Fatherhood: Good Business Sense

To encourage male productivity on the job site, a growing number of big companies are encouraging their employees to, of all things, become better fathers.

In recent years, a number of studies have shown how children benefit from more involved fathers. (Sons are less likely to turn violent; daughters are less likely to become promiscuous.) Further studies now reveal that fathers also benefit from being good fathers. According to a Dec. 15, 2003, article in American Way, companies like Motorola, Texas Instruments and the Marriott Corporation are offering fatherhood courses and encouraging male employees to work more flexible hours, so as to allow time for dad to attend his child’s school play or afternoon soccer game.

“By dealing with their children, fathers learn to be empathetic and to think about others’ needs, skills they can then apply at work,” the article says. According to a recent survey of 1,200 executives (one that included women), those who were more productive and less stressed at work were ones who placed family needs on equal footing with career objectives.

One wonders why such findings aren’t given more coverage in mainstream media (taking nothing away from the overall impact of the in-flight magazine for American Airlines). Could it be that those responsible for delivering the news are quite often ones who put career ahead of family?