Is It True That Boys Just Want To Have Fun?

March 13, 2009 — There is an interesting article ("Unveiling Gendered Assumptions in the Organizational Implementation”) by Melanie Hulbert of Work-Life Policies in the current issue of the WorldatWork Journal that explores the unintended consequences of the unspoken but deeply rooted gender bias that organizational leaders and human resources professionals may be facilitating, however unwittingly. Her focus is on the implementation of work-life policy, but she could just as well be addressing the inextricably linked issue of gender pay inequity.  The key point is that men and women behave differently in the workplace when it comes to the people policies designed to support them, and, at the end of the day, as we all know, they are differentially rewarded.  Dr. Hulbert makes a valiant effort to unravel some of the complexities involved with regard to why men don’t tend to avail themselves of the unisex work-life policies that have been designed over the past two decades to provide access for everyone who works to achieve a higher quality of life as they juggle a dual (maybe triple) agenda.  I won’t rehash all of her finding and observations, since the article is relatively short and straightforward, and you will come to your own conclusions.

However, I do have one bone to pick.  I wince at the label “fun-daddies” that Dr. Hulbert has made up to describe those fathers who do choose to participate in workplace flexibility programs.  I understand her point and don’t question the data, but I can’t help recoiling from what I perceive to be an unfortunate turn of phrase that implies that boys just want to have fun. Not that I am opposed to fun; don’t misunderstand me.  It’s just that I have learned over the years that vocabulary is almost everything, and work-life vocabulary is already so full of land mines that we shoot ourselves in the foot almost every time we open our collective mouths.  Since this article’s goal is to raise awareness about the bias that some well-meaning leaders and HR folks need to pay attention to, I’m wondering if suggesting that men’s motivations for using flexibility is somehow less serious than women’s is going to exert the desired positive effect.

Help me out here, dads!  What is your reaction?

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WorldatWork and its affiliate, Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP).