April 22, 2008.
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 WF2010@law.georgetown.edu.
Articles
America the Busy
“A 2005 survey from Smoothie King revealed that 58 percent of Americans ages 18 to 54 skip lunch. Of those who take lunch, 43 percent spent 15 minutes or less. In a release from Smoothie King, the survey shows the results of those habits: Nearly half of all Americans are likely to eat between meals, one-third overeat during the next meal and one-fifth feel nauseous or have problems concentrating. A New American Dream survey showed that 52 percent of American workers would be willing to trade a day's pay per week for an extra day off. It also revealed that 83 percent wish they had more family time. What can be done? Sometimes, you can talk to your employer about flex time or other alternatives.” Mentions the Families and Work Institute.
Maternity Leave: Expectant Moms Wait 'Til The Last Minute
“Call it the American way of maternity. Eighty percent of pregnant women who work remained on the job until one month or less before their child's birth, according to newly released Census data for 2003. In 1965 that figure was 35 percent. Most women work until close to their due date for two reasons: They need the income and they want to use their maternity leave after the baby arrives. Davis, for example, received no paid maternity leave. She stockpiled vacation time for a year and a half, accumulating 33 days. She returned to the office when her son was 6-weeks-old, partly to take the load off her co-workers. "I also had to think about paying for day care, so I needed that paycheck," Davis says. "Women are making the best decisions they can with the constraints they're operating under," says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute in New York. Those constraints include a lack of paid leave.”
She Wants a Career and He Wants Golf. Now What?
“Scenes like this are becoming more common as the first mass generation of career women reaches the traditional retirement ages of 60 to 65. Experts on aging say that the phenomenon began about five years ago and will continue to expand as more women enter their 60s. These are the wives who swept into the work force in the late 1970s and early ’80s, just as the women’s movement was pushing open career doors. Many had stayed home taking care of the house and family, and often, like Ms. Rubinger, put off entering the work force until their children were in school, in college or even grown. “In the past, other generations for the most part only had to deal with one retirement,” said Phyllis Moen, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota. But nowadays, when the husband is ready to relax after four decades of work, the wife might have barely begun her working life.”
Vertex Named "Family Friendly Workplace of the Year" by the Childhood Education Coalition of Chester County
“Vertex Inc., the leading provider of tax technology solutions, today announced that it was named the “Family Friendly Work Place of the Year” by the Childhood Education Coalition of Chester County (CECCC). Barb Dyson, Director of Human Resources for Vertex, accepted the award on Friday, April 18 at the CECCC’s 3rd Annual Celebrate Children event. The award recognizes Vertex’s dedication to the creation of a family-friendly work environment and respect for their employees’ lives outside the office. Vertex supports its employees with a long list of family-oriented benefits. Most rare and notable is Vertykes, the company’s on-site day care center run by Hildebrandt Learning Center and accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Opened in 2001, Vertykes can accommodate up to 100 children ranging in age from infants to kindergartners. It is rare for a company of Vertex’s size (500 employees at their Berwyn campus) to have an onsite daycare center. Additional family-friendly benefits offered by Vertex include: flexible work hours; compressed work week options; adoption assistance and paid leave for the arrival of an adopted child; paid family caregiver leave; generous health, dental and vision benefits; benefits for domestic partners; paid time off and sick time above industry-standards; and an employee assistance program.”
A Board Rules, and Businesses Balk
"San Francisco voters have proved no less proactive, passing the 2006 sick leave law, which authorizes up to nine paid days off as credit for time worked. In 2003, voters also passed a minimum-wage act that currently sets it at $9.36 — more than $3.50 above the federal rate. And next year, it goes up…. Despite the grumbling, some of San Francisco’s ideas are being floated at the state level and in other cities, including the ban on plastic bags at large grocery stores. A bill modeled on the city’s sick leave law was passed by a committee of the California Legislature last week."
