Question

7.

From a business perspective, dual-career families create real concerns. There are problems with relocations, child-care and other issues that affect recruiting, productivity, morale, and promotion policies.

(i)What are some of the issues you can see developing because of dual-career families?

How is this affecting children in such families?

(ii)        What corporate policies need changing to adapt to these new realities?

(iii)        What can newlywed couples do to minimize the problems of dual careers?

Answer 1

Answer-1-Some of the issues that i can see developing because of dual-career families are:

1) Increase in demand of childcare services - It is one of the main issue that arises in Dual- career families.As both of the parents are working and due to that it is very difficult to give proper time to their child because of that parents demand the child care services.So, It has raise the demand of child care services.

2) No win situation for women- Women has to face many challenges to balance their career and personal life.As our society, Women's first preference should be her family.So, every time she reminded she is Showing-off as a career oriented women instead of taking care of your family and she is lacking in the duties that is connected with the role of wife-mother and at workplace also people make her feel incompatible with characteristics connected with role of her occupation or job.

3) Work-role and career-role conflict-There are many couples who face difficulty in fulfilling the role expectations because as per our society there are role defined for women and men which would be very different the dual -career family.

4)Lack of interaction between parents- There are many children who face stress because there is no interaction between their parents and due to the lack of communication, there are more chances of conflicts.

5) Difficulty in schedule designing-It is a very difficult to design their schedule so, that they can get enough time for their kids so that when their children need them, they should be there with them.

It affects children in many ways: If there is a lack of communication or interaction between parents, it will affect the family life of children too. They will feel stress if there is any conflict between their parents.So, communication between parent is very important.

Due to the scheduling problem, children may suffer a lot.Sometimes in emergency when children need their parents If one parent is not available or on a business trip, then they have to make sure other is around their child. other problem that child can face is related to the flexibility of their parents.If any of the parent is rigid then other parent and child has to suffer and face many problems in day yo day life.So, it is very important to share parental responsibilities and be flexible when required and being flexible also and adjust their work schedule will help them in their job role and also part time work or work from home jobs help the parents to take care both their career responsibilities and parental responsibility as well that will help in child's overall growth indirectly.

Answer-2- Corporate policies are changing to adapt to these new realities. Company management is also focusing on the work-life balance of employees and changing their policies to boost the employees moral so that it will ultimately helps to improve their productivity.

1) Organisations have introduced policy which support flexible working hours for the female employees and male employees too, because it is difficult for them to maintain the balance between their job and family life or pressurise them to leave their job.

2) Companies are also providing the work from home facility to support their employees to fulfil their career goals and family responsibilities.Which is a kind of very flexible approach.

3) Companies are offering health coverage to their employees-They provide health and life insurance coverage.They take their employees’ health very seriously, and all these efforts helps to encourage the employees' loyalty toward their organisation.They also provide the wellness benefits ,legal services, preventive benefits, gym memberships and travel allowance and many other benefits.

4.Organisations are providing flexible employment opportunity and also provide opportunity to their older employees to take early retirement and work as a trainer for their less experienced workers.

Answer-3-It is difficult for Newlywed couples to manage the dual career families.So, they should plan for their future in advance before planning for their families. They should discuss about their role expectations and their personal career plans and also about who will take care of child as and when it would be required to stay with him.They must decide about the role and duties of both the parents before they plan for a child such as who will sacrifice career or take care of child and who will earn and be a breadwinner. Most important thing they should decide about how to communicate in case of emergency.They have to design their schedule, spare time for family and their career as well.They must discuss about how are they going to take care of their child if both the partners are working.