Czech Ombudsman published final report on the sociological research named Work-Life Balance On Czech Ministries

The main findings of the research show that:

• There are certain standard measures applied in the area of work-life balance at the Ministries which make it easier to combine work and out-of-work duties of the employees; there are, however, differences among the individual Ministries;
• there are discrepancies in the position and responsibilities of the “gender focal points” at the Ministries. Their position in terms of the organisational structure of their respective Ministries differs (assignment to a section, department, or unit) and they usually do not devote a sufficient part of their work capacity to the topic of gender equality, which also includes work-life balance;
• the Ministries often use only some of the available forms of flexible work and there were significant differences in the provision of certain other benefits;
• only flexible scheduling of working time is available everywhere; in contrast, shorter working time or work from other places are only available to a few percent of civil servants, even though many more are interested.

The survey also confirmed that the issue has to be approached cross-sectionally – across generations

and age groups, as well as in the context of various life situations, as the need for combining work with private life as well as the practical possibilities for such a combination vary over the lives of individuals (due to changing needs, values, individual wishes and preferences as well as the actual living conditions and opportunities). Currently, most attention is devoted to parents with small children, especially mothers, although there is room also in this area for further improvement in work-life balance (see children playgrounds, care for children during school holidays, care for children under 3 years of age, etc.).

Report is available here