Women seek greater workplace flexibility

CANBERRA, AAP – First it was the “Great Resignation”, then Treasurer Josh Frydenberg tried to introduce the term the “Great Reshuffle”, but now there is the potential “Flexidus” among women workers.

The LinkedIn network has found two in three Australian women want more flexibility in their work.

Its research found that while the pandemic has increased opportunities in workplace arrangements, challenges remain for female workers seeking greater flexibility.

Half of those seeking more flexibility were forced to take a pay cut, the survey of 1018 respondents found.

At the same time, a quarter of women who left a job because of a lack of flexible work say they lost their confidence and 20 per cent decided to take a career break.

LinkedIn director Prue Cox says flexibility is becoming a critical factor in the workplace.

“This flexibility could be anything, from working non-traditional hours, to hybrid working. It’s whatever the employee needs to help better accommodate their individual working conditions,” Ms Cox said.

“If employees feel their needs aren’t being met with flexible working arrangements, we could see a ‘Flexidus’ of women walking away from organisations and roles that don’t support the new world of work.”

LinkedIn has introduced a new feature to its network where members can add a “career break” to their profile to demonstrate any period of time out of the workforce.

The goal of this is to normalise the incidence of career breaks and to remove stigma in a professional setting.

Meanwhile, two other surveys will gauge the mood of the nation following last month’s budget and heading into the six-week federal election campaign.

The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey is released on Tuesday, as is the National Australia Bank monthly business survey.

Last week the ANZ-Roy Morgan confidence index ended a run of falls after petrol prices fell below the $2 per litre-mark in most parts of the country, easing concerns about the inflation outlook.

Petrol prices have since fallen further as a cut in fuel excise makes its way through the system.

The Australian Institute of Petroleum weekly report showed the national weekly average for petrol prices fell by a record 19.1 cents to 174.3 cents a litre, extending the 13.3 cents drop in the previous week.

Only regional Northern Territory recorded a weekly average price above $2 a litre.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison jumped on the fall in petrol prices, indicating this was the result of his government’s decision to halve fuel excise to 22 cents per litre as part of a cost-of-living package in last month’s budget.

But Commonwealth Securities senior economist Ryan Felsman believes an even bigger influence on the decline in pump prices in recent weeks has been the sharp fall in international oil prices.

“Crude prices have now given up most of the gains seen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, with prices down around 22 per cent since March 8,” Mr Felsman said.