How Parents Juggle Working From Home and Homeschooling

With the roadmap out of the current national lockdown soon to be revealed, Glassdoor researched* over 2,000 UK employees currently working from home and homeschooling children aged 5-16 to ascertain their sentiments on the challenges of combining work and tutoring. More than two in five (43%) employees surveyed agree¹ they are not doing a good job for their employer and respondents who claim to be productive from home say they are on average less than 70% as productive as in the office. A typical home worker disrupted by their kids is interrupted on average 6 times per day, with 13% of employees surveyed being interrupted 10 times per day.

As well as feeling responsible about not doing their job effectively, 39% of those surveyed agree they regularly ignore their children during the working week because they need to get on with their job, and 38% agree that their children’s attainment scores have dropped during the current national lockdown. Almost two thirds (65%) employees working from home want their children to go back to school as soon as possible and 42% agree there is not enough space at home for everyone to work and study at the same time. Some parents have used homeschooling to their advantage however, with 25% of employees surveyed agreeing they have used it as an excuse to skip meetings.

Three quarters of employees working from home with kids who should be in school are frustrated with homeschooling and it is clear that very few people are working uninterrupted or at peak productivity during this tough time. It is incredibly challenging combining both critical roles, but employees must try to not let work pressures, space restrictions, concerns over academic progress and parental guilt get on top of them. Everyone has a different way of coping, as our survey shows. Hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel in terms of easing the current lockdown and getting kids back into school.

How Do Working Parents Cope?

Over half of employees surveyed (54%) say their children require a “slight” amount of help with homeschooling, whereas 39% say their children require “extensive” help. Only 7% think their children do not need any help. So how do parents working from home cope with the stress of having children in the house all day?

Only 13% of employees surveyed say they meditate or practice mindfulness and a lucky 8% say they do not get stressed with working from home and having children in the house. 

Glassdoor resources:

How to remain productive, even if you’re facing distractions at home

4 ways to support your colleagues who are struggling with their mental health

Why taking time off while working remotely is important

Burning out? These are the highest rated companies for work-life balance during COVID-19 
*Survey of 2,004 UK employees working from home who have school-age children studying at home conducted by Censuswide, on behalf of Glassdoor, between 10 - 16 February 2021.

1: Throughout ‘Agree’ refers to the results for ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ answers combined.