Wednesday, May 23, 2007

No more glass ceiling for flexible workers

That's the thrust of an interesting piece in the Guardian by Lucy Ward. She writes that a new report from Working Families suggests that "the glass ceiling preventing flexible working for people in senior managerial jobs is beginning to crack as City banks, law firms and other top companies allow key staff to balance work and life. Even the highly conservative employment practices of the City are being challenged by men and women who want to combine high-level work with caring for children or older relatives. As a result, flexible working policies such as compressed hours, home working and - sometimes - part-time working or job sharing are beginning to extend from low-level posts to managerial roles for the first time in the UK." The study focuses on 23 senior managers working reduced hours or flexibly at Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Shell, BT and City legal firms. "However," writes Ward, "despite highlighting a number of senior managers with flexible working patterns, the report warns that the myth that senior jobs can only be done full-time in an office persists in many organisations."

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