A study conducted by Powwownow has discovered that men have twice as much flexibility on working hours than women.
Less than half of the women surveyed were afforded the opportunity to work flexibly by their employer in an average week, whilst two thirds of men could. 
The research deduced that men work an average of six hours flexibly per week, in comparison to just three hours worked by women. The study also concluded that men are more inclined to take fake sick days, with a third admitting they take at least a day or more off in a year without good reason, whilst just 20% of women do the same.
In addition to more flexibility on working hours, men are also rewarded for working overtime with over half (55%) getting paid, whilst once again compared to just a third of women.
The MD of conference call service provider Powwownow, Jason Downes, stated: “It’s quite astonishing that men are granted twice as much flexibility in the workplace than women…”
“From the research, it is clear that attitudes towards men and women in the workplace, as well as general approaches to flexible working, still leave a lot of room for improvement…”
When asked to work overtime, a third of men reported being ‘frustrated’ by this, contrasting to 56% of women, who expressed a positive reaction such as ‘motivated’.
Downes summarised: “If businesses want to attract skilled talent to their workforce, these are the types of approaches that need to change. Without change, people will be reluctant to join an outdated workplace and businesses will miss out on the next generation of talent required to drive the economy forward.”
