You have kids? How being a parent influences status and trust in the workplace

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine how individuals are perceived by their coworkers, specifically how individuals’ gender and parental status affect how much social status they are accorded in the workplace, and the extent to which they are trusted by their coworkers. Design/methodology/approach The authors recruited an online sample of adults across North America to respond to survey questions about one of their current or former coworkers. Information was collected to determine the gender and parental status of this coworker and their perceptions of this person’s social status and how much they trusted this person. Findings The results showed that having children can affect how individuals are perceived by their coworkers. Specifically, compared with working men without children, working fathers were perceived to have higher status and were trusted more by their coworkers. In addition, working mothers were perceived by their coworkers to have higher status than, and trusted as much as, working women without children. Exploratory analyses revealed that working fathers were also perceived to be warmer than working men without children. Originality/value This study examines important workplace perceptions of parents from the perspective of their coworkers rather than from the employer perspective that is largely based on hypothetical scenarios as used in previous research.