Released on: May 28, 2008, 8:30 am

Press Release Author: Remote Employment

Industry: Consumer Services

Press Release Summary: Flexible working is here to stay! And it will soon be widely
available to as many as 4.5 million extra parents with teenagers as well as little
children, after Gordon Brown recently announced his work-life balance agenda.

Press Release Body: Remote Employment News Release
May 2008

Responding to The Chancellor's announcement, Paula Wynne, Co-Founder and
Communications Director of Remote Employment, a website dedicated to connecting
Employers with Job Seekers who want to work flexibly, remotely or work from home,
said: "This move from the government to support flexible working will be welcomed by
millions of parents across the country!"

A staggering 'one in seven' mothers work flexible hours with 12 percent of them
using a 'Term Time' working arrangement. Home working franchises and online
businesses have helped many Mums to pursue a career and maintain an income with the
opportunity to work from home.

However, Dads are worse off. It is estimated that they see their children one month
a year less when compared to time spent with their children by their partner. Some
sources estimate that UK workers as a whole spend 47 days a year commuting to and
from work, a huge majority of this could be men. Flexible working is a possible cure
for both these disadvantages.

Currently only parents of children under six years old have the right to request
flexible working as well as carers of the disabled. The new agenda extends the right
to all those with children up to the age of 16.

Mr Brown said: \"The right to request flexible working has been working for lots of
people over the last few years. It is working for parents of young children and now
it can apply to children under 16 where families need time off to help bring them
up."

Flexible working has moved steadily up the agenda since April 2003 and now Gordon
Brown aims to improve the country\'s work-life balance by encouraging employers to
provide flexible working across the workforce.

A Government survey in 2005 found that 14 per cent of British employees had
requested a change to their working arrangements since the 'right to request' was
introduced. Twenty-two per cent of parents of children under 6 have requested to
work flexibly, and 81 per cent of these requests have been fully or partly accepted.


The survey also showed that requests are significantly more common from women than
men, with 36% of women with dependent children under the age of six making a request
to work flexibly between 2003 and 2005, compared with only 12 % of men with
dependent children under six.

Flexible working is much more than part-time working. It can mean working
compressed hours, flexi-time, term-time-working, working remotely or working from
home. It includes job-share arrangements which can bring additional benefits for
employers as each partner brings a different set of skills to the job.

Flexible working is highly sought after by parents who want to juggle career
aspirations with family life. Employees may choose to work flexibly to meet
childcare or caring commitments, as well as allowing them to study or pursue other
interests outside their work. More often than not the career ladder takes a back
seat as Paula experienced: "When my son was little I wanted to take him to school as
well as fetch him, and be there for homework and after school activities."

This meant Paula's career aspirations often took a nose dive and she accepted jobs
that may not have been ideal, but flexible working gave her the pleasure of watching
her son having a swimming lesson or playing football after school.

Over the years Paula dug her heels in and only accepted positions where an employer
allowed her to work flexibly. When she couldn't work this way any longer, she simply
side-stepped and freelanced or outsourced her office skills and experience to small
companies, giving her son the continued support throughout his secondary years of
education.

Asked if she regretted her decision, Paula said: "I have never regretted it.
Everybody should have the right to choose how they want to work. I was very
fortunate to work flexibly and take work home. I could have been up before dawn to
get the train to London and home after my son was in bed, but then what's the point
of having a child if you never see them? I could have done a lot more, learnt a lot
more and gained more recognition, but at least I never missed my son's first goal or
his first performance in the school play. That is far more valuable to me!"
"It would have been great to work in my dream job, but they were always out of reach
with hours and commuting. This is the reason I started Remote Employment, it was
difficult to find flexible jobs and maintain my career. We aim to be the best site
for connecting employers and job seekers who want flexible work."

Paula and her business partner Ken Sheridan, a Dad of two teenage sons, want Remote
Employment to fill the gap in the job market by offering a connection to employers
and job seekers who want to work flexibly, remotely or work from home. Remote
Employment is for everyone who has the need to work this way.

Paula believes that the government's new flexible working agenda, alongside home
based business opportunities, which is being driven by the huge advances in
technology, is the way forward for the majority of parents. It provides them with
more control over how they do their work, increases job satisfaction and work
production, and an all round improvement in work-life balance.

For more information on Remote Employment, contact Paula Wynne on 0844 800 8355 or
paula@remoteemployment.com.




Web Site: http://www.remoteemployment.com

Contact Details: For more information on Remote Employment, contact Paula Wynne on
0844 800 8355 or paula@remoteemployment.com.