Despite having the right to take time off to be with the new baby, few British fathers invoke that right. And instead of blaming themselves for not asserting their workplace rights, they generally blame a "lack of support" by their managers for not taking the time off.
That's the upshot of a survey by the Institute of Leadership & Management, a U.K. organization. The survey was designed to pinpoint whether having the legal right to paternity leave translated into the real-world action of taking the time off.
The institute checked in with 1,000 employees and 800 managers in Great Britain on the subject of paternity leave. What they found was that a fourth of new dads don't take any paternity leave. When asked if they took the British legal limit of two weeks, only 10 percent said they did. When this question was narrowed down to just manager responses, the answer was 2 percent.
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So maybe there is something to that lack of support by managers acting as a deterrent.
The survey at least revealed that some dads are taking some time off. One in four is a lot higher than back in the day. However, given that by British law dads can take two weeks and even more without losing their jobs, the institute observed that there is much work to be done both in terms of education and attitudinal adjustment.
For instance, among dads who took more than the legal two weeks, only 9 percent said they got more time off with full pay.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
