News Roundup

Team-Based Flexible Work Programs are Pushing into the Mainstream

"Laurie Dowd, a manager of PNC Financial Service's PFPC, says of the team approach, ‘We rely on each other, and it works.’  Flexibility is high on everybody's wish list, but as often as not, it's still a special perk that's tough to wrestle from a reluctant boss. How can we make money with a workforce that's sometimes here and sometimes not, ask management skeptics? We can't afford to have epidemic flexibility, they say.  A small but powerful batch of workplace experiments now percolating across the country is providing some of the best evidence yet that the skeptics are wrong. Pilot programs in 10 companies are injecting flexibility in some of the most inflexible corners of corporate America — call centers, mailrooms, a maintenance department — while reaping impressive gains in productivity. The project, managed by The Bold Initiative, a nonprofit consulting group, and funded by the Alfred J. Sloan Foundation, is pushing flexibility further into the mainstream.” Mentions The Bold Initiative, Families and Work Institute, and Corporate Voices for Working Families.

• http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/balance/archives/110605.shtml

Time Benders: Study Says Flextime

"In April 1999, 19 workers at a PNC Financial Services Group operations center in suburban Philadelphia entered a seven-month pilot study in which they compressed their full-time schedule to four 10-hour days instead of a traditional five-day workweek. As a result, PNC reported productivity among the workers jumped dramatically while absenteeism and turnover declined.  More than five years later, the compressed workweek is still in place among the pilot group while throughout PNC more than half of its 23,000 employees take advantage of flex options, including the compressed workweek, telecommuting and staggering their daily start and stop times.” Mentions Corporate Voices for Working Families.

• http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05312/602358.stm

Downsizing, Internet Fuel Trend of Home Businesses

"Jere Ward of Boston and Marianne Morelli of Malden typify the rising number of home-based business owners: Ward, 20, is beginning her career crafting pocketbooks at her dining room table, while Morelli, 51, is rebounding from a layoff by creating soaps and moisturizers in her kitchen.  Corporate downsizing, long commutes, the Internet, and the lower cost of working from home are among the factors spurring the creation of these enterprises, according to career counselors and employment specialists, who expect the trend to grow.”

• http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/articles/110605_homebusiness.html

When Your Spouse is Married to The Job

"The call came on a Friday night. Dave had arrived at last, late and out of sorts, looking wilted, pale, and damp. Some problem at work, he told our friends before he even sat down. Specifics? Who remembers? There's always a problem, a crisis, a new development. He was too agitated to eat, so he said, ‘I'll just keep you company.’ Great. ‘Did you eat anything during the day?’  Of course not. Dave could talk of nothing but the job.”

• http://bostonworks.boston.com:80/globe/view_cube/archive/110605.shtml

Retirement Boomers Need Larger Nest Egg, Study Finds

"Baby boomers are feeling financially ready for their golden years, despite needing larger nest eggs, and worrying about the fate of Social Security, a study shows. Shifting attitudes about retirement are also changing what people do after they leave a long career. The study, conducted by Lincoln Retirement Institute, the retirement research division of Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Group, found that more than half - 55 percent - of retired boomers with an income of more than $75,000 per year or total financial assets of more than $350,000, reported they were determined to not outlive what they saved.”

• http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/out_field/

Generation Y: They've Arrived at Work with a New Attitude

"They're young, smart, brash. They may wear flip-flops to the office or listen to iPods at their desk. They want to work, but they don't want work to be their life. This is Generation Y, a force of as many as 70 million, and the first wave is just now embarking on their careers — taking their place in an increasingly multigenerational workplace.

Get ready, because this generation — whose members have not yet hit 30 — is different from any that have come before, according to researchers and authors such as Bruce Tulgan, a founder of New Haven, Conn.-based RainmakerThinking, which studies the lives of young people.”

• http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2005-11-06-gen-y_x.htm