New research has found that women without children resent the special treatment they say working mothers get at work, such as extra time-off to nurse children and the priority given to parents’ holiday needs.

The Daily Mail is reporting that research carried out by Red Magazine, entitled “Generation Juggle,” interviewed more than 5,000 working women and found 40 percent of women without children believe they work harder than their counterparts with families.

Forty-one percent of the non-parents polled said it was unfair that working mothers could leave the office early for family emergencies, leaving them to “pick up the pieces.”

Another 42 percent said they resented how working mothers are given priority at holiday time.

Working mothers, on the other hand, seemed barely aware of the resentment of their colleagues with only four percent thinking their co-workers were unhappy about their time off for family emergencies.

Nearly half of the non-working mothers said they felt as if they were pulling more weight in the workplace than working mothers while 21 percent of the working moms believed their workload was too high. Fifty percent of the mothers said they felt “stressed all the time.”

“For 60 per cent [of working moms], switching off at the end of the day was difficult despite being exhausted and 59 per cent felt overwhelmingly guilty they didn’t spend enough time at home,” the Mail reports.

This stress level caused many of the working non-parents to admit they wouldn’t want to trade places with colleagues who have families to tend.

“Seventy-eight per cent of non-parents who have seen their stressed colleagues in action admitted being a working parent essentially means having two full-time jobs.”

In spite of the pressure, the majority of working mothers said they were glad to be back at work and enjoyed the adult interaction. Many ranked their career as being just as important as their children.

However, nearly half admitted that they felt they returned to work too early after the birth of their child with 49 per cent saying eight months of maternity leave wasn’t enough.

Financial pressure was a major reason why mothers returned to work early with 64 percent saying they have less than half of their paycheck left after paying the bills.

“The pressures of modern life are a huge juggling act whether you work part time, full time, are a full time mum or a non-parent,” said Sarah-Bailey, editor-in-chief of Red.

“Only by lifting the lid on unspoken taboos can the workplace become better for all. Women are constantly agonizing over achieving a work/life balance, but our survey findings show this ‘balance’ is one of the great myths of modern working life.

“We wanted to reveal what it’s really like when children are added into the workplace mix and open up the dialogue in terms of what women really think of modern office life. Only then, can we encourage mature and honest conversation.”

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