Lemondrop

It's your third night this week staying at work late to finish up a project. But your colleague, who is supposed to be helping you, is skipping out early yet again to pick up her kid from soccer practice -- with the boss's blessing.

It's a common occurrence for some employees. A CareerBuilder.com survey found that more than 21 percent of single, childless workers think their companies favor their coupled-up colleagues. About 30 percent say married co-workers get more flexibility in their schedules than unmarried ones.

Moms Gaining Ground
In one sense, companies' understanding of the obligations of workers who are married or have kids is a good thing, especially for women. It wasn't too long ago that female workers were universally thought of as being less competent than male employees. In some dim corners of the working world, that opinion still exists. (Discrimination against working mothers is still rampant in England, according to research published in 2007.)

The pro-parent movement has gotten a boost from new grounds for lawsuits called Family Responsibilities Discrimination. One example of FRD is "denying flexibility to employees who want it for child-care reasons, while allowing flexibility to employees for non-family reasons (e.g., to participate on a sports team)." So, your boss is right to let your co-worker leave early to pick up her kid -- but she also has to let you leave early to take your ailing aunt to the doctor.

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Singled Out
Karin, a single psychologist from Chicago, agrees with the Careerbuilder survey, saying that workers with families "consider their domestic obligations legitimate reasons to bow out of work responsibilites."

"And the rest of us, well, we don't have those excuses, do we? I recognize I can't possibly understand how difficult it is to juggle a full-time job and family. However, when my married colleagues cry 'kids' or 'family,' it leads to resentment among co-workers; we feel responsible for the lion's share of the work, and it corrodes team morale."

Not Married to More Time Off
But Lisa, a public-relations and marketing consultant from New York, who has spent part of her working life single and part of it married with children, says she's never personally experienced the treatment detailed by Careerbuilder.

"I have never been taken advantage of as a single worker, nor expected uber-advantages as a married worker," Lisa said. "I have witnessed married individuals with children take time off, but this occurs when both parents are working and child care is unavailable. I've found these incidents to be few and far between for working parents in administrative to managerial roles."

Actually, Lisa thinks the survey might have it backward -- the single workers she knows seem to take more time off than the ones with families. "The single ones have more going on their lives, it seems, than the married ones and seem to take more time/days off for themselves and to have fun. The married/married-with-children folks seem only to take off days when absolutely necessary or for family-planned vacation time."

Tell us: Have you experienced similar situations related to your family status at your office?