Working parents say improved access to local workspaces would significantly reduce the stress of summer holidays, according to a recent study.

Notably, 61% of working parents say school holidays are stressful due to juggling childcare and work commitments, while 63% have their working life impacted by family routine during the holidays, finds the study of over 1,000 Hong Kong working parents by International Workplace Group (IWG), a global supplier of hybrid working solutions.

During summer, while children eagerly anticipate a school break, many dual-career parents in Hong Kong often face stress, the study notes, as they grapple with the perennial challenge of balancing work responsibilities and family from juggling childcare, planning extracurricular activities, family travelling, and preparing for the upcoming competitive back-to-school season.

This constant struggle is affecting workplace productivity over the summer, it adds, with 42% of parents saying they reduce their working hours, while half (49%) resort to using their annual leave to take care of their children.

Fortunately, hybrid working has proved to be a solution. In response to increasing employee demands for more time to spend on family activities, business leaders are starting to take a different approach with another recent IWG study showing that three quarters (74%) of CEOs say that asking employees to work from a central office full time is not a business priority.

Hybrid working has played a vital role in promoting a more balanced approach, the study argues, and has continued to positively impact parents' experiences. When compared with the same data captured in summer 2023, there has been an 8% decrease in family arguments over childcare, and, despite the numbers still being high, a 6% drop in parents having to use annual leave to cater for childcare responsibilities.  

Annual leave to the rescue

Although there are different types of childcare services and subsidies provided for working parents nowadays, the substantial costs associated with childcare means that half of parents (49%) opt to use their annual leave to care for their children during holidays. Moreover, over one in 10 (12%) parents exhaust all their annual leave for childcare, and one in 20 (6%) have to take unpaid leave to manage their responsibilities.

A separate local study from the Education University of Hong Kong reveals a substantial expectation gap between general employers and employees regarding family-friendly employment practices (FFEPs).

The research highlights that 67.3% of employees with family care responsibilities prefer a flexible work schedule. However, the most commonly provided FFEPs are compassionate leave and marriage leave instead of parental or special leave for employees. This has driven parents to take annual leave during summer vacation to allocate more time to accompany the growth of their children.

The stress of the summer holidays has been shown to have a negative impact on families, with almost a quarter of parents (23%) reporting family arguments over childcare and one in five (19%) feeling like their child resented them due to working during the holidays. 

Additionally, the burden of holiday childcare stress was disproportionately felt by mothers (27%), who are nearly twice as likely to feel like their children resented them due to the pressures of balancing work and home, in comparison with fathers (14%).

In Hong Kong, the deep-rooted belief that women are the primary caretaker of the family while men are the main breadwinners persists, resulting in a female labour force participation rate of only 52.7%, compared with male of 62.9%. This has led to significant implications for working mothers with multiple jobs, who face even greater challenges.

Hybrid work is working

The exponential growth of hybrid working in recent years has changed how businesses operate, with a recent IWG study showing that over three quarters of parents (78%) say that they would use local workspaces to alleviate stress if employers were to provide better access to them, giving greater choice over when and where they work. This is particularly pertinent to younger parents, with 92% of those aged 35 or under saying they would use a local workspace if they could.

This year, another IWG study also found that hybrid working has been instrumental in facilitating a better balance for women between their work responsibilities and family commitments, with 89% reporting an improvement in this due to flexible working.  

“Hybrid working not only supports the wellbeing of families, but also contributes to the overall mental health and job satisfaction of employees,” says Fatima Konig, IWG’s chief commercial officer. “By accommodating the needs of working parents through better access to a range of places to work, particularly local workspaces during these peak times, employers can foster a more supportive and productive work environment.”