Overview

When workers become parents or carers they are often faced with the unenviable choice between the financial necessity of paid work and their emotional need to remain close to their families. Faced with this tension, people often turn to their colleagues for moral support, guidance, mentorship, and friendship. In pre-pandemic times, these relationships were often informally (and inconsistently) fostered in workplace corridors, stairwells, and staffrooms. In recent times, a more concrete way of organising has emerged. Accelerated by online pandemic necessitated communication, parents and/or carers networks have become a workplace community. This research seeks to work in partnership with members of parents and carers networks in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to understand the growth of these networks and ask why they exist, how they are organised, who they exist for, and how they could grow?

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