By Rachel Emma Silverman
When Steve Good's two daughters were small, he and his wife,
Kathleen, struggled to handle child-care duties alongside their
intense jobs as managers at glass manufacturer Corning Inc. After
the second time missing a day-care pickup, the couple decided
someone had to take a step back to care for family.
So Mr. Good leaned out, reducing his schedule to 30 hours a week
and taking a 25% pay cut. The decision put him in a rare group in
the U.S. workforce: professional men who opt to work part time to
assist with family duties.
Some 6.7 million men, or about 4.6% of all employed workers,
voluntarily worked part time last year. Among the more than 27
million men in professional and managerial careers, 6.5%
voluntarily work part time, according to government
statistics--numbers that have risen little since 2007.
As women make strides in the workplace and men shoulder more
caregiving duties at home, few fathers have workplace flexibility
figured out. Tough office policies and the scarcity of good-paying
part-time work make it difficult for men to reduce their hours,
even if they want to, say management researchers. Additionally,
working fathers say they feel rising levels of work-life conflict
but many aren't comfortable questioning the demands of the modern
office, or are penalized if they do so.
Working long hours remains a "masculinity contest," says
Jennifer Berdahl, a professor of organizational behavior at the
University of British Columbia who studies men and work. "There is
huge workplace and social pressure on men not to take leave or not
to work nontraditional hours, even if they want to."
Many men choosing to work part time say they find themselves
explaining and renegotiating their schedules or fighting the
impression that they're not committed to their careers, an
experience that can be isolating and stigmatizing.
Mr. Good, 52, recalls friendly teasing from colleagues during
the decade he worked part time, and even his father said he
wouldn't have made the same choice. His career prospects and pay
slowed as his wife's career flourished; she is now a division vice
president of finance at Corning.
Mothers tend to value having a flexible job while men give more
weight than women do to a high-paying role, according to the Pew
Research Center. Some 47% of mothers described part-time as their
ideal work situation; 15% of fathers said the same in a 2012 Pew
study.
A lawyer in Silicon Valley, Marlo Sarmiento balked when his
employer, Paragon Legal, assigned him to a project with client
Symantec Corp. that ran Mondays through Thursdays at 80% pay. He
worried about the loss of money and status, but says he loved
having extra time to spend on hobbies and with his 5-year-old
son.
"Once you get the extra day off, it's kind of hard to give it
up," says Mr. Sarmiento, 49, adding that he plans to ask for
another flexible assignment when his project wraps in December. "If
everyone were able to have an extra day of weekend, I think people
would just be happier."
Male professionals in part-time roles say they have few role
models--and even fewer in senior leadership at their firms.
"The vast majority of men say they prioritize their families
over work, but the workplace is itself caught in a vicious cycle.
The men who do not prioritize their family, they are often in
charge of the company," says Josh Levs, the author of "All In," a
new book about improving father-friendly workplace policies.
Recent research led by Scott Coltrane, a sociologist at the
University of Oregon, found that for men, reducing hours for family
reasons was associated with a 15.5% reduction in earnings over a
period of up to 27 years, according to the study--a suggestion
that, like women who "mommy track," fathers too run the risk of
being "daddy tracked."
John Schumann faced some of those risks firsthand. Soon after
Dr. Schumann's daughter was born, his physician wife had to return
to full-time work. Dr. Schumann, an internist, asked his bosses at
the University of Chicago to put him on an 80% schedule, something
some of his female colleagues had done already. His employer
granted his request. However, working reduced hours also slowed his
tenure clock and meant a reduction in benefits, he says.
He went back full time less than a year later.
"I felt somewhat marginalized, socially and psychologically and
I felt like I wasn't taken seriously," says Dr. Schumann, now 46
and the interim president of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa. In
the decade since he went part time, he can recall only one other
male colleague who has done so.
Pat Evans, Mr. Good's manager from 2009 to 2013, supported his
reduced schedule, although he had to remember to set meetings
before midafternoon when Mr. Good left to be with his children.
"You had to be conscientious of Steve's day cutting off at three,
instead of going to five," says Mr. Evans, director of
manufacturing and engineering for the emerging innovations group at
Corning.
Now an operations manager in Corning's Automotive Gorilla Glass
division, Mr. Good allows that he missed out on some promotions,
"but I think I managed a pretty good balance."
Male part-time workers are becoming more common in law, medicine
and professional services, although part-time work in those fields
sometimes amounts to full-time hours elsewhere. Men accounted for
35% of law partners working part time in 2012, up from 28% in 2006,
according to the National Association for Law Placement.
Christian Tinder, now a partner at professional-services firm
Ernst & Young LLP in Seattle, shifted to an 80% schedule
shortly after his son was born, logging 35 hours a week and staying
at home on Fridays.
His boss at the time, Kristin Valente, placed him on important
assignments so that his part-time status wouldn't hinder his path
to partner, which he attained the same year he returned to
full-time work.
Mr. Tinder still leaves the office early to coach his children's
basketball teams, even if it means leaving meetings early. Other
colleagues have pointed to his example when considering similar
work arrangements, although few of them are men.
"It's good to give people the examples of what you are doing, so
they have that as a role model," he says.
Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 01, 2015 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
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