Hybrid work is ‘a gift’ for mothers
But, experts say, it’s only a partial solution to a larger systemic problem
With two young children to shuffle off to preschool and kindergarten each morning, Carissa Di Gangi is grateful for at least one of the pandemic’s lasting legacies — the ability to work some of her hours from home.
As she was able to work some hours remotely prior to COVID, the senior manager of tech stewardship at Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District said she and her husband have managed to strike a fair balance between work and home life, sharing the domestic and emotional labour evenly. The couple split school pickup and drop-off duties, and never work in the office on the same day in case one is running behind in picking up the kids.
It’s a system Di Gangi said she’s fortunate to have, as her productivity and involvement at work would decrease significantly if she were required to be in the office everyday.
“I don’t have control over my child being sent home because they’re symptomatic at daycare, especially with how often preschoolers get sick,” she said. “So the biggest question for me would be, ‘How would my organization navigate that?’ If my child is sent home on a day when I’m supposed to be in office, can I work remotely, or do I need to take a sick day? And it could mean that I’m taking dramatically more sick days.”
In the year since the hybrid work model was fully enforced for some federal public servants due to COVID, benefits such as a calmer start to the morning, the ability to start work earlier due to the absence of a morning commute, and the ability to work with minimal disruption make up only a fraction of the advantages working mothers say the system offers. Now, with mandates to increase the minimum days in office for some government workers to three days for employees and four days for executives in September, advocates argue the benefits seen at home and work is an indicator that flexibility around hybrid work should remain a permanent option, and not creep up to a full-time, in-person return.
Hybrid and remote work provides a partial solution to a larger systemic problem, where women are disproportionately left to manage the bulk of home duties, feeding into gender inequalities in “unpaid care work,” said Kim de Laat, assistant professor at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business at the University of Waterloo.
“The fact of the matter is, even though it does nothing to kind of diminish certain types of inequalities, people need this (the hybrid model),” said de Laat. “They need this because so many families have two adults that are both working full-time, and something’s got to give. And that thing is a tiny bit of flexibility to be at home to make sure the unpaid household responsibilities can be accomplished, while not interfering with one’s paid work.”
There are downsides to this, de Laat acknowledged: when women are the only ones in the family to use the model, they take on even more of the unpaid care work that comes with being at home. Based on her research, the solution, de Laat said, is to encourage a situation like Di Gangi’s — have both partners in a two-person household work hybrid to share the load, if possible.
Another downside: women who work hybrid can face bias because of these duties, said de Laat, which comes in the form of penalties or being “mommy tracked,” as management may think women at home are not as committed to their job and prioritize home tasks.
The unpaid burden on women is real: nearly half of Canadian working women said they rather quit than return to the office full-time, after receiving back-to-work notices in 2022. And in a 2023 study, 72 per cent of women said the option to work hybrid is a high priority for them in today’s job market, according to Abacus Data.
However, there’s no shortage of productivity or commitment, she said. In fact, not only are those working from home just as productive, but, in her research, de Laat found that they typically hold higher positions and benefit from the arrangement as a result. As well, she adds, why not allow for options that alleviate some of that burden and improve women’s mental health?
There’s also the misconception that when a woman works from home, the kids stay with her, said Allison Venditti, founder of Moms At Work, a Canadian association for working mothers and a mother of three. In highlighting the misbelief, she said that very scenario made working throughout the pandemic an “impossible” situation for a lot of women.
“Working with children underneath you isn’t ‘working from home,’ ” she said. “It’s like saying, ‘I’m going to give you eight puppies that aren’t potty-trained whatsoever, lock you in a room and expect you to do your job’ … That’s incredibly unfair.”
With her husband working remotely, the flexible model was something Ania Gilbert was seeking in her new job after having her son in 2020. When she started her position at Talk Shop Media, a public relations agency, in March 2023, the job was fully flexible with no formal mandate to work from the office.
Despite the company encouraging staff to come in just twice a month, the business director and head of marketing said she still goes into the office up to twice per week as a way to “get out of the house.”
In operating their well-oiled machine between work and home, Di Gangi said she’s aware the family’s situation can change at any time. Until then, they’re going to make the most of it.
“Especially because young parenthood can be a harried time of life, hybrid work really is a gift for my family, my time and my work.”