Brad and Hanna are expecting their third child in a few months. For their first

Question

Brad and Hanna are expecting their third child in a few months. For their first two children, Hanna quit work for five years to raise the kids until they were old enough for preschool. This time off hurt Hanna's career advancement as a graphic design specialist. Hanna has been working now for around six years and her career once again is about to take off. She is very excited about her career. This pregnancy, however, was not planned. Due to Hanna's sacrifices, Brad did quite well in his career. Currently, he is a junior partner in a CPA firm and he's the odds on favorite to get the next senior partner position. If he takes off for an extended period (6 months or more) for this child, he believes the senior partners will see the move as a lack of commitment to the firm. All of the senior partners sacrificed family involvement for their careers, why shouldn't Brad? Senior partnership means much more money and prestige. Hanna and Brad agree that one of them should take time off to raise the child for at least a year, but who? Hanna feels she's sacrificed her career already and now it's Brad's turn. She wants a chance to be successful in her career. He has had his chance. Brad disagrees. Hanna's previous sacrifice has gotten him to where he is today. If he makes this sacrifice, he feels Hanna's sacrifice would be wasted. Therefore, Brad thinks Hanna should stay home with the baby.

Question 4) Should organizations really care about family/work conflict? Should this really be a concern to a company? Explain the pros and cons.

Explanation / Answer

Organizations cannot resolve family/work conflicts of employees, but the least they can do is be supportive of employees who are going through a difficult time balancing personal and professional life. Everybody in the organization has a family, but not all face family/work conflicts. Some employees who are newlyweds or new parents may often find the changes in their lives overwhelming. They may initially find it hard to manage work and family. This does not make them inefficient, but it gives them a chance to work on themselves and their relationship. All they need is some time to learn and supportive bosses. Employees need to express their concerns about such issues clearly to their managers and not simply ignore the family and put the pressure of sustaining the relationship on his or her partner. In the scenario mentioned in this question, we cannot really mention the pros and cons of such a situation. But I think children are a responsibility of both the parents. Two of them made them; the two of them need to bring them up. Couples need to understand that one’s job is not above the other. Both have worked hard to reach where they are, both personally and professionally. So, the responsibility of parenting needs to be taken by both the parents equally. In this situation, I would say neither Hanna nor Brad needs to quit jobs to look after the third child. They just need to learn a way to accommodate a new family member’s schedule into their lives. Planned or unplanned, every life is precious and every child born should be welcomed with joy into our world.

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