B USI N ESS
THE BULLETIN • Wednesday, June 23, 2010 B3
A W Making time for fatherhood Graduates adapt
to new challenges of the job market
By Cindy Krischer Goodman McClatchy-Tribune News Service
MIAMI — Peter Rega maneuvers through South Florida traffic like a man on a mission. It’s nearing 5 p.m. and Rega, a divorced father, has wrapped up his sales calls and is on his way to pick his son up from after-school care. Cell phone to ear, Rega tells his customer he will call back in an hour, once he successfully shuttles his 12-year-old son, Peter, home for dinner and then to a karate lesson. “I’m a top salesman,” Rega said. “For me, my phone rings 24/7. I have to train my customers that there are certain hours I’m not available.” A new report shows that fathers, much like Rega, are dramatically feeling the pull between work and family. Indeed, men reported their levels of work-life conflict have risen significantly over the past three decades, while the level of conflict reported by women has not changed much. The recession has only added to the pull: Fathers are worried about finances and feeling intense pressure to perform at work. At the same time, expectations are higher than ever at home to be full partners in child rearing. Fathers are struggling with too many hours at work or not enough hours. They are fighting debt, fearful of losing their jobs and experiencing the intense desire to bond with and guide their children. “A profound shift is taking place with today’s new dads,” said Brad Harrington, co-author of “The New Dad: Exploring Fatherhood Within a Career Context,” released this week. “Men have redefined ‘good father’ from breadwinner to role model, friend, mentor.” Doug Bartel, a father of three, commutes an hour each way to work as Blue Cross Blue Shield director of business development for South Florida. Bartel says he’s torn by the same time demands as his wife, who works, too. “I don’t want to miss an opportunity to do something at work that’s important for my career, but there’s a certain time in kids’ lives between ages 5 and 15 when you are molding them, and I want to make sure as a dad I am there.” Harrington’s research of new fathers found a strong cultural perception that when men become dads, little will change at work. The roles fathers play at home are still underappreciated in the workplace. Corporations do not recognize that fatherhood is a taxing role, Harrington said. “It was an eye-opener for us, looking at fatherhood from a workplace lens. Employers did not expect fathers to make com-
By Bethany Clough
point,” said Heaton, who is looking for a new career after raising FRESNO, Calif. — New col- three stepchildren and working lege graduates are getting the part-time while going to school message about how tough it is for the past six years. to find jobs these days. Heaton has been job-hunting They’re starting job search- for about half a year, hoping her es earlier, looking outside bachelor’s degree in communicatheir fields and going to grad- tions would land her a marketuate school to ing job. She has become more a job now train“There’s not a lot marketable. ing insurance All that work out there right agents, but wants appears to be to advance in her paying off: Al- now. You really chosen career. most 25 percent have to depend After not getting of 2010 college a single interseniors who on your social view, she started started their networks to try to applying to jobs job hunt beoutside her field, fore graduation find something, including in pubfound employ- and even then lic relations and ment by the management. there’s not a lot time they fin“There’s not a ished school — out there.” lot out there right up from about now,” she said. 20 percent last — Stacy Heaton, a “You really have year, according recent college grad who to depend on to a survey by is searching for a job your social netthe Bethlehem, works to try to Pa.-based Nafind something, tional Association of Colleges and even then there’s not a lot out and Employers, a nonprofit there.” organization. A high unemployment rate That’s still a far cry from contributes to the difficulty new 2007, when the economy was graduates face. Students have booming and 51 percent found learned this and are starting jobs before graduation. their job searches earlier this There are glimmers of hope. year, said Rita Bocchinfuso-CoFor example, employers plan hen, director of career services at to hire about 5 percent more Fresno State. new college graduates this In past years, she said, it was year than last year, according more typical to wait until after to an NACE survey. But stu- graduation. dents increasingly are wakStudents also realize they’re ing up to the realities of the competing against laid-off workjob market, said Edwin Koc, ers and others with more experithe organization’s research ence, said Natalie Culver-Dockdirector. ins, dean of workforce develop“One of the biggest reasons ment at Fresno City College. that more have a job (this year) “We’re seeing young people is that they tended to be more taking the job market a lot more flexible in their approach,” seriously,” she said. “They’re reKoc said. “They’re more will- ally taking their résumés very ing to accept an offer than stu- seriously ... because they realize dents were last year.” the competition is a lot tougher.” For Stacy Heaton of Visalia, Calif., the tough job market means applying for jobs outside her field barely a month after she graduated from Fresno State. “I’m not too picky at this
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Patrick Farrell / Miami Herald
Peter Weichhan takes a ride in Hollywood, Fla., with children (left to right) Dylan, 16, Schuyler, 11, and Samantha, 14. Weichhan is an airline worker who has a hectic schedule, but also makes time for his children. promises in their workday or work choices.” These new dads, on the other hand, said fatherhood enhanced their reputations and creditability at work. This is in sharp contrast to new mothers, who experienced negative messages in returning to the workplace. I talked about fatherhood with a dozen men, from minimumwage workers at Wendy’s to high-powered executives. Each told me about sacrifices and juggling at work to be a partner in child-raising. Peter Weichhan, for example, will quietly slip out the door of his Hollywood, Fla., home to his job at the Fort Lauderdale airport, where he handles luggage for US Airways. The crack-of-dawn shift creates some rearranging in the Weichhan home, where dad usually does breakfast and morning drop-off for school. Weichhan’s wife, a US Airways flight attendant, typically works three days straight. Weichhan’s schedule changes monthly, and he usually gets to spend the days with his kids when his wife works. “That means I hardly ever have the weekend off.” His seniority allows him to switch his schedule around with 24 hours’ notice, making him the one who handles family emergencies or volunteers for field trips.
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The downside: He may have to work an early morning or a 16hour shift to make up the time. The upside: “My kids know that I’m involved in their lives.” For some fathers, balancing work and family in 2010 means going to extremes. On a Friday night, you may find Leonacio de la Pena maneuvering through an international airport, scrambling to land the last seat on a flight to Miami. De la Pena, an international banking attorney with four young children, set a rule for himself: “No matter what, when my kids wake up on Saturday morning, I am there, period.” Also a strong believer in family dinners, de la Pena says he gets to work by 6 a.m. each day so he can be home by 6 p.m. to eat with his family. And then there’s Eisman Urbina, temporarily unemployed and eager to go back to work next month as a minimum-wage photographer’s assistant so he can afford the cost of gas to see his son. When he’s working, Urbina, a divorced dad, says he will drive six hours between Miami and Orlando on Fridays and Sundays to get his 5-year-old son each weekend. At one time, Urbina was studying to become an industrial engineer. “I was looking for a better life. Now I’m just looking to survive and be there for my son.”
Being Dad, 2010-style • Men’s work-life conflict has increased significantly from 34 percent in 1977 to 45 percent in 2008, while women’s work-life conflict has increased less dramatically: from 34 percent in 1977 to 39 percent in 2008. • 49 percent of employed men say they take most or an equal share of child-care responsibilities, up from 41 percent in 1992. Employed women agree that their husbands or partners are taking more responsibility for child care. • In 2008, men who say their wives or partners take the most responsibility for child care are no longer the majority (48 percent in 2008 compared with 58 percent in 1992). • Millennial fathers (29 and younger) spend an average of 4.3 hours per workday with their children under 13, significantly more than their age counterparts in 1977, who spent an average of 2.4 hours per workday with their children. • Millennial fathers spend more time with their children than Gen X fathers and mothers. Source: Families and Work Institute, National Study of the Changing Workforce, 2008.
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