THE HAMSTER WHEEL GOES: Merete Gamst has two little girls under the age of five, and has now dropped to 80 percent of her position at work in order to get her family life going. Photo: Thomas Andreassen / VG
Merete Gamst (41) reduces her working hours in order to balance everyday life with two small children and her career. – We are a society that rewards a high pace, and unfortunately it comes at the expense of our children, she says.
Friday 15 March at 15:42
The short version
- Merete Gamst (41) reduces working hours to 80% in order to balance everyday life with children and career.
- Debate about a more family-friendly working life continues, the MDG proposes a four-day working week. More women (45%) than men (25%) work part-time and Gamst believes in better arrangements in working life.
- Almost 1 in 3 workers feel that work takes time and energy away from their private lives, according to Statistics Norway. Birth rates in Norway are at record lows, and there is a need for solutions to combine career and family life.
Sea view
– I am in the middle of this now, says mother of two Merete Gamst.
From 1 March, she dropped to an 80 per cent position in order to manage to combine family life and work.
– I feel that I have to do it for everything to work out. It feels like I’m running and running, but no matter what I do, I never get there.
Gamst continues:
– We are a society and working life that rewards a fast pace, and this comes at the expense of our children and family life.
Work transcends privacy
The debate about a more family-friendly working life continues. Earlier this week, deputy chairman of the MDG Lan Marie Berg stated that the four-day week is the answer to the stress families with small children struggle with.
This after VG recently wrote about Gullfaks kindergarten where the employees work four-day weeks, but are paid as if they were working full time.
Almost one in three employed people find that work takes up so much time or energy that it interferes with their private life weekly or more often. It shows figures from Statistics Sweden.
There are also far more women who work part-time than men. Among women, 45 per cent work part-time, while among men it is 25 per cent. This is evident from recent figures in The SSB article “This is how the wage difference between women and men can be explained”.
IT’S ONLY NOW THEY ARE SO SMALL: When Merete was open about the fact that she had reduced her position in order to gain more balance in her everyday life, she received a massive response from women who felt the same way. Here with the daughters. Photo: Private
– A small period in an entire working life
Gamst has an Instagram account with over 20,000 followers, where she shares her life as a mother of young children. She has previously been open about the fact that she took sick leave from juggling life as a full-time mother of young children, and still receives weekly inquiries from women who experience the same thing as her.
– There are many of us who work too hard for too long, which results in people becoming burnt out and sick. It is obvious that it is not working optimally as it is now. And unfortunately there are many mothers of small children who are the losers here, says Gamst.
Also read: Record low fertility: – Danger signal for Norway
The hope is that working 80 per cent instead of 100 will make it easier for her and her family to get through everyday life.
In 2020, Gamst and her fiancé Andreas Ihlebæk moved from Oslo to Østfold to be close to their families. They have two little girls under the age of 5 and want, among other things, to have their grandparents closer.
FLEXIBILITY: – I think everyone would have benefited from a working life that facilitates and offers flexibility, says mother of small children Merete Gamst. Here with his youngest daughter. Photo: Thomas Andreassen / VG
This has resulted in longer journeys to work, and after home office flexibility was scrapped in many workplaces following the corona pandemic, it has become more challenging for everyday logistics.
– Women and couples are encouraged to have more children, while at the same time making a career and establishing themselves with a high mortgage. I think everyone would have benefited from a working life that facilitates and offers flexibility. It is only a matter of a small period in an entire working life.
– It is only right now that they are so small
Recent figures show that fertility on a national basis is at a record low. Now only 1.40 children are born per woman in Norway, an overview from Statistics Norway shows.
She continues:
– I think it is exciting that companies report good results after testing four-day weeks. They score high on both productivity and well-being. I don’t know if the four-day week is the solution in Norway, but it is very topical to look at ways that make it easier to combine career and family life.
– I think this is crucial for more people to want to have children while working 100%.
– What do you think about pension points with a decrease in the employment rate?
– Should I think about my children, or pension points? It’s just that right now they are so small. It’s about trying to live a good family life, in addition to having a meaningful work day. There are huge numbers of women who know how difficult this is every single day. Something must happen soon, says Gamst.
Merete Gamst was previously employed by VGTV, and currently works at Schibsted Partnerstudio. VG is also owned by Schibsted.