g
Ju gling
Act
W
Angela Baura
talks to some
Hong Kong dads
to discover how
they manage to
achieve a good
work life/family
life balance
hen Michael Sharpe*
was headhunted
for a senior position
with the offer of a
lucrative remuneration package, he
declined the opportunity much to the
bemusement of his peers. Weighing up
his career aspirations with his family
responsibilities, Michael felt that the
added pressure and more frequent
travel would be detrimental to his, and
his family’s, wellbeing.
“I don’t see much of my family
during the week. In the mornings,
we’re all rushing out the door for
school and work. In the evenings,
I’m either entertaining clients, on
conference calls, or too tired to engage
with my kids. I travel regularly for
work. My wife, who works part-time,
manages our home and family, and
it wears her out. I need to achieve a
better work-life balance for the sake
of my health and for our family,” says
the father of three who works in the
finance industry.
Michael’s sentiments bear
testament to research findings
by Community Business, a local
NGO that advocates corporate
responsibility. In its most recent survey
“The State of Work-Life Balance in
Hong Kong 2005–2016”, the NGO
discovered almost 60 per cent of
men felt their work-life balance had
deteriorated over the decade. This
should raise a red flag for companies,
given that in an earlier work-life
balance survey published in 2013, 59
per cent of men said that a family-
friendly working environment is a
key consideration when deciding
whether to join, remain with or leave
a company. Fifty-four per cent were
willing to leave an existing job if a new
one allowed them to spend more time
with family.
Get with the times
It seems that Hong Kong has not
yet fully realised the potential impact
given its slow momentum on work-life
balance over the last 10 years, the
2016 survey noted.
There are a number of reasons
why companies have been slow on
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