Leadership

Parental Skills: Useful or Irrelevant at Work?

By Joanna Higgins

Updated on: September 11, 2008 / 4:11 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

In a week of surveys charting discontent from women at work, one study found that one third of women believe children can be bad for a career.

In a poll of 3,000 working mums, carried out by parents' club Bounty, one in five believe they were effectively demoted after having a child. Over half came to the conclusion that having a baby has had a negative effect on their career. Other findings include:

49 per cent claim to have missed out on promotion or other opportunities.
One quarter returned to the office to find they'd been replaced.
21 per cent lost out on employee perks such as the company car, pensions, mobiles and laptops.
26 per cent had to take a pay cut because their employer didn't believe they'd be able to do the job.

But there are those who argue that parental skills are a positive boon for the workplace. In a letter to the FT, Regina Herzfeldt, Research Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in Brussels, cites research from the Center that finds home life has a positive influence on working parents' management abilities:

Parenting skills include multi-tasking, negotiation, helping others to develop.
Increased self-esteem gives parents greater confidence in facing workplace challenges.
A happy home life helps people cope with stressful workplace issues.
Commitment to your role as a parent reduces stress and means you come to work creative and decisive.

It's surprising if senior managers -- often parents themselves -- fail to recognise the value of a happy home life. But do you think parental skills make a difference at work?