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10 The HR Agenda for 2010These are examples of flexible working necessitated by recession, but what willhappen after recession? Will we all go back to ‘normal’ with the majority of menworking full time and flexible working slipping back to being the preserve of theworking mum? What benefits will organisations have found from flexible working?Will they recognise that flexibility can have productivity and other business benefitseven in the good times? It is a bit like the situation for women in the World Wars.Women who had worked to cover for the men folk who were away at war did not allwant to relinquish their roles on the men’s return. Will more men (as well as women)want to retain their flexible status?Flexible working – the pastThe Right to Request flexible working for people with children under 6 (or childrenwith a disability under 18) has been in place since 2003. This has subsequently beenextended to people with children under 16, or for those with caring responsibilities.The nature of the introduction of the Right to Request, based as it was aroundchildcare, has meant the majority of those who have taken up flexible working havebeen women. Even in organisations which have extended their flexible workingschemes to all staff, the pattern is usually the same. Studies, such as that produced byWorking Families (Flexible Working and Performance 2008), have found thatanecdotally, managers value their flexible workers and report a positive relationshipbetween flexible working and performance. However, many organisations find thattheir flexible workers receive poorer outcomes in the performance managementprocess and are less likely to receive the top performance awards. Flexible workersare just not seen as committed and flexible working has been described by many as‘career suicide’. In IES’s 3rd Work Life Balance Survey for BERR (2007) we found thatmen are more likely to request flexible working for work‐life balance reasons, not forchildcare. Their flexibility is more to do with lifestyle choice and not the necessity ofchildrearing. So, while women may opt for flexible working knowing they aremaking a career sacrifice, they feel this is the price to be paid and there is little choice.Men, still responsible for the majority of the family’s income, cannot take the risk ifthey do not have to.The outcome, as IES found in the 3rrd Work Life Balance Survey, is a lot of frustratedmen who want to work fewer hours and would like to request flexible working butwho cannot do so because of the risk of sacrificing their career aspirations. Some menwant flexibility – when the survey asked ‘Would you prefer to work fewer hours, if itmeant earning less money as a result?’ 31% of men said yes, compared to 21% ofwomen. There is also a growing divide between men and women because of flexibleworking, where the flexible workers, the women, become less visible, less well paidand are less likely to be promoted. As a consequence, flexible working becomes moreand more the preserve of women and is seen as unsuitable for men (who are also