Career sustainability for dual-earner parents: a pedagogical approach

Purpose This paper presents a pedagogical approach that allows students to discuss the challenges that parents in dual-earner relationships face in maintaining sustainable careers so that both partners can experience happiness, health and productivity in their work over the course of their careers. Design/methodology/approach This paper first discusses the concept of career sustainability and why a sustainable career is important not only for individuals and their families but for employers and society as well. It then provides a pedagogical structure that allows students to recognize the pressures, demands and challenges that parents in dual-earner relationships face in maintaining sustainable careers. The teaching approach also allows students to devise, present and discuss alternative approaches to successfully deal with these obstacles. Findings There are a number of positive pedagogical outcomes that can be realized from this classroom discourse as students face these career challenges in their own lives now or in the future. Experience with the use of this pedagogical structure in the classroom, both in the United States and Europe, indicates that it is an effective vehicle for students to grasp the challenges that working parents face in maintaining a sustainable career. Student feedback shows that it is a useful learning tool to help them manage their own career as well as assist subordinates in navigating their careers during turbulent times. Practical implications This pedagogical structure can help students throughout the world understand the demands and conflicts that working parents face in maintaining sustainable careers. It also can offer suggestions on how employers can address the challenges that their employees face by providing them with resources that enable them to achieve happy, healthy and productive careers over the long haul. Originality/value This paper fills a gap in the literature by providing a pedagogical structure to guide discussion on the issues surrounding the career sustainability challenges faced by parents in dual-earner relationships and how employers might assist in helping their employees respond to these challenges. It is highly relevant and well-suited for courses such as Career Management, Human Resource Management, Organizational Behavior, Leadership Dynamics and Industrial/Organizational Psychology.