Here’s another survey from Monster.ca.  This one focuses on how secure people are feeling in their jobs given the economic climate, and the news is good---confidence among workers seems to be up considerably, which one would imagine has a lot to do with employer confidence.

In spite of the state of the economy, workers who are swamped by work life balance aren’t simply grateful for their jobs.

I was interviewed for CBC Television’s National News Program, “The National” yesterday—they wanted to get my response to the news that British PM David Cameron is taking paternal leave.

Two things that didn’t surprise me: 1) my best bits were left on the cutting room floor, and 2) my 9 month old, Nathan, stole the show.

I’ve been taking a healthy dose of my own medicine this summer, enjoying a great deal of time with my wife and children.  I come back to work to some fabulous news:  British Prime Minister David Cameron is to become the first sitting Prime Minister to take paternal leave.

Though paternity leave has been around in the UK since 2003, it is not widely taken advantage of as many men still feel the move would be potentially detrimental to their careers.  This is similar to what Brad Harrington, Executive Director of the Boston College Centre for Work and Family found in his quantitative study of 33 new, first time fathers.  To a man, the respondents said that if their employers truly knew how parenthood had changed their attitudes toward work, their careers would suffer as a result. 

According to a UK study of over 800 executives, more than half stated that a lack of work life balance was a problem.

I don’t think this would surprise anyone who works for, under, or is married to a senior executive.  The culture of presenteeism is still king, and you usually need to be a “Type A” personality who puts career advancement ahead of everything else to make it to the top in the first place.  To show you how powerful that competitive, "must-get-ahead" mentality is, you only need to look at the fact that only 35% of those surveyed use their full allotment of paid vacation time.