Dinosaurs

It seems like the dinosaurs have really been out in force this month. So much so, I’ve been compelled to create a Dinosaur of the week award. First there was Silicon Valley’s Joe Lonsdale, who said paternity leave is ‘for losers’ and that ‘the correct masculine response’ is to work harder for a baby’s future. Where to even start with him… Then there was Joe Manchin, who blocked the paid family leave bill in the US. And then there was the Bank of England’s Catherine Mann, who said in The Times that women who work remotely will hurt their careers.

The problem is there are too many people who think this way - and not enough who understand the business power of gender equality and that these beliefs create big barriers to us making true progress towards it. To believe the responsibility for caring for babies and children lies with women not men creates an unequal workplace where men are more focused on and successful in their careers than women. When care and leave for care are not accessible or affordable it leads, in most cases, to the burden being carried by women not men - which reduces the time and focus they have for their work and career in comparison to men. And when we send the message that working remotely will hurt a woman’s career, we not only reinforce presenteeism and visibility bias instead of focusing on real contribution and competence, we also entrench the sexist perception that remote work is something that is really just for women and mums.

Thank goodness for people like Anna Whitehouse (hmmm, what is the opposite of a dinoasur…?) and her just released FLEXAPPEAL research that flexible working will boost the UK economy by 55 billion GBPs - and that refusing to accommodate it will cost businesses 2 billion a year.

We need to start sending out new messages to employers and employees. That driving gender equality drives performance and should be one of your key business strategies. That parental leave and flexible working policies should be gender neutral, and in practice not just on paper, because this will drive gender equality at home and thus drive gender equality in the workplace. That how present and visible in the office a person is has absolutely no correlation with their value as an employee and contributor - and that employers who don’t make working remotely work for people will lose talented employees, of all genders, who want and need to work away from the office sometimes.

The dinosaurs who don’t get this will be the ones who are the losers.