National Family Month – Be Honest About The Pressure On Working Parents

It does not take a few days or months to raise a child. For that reason, parents are falling into the stage of exhaustion from the pressure of having a career and raising children.

Parents are under pressure of having a career and raising children

According to a report by Ohio State University, 66% of parents with toddlers claimed to be near burnout. Normally, after work is the time for employees to recharge; however, things have changed when they become parents. Now, after work is time for parents to rush into another battle.

Many parents are exhausted while balancing work and parenting

Vân Anh (35 years old) shared: “My kid will move to primary school this year. After 8 hours of working at the office, I had to quickly leave the company to pick up my child at 4:30 pm. Then I have to bathe, feed, and help them with their homework. It was not until 10 o’clock that my kid was asleep, I turned on the computer to finish my work. I feel nothing but exhaustion when it keeps on continuing. My husband and I once thought about me quitting my job to focus more on taking care of our family.”

Ms. Tiêu Yến Trinh, CEO of Talentnet commented: “Female employees are heavily affected by the double standard of having a career and raising their children. During the Covid-19 pandemic when schools were closed, the female unemployment rate dropped to 10.8% because many mothers decided to quit their jobs to take care of their children.”

03 benefits to support working parents 

According to Vietnam Law on Social Security, during pregnancy, female employees with Social Security contributions are allowed to be off work for five prenatal checkups, one or two days each time, and to take paid maternity leave for 6 months after giving birth. Fathers are also given the opportunity to enjoy and share the responsibility of taking care of their children with a 05-07 day leave depending on the case of the wife giving birth naturally or by cesarean section.

However, In reality, the benefits for Vietnamese parents are only provided during the pre-and maternity period. This is the time when HR needs to reduce the pressure on parents with practical benefit packages.

1. Expanding medical benefits for children

It is nightmare for parents when their kids are sick since they have to cover expenses for medicines, checkups, tests, hospital stays, etc besides being mentally exhausted. A health insurance package for children will reduce the pressure and keep the working parents more engaged and productive.

2. Support on childcare and tuition

Education benefits may include partial support for child care costs for under 5 years old children, or annual tuition for children from 6 years and older. Businesses can also support parents with after-school care programs when they are busy with deadlines and overtime.

Educational benefits are one of the types expected by parents with young children

3. Remote working

Flexible schedule and workspace will save more time and transportation costs; hence, parents can focus more on balancing their careers and family. An accounting company in Belgium allows parents with young children to work remotely so they have more time for their family as cooking, cleaning, or taking care of their kids.

Most employees with young children are the experienced workforce. Losing this workforce can cause significant losses to the business. Therefore, personalized benefits are the right solution to retain talents. Businesses can use digital applications to implement these benefits as Vui App from Nano Technologies to help with flexible payment, or Urstaff developed by Urbox – a platform that connects various gift programs from shopping to food, travel, etc.

Source: Nhip Cau Dau Tu