Dads want to work from home, but fear it could cost them their careers. New findings from King's show more than one in six fathers would quit if forced to work in office full-time
"Flexible working was never a mothers' issue. It's time we stopped treating it like one. When men are involved, not only do their ideas of what it means to be a man changes but so do their children's. A generation is growing up with a different idea of masculinity. Remote work isn't just reshaping offices. It's reshaping families and the future of gender roles."
Heejung Chung, Director, King's Global Insitute for Women's Leadership
Working from home could improve family wellbeing, gender equality, fertility, and staff retention, but only if fathers can use it without stigma or career penalties, finds new research from King's College London.
The researchers analysed data from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes UK (SWAA-UK), Understanding Society and the Labour Force Survey. For Return to Office analysis in SWAA-UK, this included responses from 8,123 full-time working fathers (35+ hours per week) collected in June 2025.
The report, led King's Global Institute for Women's Leadership (GIWL) based at King's Business School, finds that fathers increasingly value working from home because it allows them to stay committed to paid work while being more present in family life. Yet the report warns that formal access is not enough. Fathers may be allowed to work from home on paper, but workplace cultures, visibility expectations and assumptions about commitment can still make it difficult to use in practice.
Key findings from the report show:
- The return-to-office mandates may carry a growing retention risk, with around 17%* of full-time working fathers who currently work from home that they would quit outright if forced back to the office full-time, a steep rise from 3% in early 2021.
- Fathers want twice as many working-from-home days as their employer currently allows, around 2.10 days preferred versus 1.10 days allowed
- 41% of fathers say they are formally allowed some working from home and 39% of fathers say they actually use it.
- Workers who work from home are rated less favourably for promotion by managers in the UK. This penalty is especially strong for fathers compared to other groups of workers, especially when it comes to 3-4 days working from home.
The report argues that fathers' working from home should not be seen only as something to accommodate workers' work-family needs. When it works well, it can change how families manage the pressure points of daily life, from commuting and school routines to childcare and household work. It can also help with worker engagement, productivity as well as allowing employers hold on to staff who might otherwise look for roles that fit better with family life.
Professor Heejung Chung, Director of the King's Global Institute for Women's Leadership and co-author of the report said: "Flexible working was never a mothers' issue. It's time we stopped treating it like one. Post-pandemic fathers have discovered something their own fathers never had: the school run, dinner time, the chance to actually be there supporting family well-being and financial stabilities.
"What is more, when men are involved, not only do their ideas of what it means to be a man changes but so do their children's. A generation is growing up with a different idea of masculinity. Remote work isn't just reshaping offices. It's reshaping families and the future of gender roles."
Shiyu Yuan, Research Assistant at King's Global Institute for Women's Leadership and co-author of the report added: "What employers may have not fully grasped is that working from home is not just nice to have or a cost to be managed, but something must-have and a reason for people to stay. For fathers, it is now a part of the family infrastructures and the coping strategy they rely on to be achieve both their career and family aspirations. Taking it away would disrupt family life, increase stress, and damage the engagement and loyalty of their most experienced staff.
"However, simply providing flexibility is not enough. Without tackling the stigma associated with flexibility, fathers may be fear of using it, or feel forced to use it in ways that protect their image at work while damaging their and their family's wellbeing."
The report also warns that these gains depend on how working from home is treated in practice. If fathers are allowed to work from home but feel they have to be more visible, more available or more responsive to prove they are still committed, the policy can lose much of its value. Instead of making work and care easier to combine, it can reproduce the same assumptions about who is expected to prioritise work and who is expected to absorb care.
The report 'When Dad Works From Home' is launched on 25 June at an event hosted by the Global Institute for Women's Leadership within King's Business School.
"What employers may have not fully grasped is that working from home is not just nice to have or a cost to be managed, but something must-have and a reason for people to stay. For fathers, it is now a part of the family infrastructures and the coping strategy they rely on to be achieve both their career and family aspirations.
Shiyu Yuan, Research Assistant, King's Global Institute for Women's Leadership
