Australian Army Journal

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
Family Friendly Army —
First Class Policy, Second Class Implementation
Being a parent and a full time Army officer is absolutely complementary –
one doesn’t come at the expense of the other; however you must be
absolutely organised and very clear on your core business and work
outputs, as there is just no room for extra nif naf.
Respondent 15
Introduction
The challenges of balancing family and professional commitments are not
necessarily unique to Army or Defence. Employees in other industries face similar
challenges such as moving frequently, living in remote locations, working long
hours and routine absences from the family home, on top of the normal pressures
of balancing parental responsibilities with a rewarding and successful career.
However, Army families are unique in that serving members often lack control over
where or when they relocate or deploy, and this uncertainty exists for the entirety
of the serving member’s career. Inevitably, this has flow-on effects for the family
relationships and personal health and wellbeing of Army members.
Massive changes to employment conditions for Army parents have been
introduced in the last two decades. Improvements to pay and salary schemes,
leave entitlements, and the introduction of family-oriented policies have provided
opportunities for a better work-life balance for Army members and have
contributed to the ascension of women into senior officer ranks. Women —
often the primary carers within a family unit — have traditionally struggled more
with the pressures of balancing parenting and full-time work, and thus appear
to benefit most from family-oriented policies. In reality, however, contemporary
parenting in Army families is predominantly a challenge for men. Of the 10,167
parents in Army, 9268 are males and only 899 are female. Therefore, family-friendly
policies have a significant impact on the serving male population of the Army,
and as such should be viewed as gender-neutral initiatives.
To that end, this article is neither intended as a commentary on the status of
women in the Army, nor a contribution to the wider debate on gender relations in
Defence. Instead, its primary objective is to examine the effectiveness of Army’s
family-friendly policies which can be broadly summarised as addressing affordable
day care, paid maternity and parental leave, provisions for work absence when
children are ill (carer’s leave), and flexible work arrangements. 1 This article will
describe Army’s policies — which are articulated primarily through the Defence
Australian Army Journal
Culture edition 2013, Volume X, Number 3 Page 173