About Us: Mission
Workplace Flexibility 2010 is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Initiative located at Georgetown University Law Center and directed by Professor Chai Feldblum. First established in November 2003 and subsequently expanded in June 2004, this research, outreach and consensus-building effort is designed to support the development of a comprehensive national policy on workplace flexibility.
To accommodate the flexibility needs of today’s employees, public and private actors must work together to create a national policy that relies on a combination of voluntary efforts by employers and employees and public policy efforts. Workplace flexibility includes the ability to enjoy different forms of part-time work without suffering disproportionate economic or job-related penalties, control over the timing of one’s work (if the particular industry allows for that), and provisions for employees to deal with unexpected emergencies and daily, logistical needs. With an effective policy, such workplaces would exist in all sectors of the economy: public and private, and for-profit and not-for-profit.
The reality of today’s economy is that both members of a couple usually work in the paid workforce, while having care giving responsibilities for their children and often their aging parents. The majority of families today have two individuals trying to carry out three jobs: two jobs in the paid workforce and one job at home. While this has been the reality for many low-income families and single parents for generations, today it is the norm for a majority of families across income lines.
But care giving responsibilities are only one reason why employees need flexibility. As the baby boom generation ages, more older workers will want to (or will need to) work part-time after they reach conventional retirement age. Some workers will want flexibility to learn new skills or to volunteer in their communities. For employees with chronic health conditions or other disabilities, working a part-time job module may be the only way for them to enjoy the emotional and financial benefits of working.
Obviously, employees and employers are free today to negotiate a range of flexible arrangements. But the challenge is that the normative structures and practical policies of most workplaces, together with many of the employment and labor laws that govern such workplaces, fail to enhance, encourage, or create possibilities for workplace flexibility that could work well for both employees and employers.
The reasons for this are complex. Sometimes the normative structures, practical policies, and laws have been developed too many years ago, and inertia, or political stalemate, have kept them from being updated. Other times, well-intentioned laws do not work as well as they should because there is no effective structure for discussing the consequences of such laws and enacting necessary changes. And sometimes, necessary government mandates are precluded by the same political stalemate that prevents necessary corrections of existing laws.
Workplace Flexibility 2010 seeks to change the paradigm in which we approach workplace flexibility and, hence, to help shape a more effective public policy outcome for both employees and employers. We reach out to labor and to management, to feminist family groups and to conservative family groups, to religious groups, educators, social workers, academics and any other constituency group that might have useful perspectives and knowledge on work, family, and community.
The first stage of Workplace Flexibility 2010 has consisted of two overarching activities: (1) beginning to build an internal knowledge base of law and practice so we can become a viable player in the public policy world; and (2) reaching out to a range of constituency groups to interest them in a new paradigm for achieving workplace flexibility that can work for both employers and employees.
Our long-term goals build on these activities. We aim to be the source of objective and accurate information about the existing legal and practical impediments and supports for workplace flexibility. We hope to identify potential partners from among the current constituency players in Washington on labor and employment issues and engage them in developing a new and different approach to public policy in the area of workplace flexibility. We aim to encourage groups that are not currently involved in workplace issues to understand how a national policy advancing workplace flexibility could benefit their different constituencies. And, finally, we hope to provide the technical legal assistance necessary for drafting new and creative approaches to workplace flexibility.