Why parents need to champion the Five Hour Club – trust us, it will be a game changer

Two mums have set up the Five Hour Club to make it easier for working parents to manage their career around their children.

Juggling work and childcare can be tricky. You might be asking questions like ‘Does everyone get 15 hours free childcare?’ and wondering whether it’s financially worth returning to work after a baby. Meanwhile, parents ‘struggling’ to access ‘inconsistent’ wraparound childcare are saying that their career progression is suffering. But what if had a job that allowed you to work five-hour days in between the school runs?

Mums Emma Harvey and Amy Grilli, who both work, started the Five Hour Club to design a new working day that’s five hours long. When they began applying for jobs after having their first children, they realised there weren’t many jobs that were flexible enough for parents, while also matching the level of experience parents have often accumulated before starting families. 

Grilli was a teacher, but found it difficult to find work again after having children, while Harvey had to change careers altogether. 

Grilli, whose children are aged two and five, told HR magazine, “I realised that after my eldest son was at school, there was this time window within the school day where I could be really productive at work.

“But there were no jobs out there that suited that sort of working. Both of us realised that those high-quality, part-time jobs were missing. It created this pool of parents that want to work, and have the experience and the qualifications behind them, but there's just no workplace that fits them.”

According to recent research from the campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, two in five working mothers have had flexible working requests turned down. And, per flexible working consultancy Timewise, only 31% of job adverts offered flexible working in 2023.

One in 10 working mums have quit their jobs due to childcare issues, according to research from Totaljobs and gender equality charity The Fawcett Society, which also found that 84% of working mums had difficulties finding jobs that would accommodate their childcare needs, while 41% had to turn down promotions that didn’t align with childcare arrangements.

This led Grilli and Harvey to create a community where parents could share their experiences of returning to work.

In May this year, Grilli made a LinkedIn post about being a parent trying to return to work, and the difficulties she faced, and it got 14 million impressions in two weeks, as well as over 10,000 comments. So, she and Harvey decided to start the Five Hour Club network and job board with the aim to make a five-hour workday for parents. 

Harvey said that the new workday could help fix issues including the gender pay gap and the number of women in senior leadership positions. She explained, “The trouble is, we're not letting women or parents back into the workplace after having children in the first place, so there's no progression.”

You can find out more about the Five Hour Club on its website. 

In related news, Childcare costs are so high, 85 per cent of parents report it's preventing them having more kids, while, grandparents caring for grandchildren can apply for adult childcare credit. And how will Labour’s general election win affect childcare, flexible working and family policy?