Uptake for a flexible working scheme aimed at parents has been held back by dinosaur line managers with outdated attitudes about the way we work

The government has announced that the right to request flexible working will be extended to include families with children under 16 from early next year. At present, only workers whose children are under six—or disabled—are eligible for the opportunity. Yet few parents have taken up existing options, despite the fact that the UK is primarily a service- and knowledge-based economy, with the technology to enable us to work more flexibly.

So why the slow take-up? Companies are not obliged to offer flexible working. Employees only have the right to request it. At present there are a limited number of sectors—banking, nursing, the civil service, local government and IT—where a menu of flexible working arrangements is offered. Where these do occur, the main purpose of such schemes is to attract and retain talented people.

In organisations where flexible working is offered, it is primarily taken up by women looking to balance the demands of home and work. Men, I suspect, feel that to make such a request would adversely affect their career development. This does not mean women are not committed at work, but many feel the societal obligation to look after their children or elderly relatives.

There are some men willing to take on domestic, child rearing and elder-care obligations to support their "juggler" wife or partner, but a large proportion still focus more on work and less on family. The irony is that even when a man requests flexible working arrangements, the data suggests that he is more likely to be turned down than a woman.

Many of us desire a structured work environment. We have been working in offices and factories for decades, and the thought of flexible working is anathema to those who crave routine, or wish to differentiate their working life from their home life. 

Probably the most significant inhibitor to flexible and remote working is the line manager. Managers like to have their staff around, to be able to call meetings when they want and delegate tasks there and then; they feel a loss of control if subordinates are not close at hand. Many managers simply don't know how to adjust. They have to think about setting individual outcomes and objectives for each worker, monitor performance in a different way and build teams more innovatively. Above all, they feel the loss of empire.

The most important aspect of managerial behaviour in flexible working situations is trust and often managers don't trust their subordinates to get on with their job when not micro-managed. 

We need to change the way we work in the 21st century, but it won't come easily. As Machiavelli once wrote: "It should be borne in mind that there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success, and more dangerous to carry through than initiating change...

"The innovator makes enemies of all those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support is forthcoming from those who would prosper under the new."