June 20, 2006
The Workplace Flexibility 2010 News Roundup is a compilation of the latest news articles, reports and other materials related to workplace flexibility. The News Roundup appears twice-weekly. If you have questions about any of the items, please contact Jennifer Hedrick at jlh62@law.georgetown.edu.
Articles
More Fathers Figure on Family Time
"Working dads have long been viewed in the "Leave It to Beaver" way: Off to work in the morning, back in time for dinner, then as Dad eases into his recliner, Mom puts the little ones to bed. But today's generation of dads -- along with the companies for which they work -- is trying to change all that forever. Those flexible hours that working moms urged companies to provide are finally also being used by working dads.”
Paid Leave a Relative Success
"Nearly two years ago today, California became the first state to introduce a paid-family-leave program. While thousands of fathers have taken the paid leave, its relatively low use demonstrates how slow social change can be.”
21st Century Dads Turn to Blogs for Help
"The Internet is loaded with daddy blogs -- Cynical Dad, Laid-off Dad, Modern Day Dad, Rice Daddies, Metrodad, Dadcentric -- that offer a virtual road map to the challenges of modern fatherhood, such as juggling two-career marriages, co-parenting and Diaper Genies. Dads blog because they are curious, isolated and trying to connect with others who are grasping at an idea of fatherhood that is far from models set by their parents and seems to change by the month.” Mentions Joan Williams.
Blue Prints for Plugging a Brain Drain
"Tomorrow evening, representatives of 33 major companies will gather to play a game that is a cross between ‘Show and Tell and ‘Can You Top This?’ The occasion will be the Hidden Brain Drain Summit, the latest step by a task force whose work I have chronicled in this column over the last three years. The hidden brain drain refers to what Sylvia Ann Hewlett calls ‘the highly qualified women and minorities who are either leaving the work force or languishing on the sidelines.’ Or, to quote an article I wrote in 2003 for The New York Times Magazine — one that helped spur the work of the task force in the first place — it refers to workers who are ‘opting out.’”
Many Fathers Taking More Active Approach to Parenting
"Kent Linkner is secretly known as ‘Zerbertron’ or ‘The Container,’ two of the various villains and superheroes he conjured to amuse his 3 1/2-year-old son. For his 7-month-old daughter, he buzzes and flies about before the ‘Kissing Bumblebee’ zeroes in for a landing…Linkner epitomizes a growing trend of young fathers prioritizing families and taking a greater role in parenting from the moment their children are born. Employers and researchers associate this trend with a jump in the number of dads using the Family and Medical Leave Act to bond with newborns or care for sick children.” Mentions Ellen Galinsky.
Life Beyond Pay
"A NEW magazine was published in America this month. Success is the resurrection of a title first published in 1897 by Orison Swett Marden, an entrepreneur and author of a series of self-help books, including ‘Getting the Most Out of Life’. The magazine's publisher, Joseph Guerriero, wants today's Success to reflect the contemporary workplace, where, he says, success is measured less by money and titles, and more by what is sweepingly referred to as ‘work-life balance.’”
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Op-eds
Unleashing the Wrath of Stay-at-Home Moms
"When I set out to write a book about how the first generation of women to grow up with feminism managed their marriages, I never dreamed I'd wind up the subject of a Web article called 'Everybody Hates Linda.' Everybody started hating Linda, apparently, when I published an article in the progressive magazine the American Prospect last December, saying that women who quit their jobs to stay home with their children were making a mistake.”