Business_Spotlight_-_Nr.2_2020

78 Business Spotlight 2/2020 WORK & RELAX

Fotos: Oleksandra Troian, South_agency, Eldad Carin, pictafolio, Mlenny/iStock.com

W

hen Sarita James had her third

child, Uma, she decided to do

things differently from what

she had done with her first two

children. Although offered paid

maternity leave, she planned

to return to work when Uma was just

six weeks old. But the baby looked so

small that James had major doubts. She

thought: “Why couldn’t I bring Uma

along with me to the office?” As she

writes in The New York Times, the experi-

ment proved to be a big success with baby,

colleagues and even clients.

Across the US, the number of working

parents has risen in recent years. The Pew

Research Center reports that 70 per cent

of mothers with children younger than 18

were working in 2015, compared to just

47 per cent in 1975. But childcare remains

a major problem for women seeking em-

ployment or working longer hours. Ac-

cording to research from Michigan State

University (MSU), only seven per cent

of workplaces across the US offer on-site

day care to employees and their children.

Research shows that there are many ben-

efits of workplace day care, including ac-

cess to a larger talent pool, more women

in management, lower absenteeism, im-

proved performance and longer tenure.

There are, of course, downsides to hav-

ing day-care facilities at work, including

potential distractions and worry (“Per-

haps I ought to take a quick look.”). For

employers, it’s usually a question of set-

up and running costs for a childcare fa-

cility and concerns about the company

image.

WORK & RELAX

IN THE ZONE

Child’s play?

Kinder erziehen allein ist schon harte Arbeit, die gleichzeitige berufliche Tätigkeit eine zusätzliche

Belastung. Könnte eine Kinderbetreuung am Arbeitsplatz das Problem entschärfen? Und wäre

das nicht sogar für die Unternehmen und Eltern und für die Kinder gleichermaßen nutzbringend?

JULIAN EARWAKER hat sich mit diesem Thema befasst.

MEDIUMAUDIO

absenteeism

[)ÄbsEn(ti:)IzEm]

, Fehlzeiten

access [(Äkses]

, Zugriff

billion [(bIljEn]

, Milliarde(n)

breakdown

[(breIkdaUn]

, hier: Ausfall

day-care facility

[(deI keE fE)sIlEti]

, Tagesbetreuungs-

einrichtung

distraction

[dI(strÄkS&n]

, Ablenkung

downside

[(daUnsaId]

, Schattenseite;

hier: negativer Aspekt

maternity leave

[mE(t§:nEti li:v]

, Mutterschaftsurlaub

on-site [)Qn (saIt]

, vor Ort; hier: betrieblich

parenting

[(peErEntIN]

, Elternschaft;

Kindererziehung

quit (a job) [kwIt]

, (eine Stelle) kündigen

research

[ri(s§:tS]

, Forschung

set-up [(set Vp]

, Einrichtung

tenure [(tenjE]

, Dauer des Beschäfti-

gungsverhältnisses

worry [(wVri]

, Besorgnis

62%

$4.4 billion

33%

of parents in the US say they have

difficulty finding and affording high-

quality childcare, which can cost up to

$9,589 (about €8,600) a year

2%

of US

organizations

help employees

pay for the high

cost of childcare

Cost of worker

absenteeism a year in

lost productivity due to

breakdowns in childcare

of highly educated US women

stop working every year. 74% of

these women say the lack of good

childcare is the main reason why

they quit

$8.3 billion

Wages lost each year to working families due to

breakdowns in childcare

PARENTING AND WORK

Source: Slate (https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/

the-corporate-case-for-childcare.html)