In last week's free newspaper there must have been a gap they couldn't fill because there was an article based on figures from the Danish Statistical Office; not a common occurrence. But the topic was completely Scandinavian and some of the figures surprised me. The piece concerned how flexible employers were in allowing flexible working time to fit in with family commitments; for which read caring for children in one form or another.
The first surprise was that men enjoy more flexibility (74%) than women (63%); the second surprise for me was that the figures were so high. I know that the Scandinavian nations are generally good at integrating family life with worklife but I hadn't realised how good the figures were. The final surprise was that the private sector at 77% for men and 75% for women performs much better than the public sector where about 67% of men and only 50% of women have that flexibility. So much for the public sector leading by example.
Keywords: Denmark, flexible work hours, parental leave, Scandinavia
