even a slight change in hours. Flexible working wasn’t the norm, and this led to the “othering” of?women (and mothers in particular) because they needed to work differently.?

Thankfully, this archaic view has been somewhat dispelled since the onset of the pandemic, as large parts of the global office workforce have embraced the widespread benefits of flexible working. But we still have a long way to go; according to LinkedIn’s study, almost half of women (46%) say they feel there is still a stigma attached to flexible working.?

However, and perhaps more worryingly, the welcome gains made in the pandemic are thought to be slipping - LinkedIn’s research show that almost two in five (37%) female professionals feel like progress made on flexible working during the pandemic is being lost now that pandemic restrictions have ended in the UK.

Too many employers continue to expect individual team members, all of whom will thrive in different environments and have varying personal responsibilities, to conform to a uniform approach dictated from on high.?

There’s no two ways about it; this could lead to women being pushed out of the workforce.?

Most importantly, LinkedIn has revealed that 30% of women surveyed said the ability to work more flexibly would improve their mental health and almost a quarter (22%) said they would thrive if given more flexibility. Evidence points to increased productivity and retention when staff are empowered when it comes to how and when they work. And yet, companies are still pushing staff to get back to the office and maintaining policies which only grant flexibility ‘on request’.?

I strongly believe that forcing women - or for that matter anyone - to justify their need for greater flexibility has held back the adoption of flexibility in the workplace. We cannot let the gains of recent years slip if we want to create a working culture where everyone can thrive. The onus is on companies to recognise this and create environments where people are supported and their personal needs can be met.?

However, we can’t forget that there are companies leading the charge and offering genuinely flexible working without employees having to make a formal request. By normalising flexible working across the general population, the number of companies offering flexibility has greatly increased. At these forward-thinking organisations, flexibility is encouraged from day one, with no questions asked. The increased provision of these arrangements means that people can ask for more too. They can leave their roles for more flexibility, and this, in turn, should encourage more companies to make the leap to offering flexible working to everyone, not just to people who have gone through an arduous request and justification process.?

When it comes to implementing policies, there’s a wide spectrum of possibilities and we need to ensure everyone has access to genuine and personalised flexible working, as opposed to adopting a one size fits all approach. The benefits of flexible working are far reaching and not just for employees, but for employers too, who are much more likely to attract and retain a wider range of talent and see a happier, more productive workforce, which can only be a good thing for business.?

Without access to genuinely flexible working, we can never reach true gender equality, let alone equality for all people. The agenda of flexible working needs to be pushed by everyone; it’s not just up to women.?

#FlexibleIs #breakthebias?