In the final episode of the season, Ben and Mandy are joined by Jules Hawkins, founder of the Single Mums Business Network to discuss setting up a business as a single parent.

Jules tells Ben and Mandy about becoming a single mum at 35 and the stigma she faced at work, which led her to set up the Business Network to help support other single mums going through the same thing.

Jules unpacks the way single mums are treated at work and the lack of government support for single parents, delving into how she manages childcare, to how important flexible working is considering single parents are not given any guidance as to where to find support and that there is no legislation for them to submit reasonable flexible working requests.

Thanks so much to Jules for joining for the last episode of the season. You can find all other episodes wherever you get your podcasts and find more of Ben and Mandy on workingdads.co.uk, workingmums.co.uk and workingwise.co.uk. Have a great festive season, that’s a wrap on season 2!

Produced and edited by Honey Wyatt

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week is National Older Workers week, so Ben and Mandy start the fifth episode of Mums.Dads.Work discussing how employers can pay better attention to the age diversity of their employees and support them in every stage of life. 

They are then joined by midlife career transition specialist and author of Dancing with fear and confidence: How to liberate yourself and your career in mid-life, Laura Walker, who explains how to approach a career change in mid life. People often don’t know where they want to go, and managers don’t know how to help people, so Laura explains why some people might want to go through a career transition in mid life and how to go about making a change. She also tells Ben and Mandy about if there are any differences in how men and women approach mid career transitions.

To end the episode, Ben and Mandy discuss how the cost of living crisis is impacting workers, and whether there is any hope for potential future changes to legislation that could help support them.

Thanks for listening, Ben and Mandy will be back next week for the final episode of the season, see you then!

Produced and edited by Honey Wyatt.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben and Mandy kick off the fourth episode of Mums.Dads.Work by talking about the four day work week. Scottish authorities recently tested out a four day working week in response to employees’ burnout and worker shortages, so they discuss how realistic it is we might see a four day work week in future and how the structure of the working week might change in coming generations.

They are then joined by Karen Holden, managing director at A City Law Firm, to discuss employment rights when it comes to flexible working. Karen explains how employees can approach flexible working requests, particularly when it comes to parental leave or disability, and what their rights are. She also explains how employers approach flexible working requests and what they have to take into account when approving the requests. 

Finally, Ben and Mandy end the episode by discussing wraparound childcare allocations, and how the lack of funding for wraparound childcare has knock-on affects on parents’ work.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Mums.Dads.Work. Ben and Mandy will be back in two weeks with another episode. In the meantime you can find more about working parents and get in contact at workingdads.co.uk, workingmums.co.uk and workingwise.co.uk. See you next time.

Produced and edited by Honey Wyatt

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.