Work first, kids maybe; Stressed-out Canadians opting not to have children, new study shows
Times Colonist (Victoria)
November 22, 2007
By: Katherine Dedyna

As they struggle to balance stressful work and home lives, Canadian workers have used a drastic way to keep things on an even keel: They skip having kids.

That's the most "appalling" finding of a massive analysis of 31,000 Canadians employed in workplaces with at least 500 workers, says Linda Duxbury, a business professor at Carleton University, and co-author of Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Works? What Doesn't?

About 25 per cent of the respondents, said they had fewer children due to work demands and a further 28 per cent delayed or did not start a family because they could not balance the demands of career with family….

For Worton, one of the crucial aspects to a balanced life is knowing she can have time off work for family if she needs it. She can take shorter lunches or come in earlier to manage childcare drop-offs and pickups or work an evening to make up hours.

"It makes a huge difference," she says. In turn, she feels increased loyalty to her employer and is willing to go the distance in other ways -- such as attending a night meeting when she's under the weather.

Meanwhile, the idea of forgoing children due to work pressure is more critical in B.C., where the 2005 birth rate of 1.39 was even lower than the national rate of 1.54 children per woman, says Carol Matusicky, executive director of the B.C. Council for Families.

"It's a wake-up call," she says, especially because young workers amid a shortage of workers have firm priorities: "They're not going to work for workplaces that are not recognizing they need some work-life balance."

Duxbury says that in 500 interviews with women, they said they would wait until their careers were established, and then have only one child.

"They quite frankly say that you get all the joy of being a parent with one but if you have more than one, it hurts your career. Isn't that appalling?"….

The give-up-kids movement is happening at the worst time -- just as Canada grapples with "two tidal waves" -- the aging workforce and an under-supply of youthful workers.

"And it's a problem that's only going to get worse over time as parents age, people wait longer to have kids so the number of people in the 'sandwich generation' increases," she says in an interview from Ottawa….

As it stands, many Canadian organizations "download the costs" of work-life issues onto their staff. Along with sacrificing procreation, Canadians leave things undone around the house (77 per cent); cut down on activities (56 per cent); and reduce sleep ( 54 per cent).

Ironically, employees who cope by sacrificing personal needs report feeling even more overloaded.

Despite that, employers continue to act as if there is still a huge buffer of excess baby-boomer labour that gave them little incentive for decades to deal with work-life issues, says Duxbury.

"The fact was they could downsize, improve their bottom line by offloading work onto survivors."

While the study involved large workplaces, the 50 per cent of B.C. workers employed in small businesses also feel the impact of inflexibility, says John Winter, president of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce. "Those issues are running rampant throughout the entire world of work," he says. Employers, big or small, that ignore workplace flexibility are going to be the "losers" and soon, he predicts.

"I think the report is bang-on," says Winter. Still, he says many employers carry on as if nothing has changed and don't understand that competition for scarce workers is often about working conditions, not money…..

"People go to the countries that 'get it,' and Canada is way behind the European Union," says Duxbury. "We've got to keep remembering, it's all different now."

The report concluded: "Governments at all levels need to place the work-life balance of Canadians at the top of their agenda if they wish to remain globally competitive."

The sample for the National Work-Life Conflict Study was drawn in 2001 from 100 Canadian companies with 500 or more employees, including 40 in the private sector, 22 in the public sector and 38 from the not-for-profit sector. It included 3,000 people from B.C.

WORK IS MAKING PEOPLE SICK: RESEARCHER

Just trying to juggle hectic work and home lives is impairing the health of many employees at 100 major Canadian workplaces surveyed for a Health Canada study.

"We want to know why we can't afford our health-care system? Well, work is making people sick," says Linda Duxbury, a business professor at Carleton University, and co-author of a report called Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Works? What Doesn't?

Commissioned by Health Canada, the study said that work-related stress costs $2.8 billion per year in physician visits, hospital stays and emergency room visits. As well, 11 per cent of those surveyed use drugs as a coping mechanism, with anti-depressant and tranquillizer use on the rise. Those reporting high work stress were twice as likely to spend at least $300 a year on prescription medicine.

Yet employers maintain the "myth of separate worlds" -- that work and home life are unrelated and have left employees to shift for themselves, Duxbury says.

This cannot be sustained in a society and an economy that depends on dual incomes in so many households, the researchers say. As it is, employees are not only more pressured but less committed to their employers and less satisfied with their jobs.

More than half of those surveyed reported high levels of stress and one in three high levels of burnout and depressed moods.

Nearly 20 per cent rated their physical health as only fair to poor.

Still, most of the 31,000-strong sample said they try to cope "by just working harder and trying to do it all." That backfires in many cases.

"Most people simply have more work to do than can be accomplished by one person in a standard work week," the study says. And that's not counting the other roles they play.

Fewer than half -- 47 per cent -- of respondents reported having supportive managers. Ironically, it's those supportive managers who are the most overworked of all employees.

"They take their own personal time to mop the tears [and] go out for coffee," Duxbury says.

Meanwhile, poor managers who work long hours and expect the same from staff are making employees feel guilty for taking time off for personal reasons.

The majority of large employers do offer unpaid leaves, counselling, emergency days off and time off instead of overtime pay, the report found. But these could increase stress by leaving workers to deal with things on their own time.

Far fewer employers have put into place so-called best practices: flex time (49 per cent), part-time with pro-rated benefits (45 per cent), personal days off with pay (42 per cent) and telework (20 per cent).

Only eight per cent had daycare on site, for instance, although childcare is a major stress point.

Meanwhile, only one in three Canadian workers copes by putting family first. These people modify their schedules or consciously leave work problems at work….