With the school closures and the start of summer holidays, millions of families face the challenge of balancing work and childcare again. A new study by International Workplace Group (Iwg) – a global leader in hybrid work solutions with brands like Spaces and Regus – reveals that nearly seven out of ten parents (69%) experience significant anxiety about organizing childcare during school holidays.
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Holidays to care for children
To ease this pressure, 78% of respondents indicate access to a flexible workspace near home as the most effective solution. Flexibility is not only a matter of time but also budget. In fact, 74% of working parents say they have to resort to flexible work to contain costs, especially since more than a quarter (27%) expect that this year expenses for childcare will be higher than in the past. To cope with this overload, 28% use their vacation days to care for their children, and nearly one in five parents (18%) say they will exhaust their entire annual leave just to cover the summer period. This overload inevitably reflects on performance, so much so that 75% of parents confirm that the summer routine inevitably affects work life.
Working from home
To keep up with deadlines, workers are forced to adjust their schedules: 22% plan fewer meetings or work late at night, while 21% wake up early in the morning to work while their children rest. However, 26% admit that managing work and home simultaneously makes it very difficult to maintain concentration.
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Summer management stress
Further complicating matters is the gradual return to office presence policies: 55% of parents have seen their flexibility reduced (compared to 33% in 2025). This change disproportionately affects working mothers: in fact, 74% report suffering from summer management stress, compared to 66% of fathers. Additionally, 26% highlight how the obligation to go to a location far from home creates imbalances in the division of tasks within the couple.
Time and costs
Faced with these difficulties, the direction indicated by workers is clear: 83% would regularly use a flexible workspace near home if provided by the company. The benefits are concrete on multiple fronts: 27% of respondents could spend more quality time with family, while 69% would significantly save on transportation costs, thus offsetting expenses for summer services. This local and distributed model is therefore also advantageous for businesses: research conducted by Iwg together with consulting firm Arup shows that companies adopting flexible workspaces can see a productivity increase of up to 12% over the next five years and reduce – in the United States – voluntary turnover rates by up to 20%, translating into potential annual savings of 22 billion dollars by 2030 and 45 billion dollars by 2045. According to Fatima Koning, chief commercial officer of Iwg, “workplace flexibility not only supports family well-being but directly contributes to employees’ mental health and job satisfaction. Offering working parents easier access to a network of local distributed spaces means creating a more inclusive and serene work environment, with direct benefits on productivity and talent retention.”