Category Archives: Work-life balance

Only 13% of UK working parents want to go back to ‘the old normal’

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Survey shows people want to continue with more fulfilling and family-friendly work environments

Whatever the new normal is post Covid-19, we don’t want it to be anything like the old one. At least, when it comes to earning a living.

Lockdown has given people a chance to sample new ways of balancing their jobs and family lives and they have concluded that something must change. Just 13% want to go back to pre-pandemic ways of working, with most people saying they would prefer to spend a maximum of three days in the office.

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‘My desk isn’t usually as messy as this’: Guardian readers share their work-from-home setups

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What you see on a video conference isn’t always the whole story – here, readers reveal what’s really going on around them

We asked you to share photographs of the “two yous” that exist while you’re working from home – the person that appears on a video chat screen, and the oftentimes messier space space that surrounds you.

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Koizumi is first of Japan’s top ministers to take paternity leave

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Cabinet minister hopes move will improve attitudes to male parenting in country with dwindling birthrate

Japan’s environment minister has announced that he will take paternity leave when his first child is born this month, the first time a cabinet minister in the country has publicly committed to such a move.

Shinjirō Koizumi, a media-savvy 38-year-old, married to a former television anchorwoman, told a ministry meeting it had been a difficult decision to balance his duties as minister and his desire to be with his newborn.

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Microsoft Japan tested a four-day work week. Productivity jumped by 40%

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The experiment for the month of August led to more efficient meetings and happier workers who took less time off

Microsoft tested out a four-day work week in its Japan offices and found as a result employees were not only happier – but significantly more productive.

For the month of August, Microsoft Japan experimented with a new project called Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019, giving its entire 2,300 person workforce five Fridays off in a row without decreasing pay.

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Politician scolds female professor for not having child

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‘Failing to fulfil her duty to the nation’ criticism sparks outrage on social media

A South Korean politician has sparked anger after he criticised the female nominee for head of the country’s fairtrade commission for “failing to fulfil her duty to the nation” by not having children.

Jeong Kab-yoon, a member of the conservative opposition Liberty Korea party, was widely condemned after suggesting to Joh Sung-wook, an economics professor, that she had focused on her career at the expense of the country’s birth rate.

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‘An enormous price to pay’: can politicians live a sane and balanced life?

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As new members take their place in parliament, they are being schooled on how to survive the corrosive culture of Canberra

When the 2019 class of new MPs came to Canberra this week, one of the people who spoke to them about their impending political life was a doctor.

Mike Freelander, a paediatrician and MP for the suburban Sydney seat of Macarthur, had a clear message to the 27 new MPs who will take their seats in parliament’s bear pit for the first time on Monday: “Don’t lose track of your family.”

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Snoozing on the job: Japanese firms tackle epidemic of sleeplessness

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Companies offer napping at work as lack of proper rest is estimated to cost economy $138bn a year

Imagine working for an employer who, aware that you’re probably not sleeping enough at night, allows you to down tools and nap as part of your regular work duties – and not just forty winks at your desk, but a restorative snooze in a quiet room.

These are some of the measures being used by a growing number of companies in Japan to counter an epidemic of sleeplessness that costs its economy an estimated $138bn (£108bn) a year.

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