INTERNATIONAL PRESS REVIEW, Thursday, 30th Dec. 2010: One out of three Dutch men work part-time or squeeze a full-time job into four days. The International Herald Tribune reports on the phasing out of nine-to-five work days in the Netherlands. Also, 2010: the year of the “rock dinosaur”; the oldest father in the world and how to keep your New Year’s resolutions.

The front page of this morning’s International Herald Tribune looks at the growing phenomenon of part-time work in the Netherlands. Many businesses are phasing out the nine-to-five work day. What started with women is now spreading to men. The paper speaks to Remco Vermaire who is a lawyer in Utrecht. In 2006 he was the first male lawyer in his firm to start working a four-day week in order to spend more time with family. No all the other male lawyers take a “daddy day” too. Indeed, one out of three men work part time or else squeeze a full-time job into four days in the Netherlands.
 
Meanwhile, three out of four Dutch women work part time. Female-dominated sectors such as Education and Health operate almost entirely on a job-sharing basis.  From Microsoft to the Dutch Economics Ministry, offices are moving to flex-buildings where the numbers of work spaces are far fewer than the number of staff. 95% of Dutch Microsoft employees work from home at least one day per week and a quarter do so four out of five days.
 
It’s all about finding a greater work-life balance and as one former Finance Minister put it, “More men want time with the family without giving up their careers and more women want careers but without giving up too much time with the family.”