Leading By Example on Telecommuting
“Today, over 100,000 federal employees telecommute at least one day a week. Twenty-five percent of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's workforce telecommutes. So how's Connecticut doing? By the tate of Connecticut's own account, as of 2005, less than one-half of 1 percent of our workforce was telecommuting and the numbers have not grown appreciably since. Yet, according to Telecommute Connecticut, the Department of Transportation's partners in promoting telecommuting, 9 percent of the state's private sector workforce telecommutes.”
Panel OKs 4 Weeks Parental Leave for Feds
“Lawmakers took a giant first step toward giving federal employees paid time off when they become new parents. In the space of last week, a bill was introduced and passed by a full House committee that would pay new moms and dads — including those who are new adoptive parents — for four of their 12 weeks of eligible leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The remaining eight weeks of available leave would remain as unpaid under the bill, called the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act. Currently, federal employees receive 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, and are allowed to use stored-up sick leave or vacation time to keep getting paid during that period. The bill’s advancement has encouraged supporters that this may be the year Congress approves a paid parental leave benefit for federal employees. For the last eight years, paid parental leave bills have languished in Congress without so much as a subcommittee vote.”
Three Guidelines to Help Moms Re-Enter Job Force After Kids
“You've off-ramped your career and you'll need to merge back on to the job-search highway. You might not be quite as confident driving in this setting, but the same basic rules of the road apply. You'll need to research potential employers and opportunities. Build a case for your candidacy and practice presenting it. Source opportunities through networking, online postings and agencies. Consider temp assignments. Build relationships by reaching out to people on work-related topics. You'll be competing with candidates who have employment histories more closely linked to employers, so your ability to establish credibility and foster relationships is integral to your re-entry.”
Working Life (High and Low)
"In 30 lawsuits, FedEx Ground drivers have argued that they are employees, not independent contractors, and that the company should therefore pay for their trucks, insurance, repairs, gas and tires. In one lawsuit, a California judge ruled that FedEx Ground was engaged in an elaborate ruse in which FedEx “has close to absolute control” over the drivers. Last December, FedEx acknowledged another setback: the I.R.S. ordered it to pay $319 million in taxes and penalties for 2002 for misclassifying employees as independent contractors… Patagonia is so mellow about flextime that the receptionist at headquarters, an 11-time world Frisbee champion, is allowed to take three months off each summer to run a surfing school. Welling has taken advantage of another Patagonia offering: the child care center at headquarters."
When Motherhood Comes at an Inconvenient Time
“In Spain, some were questioning whether Carme Chacon should be able to take her state-mandated 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, given the importance of her job. And that kind of dilemma resonates for women anywhere who have jobs they need and value: What do you do when the timing of motherhood clashes with the upward trajectory of your career? For most American women, of course, the idea of 16 weeks paid leave is a mere dream. The United States is one of a handful of countries with no guaranteed paid maternity leave policy, along with Swaziland, Papua New Guinea, Lesotho and Liberia, researchers found last year.”
Women Want the Freedom To Have a Stellar Career and To Meet Family Demands As They Choose
“Women bring a new concern to the practice, though. Women can be, and often are, just as dedicated to a legal career as any man, but women have a set number of years in which to bear and raise children, if they choose to do so. This biological imperative is at the heart of “the whole enchilada,” because women want the freedom to have a stellar career and to meet family demands as they choose. In many ways, it’s this confluence that has caused the profession to stop and ask what women lawyers want. Today’s women lawyers, looking back on the years in which women tried to “have it all”—full-press career plus family—recognize that they may need to take bites of the whole enchilada, accepting the trade-offs in time and attention that shift throughout their professional and parenting years."
This article is part of an issue of The Complete Lawyer devoted specifically to women and the law, and includes other articles on work-life balance. Please follow this link to visit the main page: http://www.thecompletelawyer.com/volume4/issue2/index.php?pubid=135.
Blogs
Eviction Notice
“I am a divorced single mother to five sons under age 15. I work from home as a freelance writer. I live with a benign brain tumor. I've fallen off the proverbial balance beam so many times over the years, all I've got to pass on today is my conviction that balancing life means keeping life in perspective….Finding balance is more than opting to work outside the home, inside the home, or at home with kids. Balancing family, work, and life encompasses more than coping with logistics involving schedules, guilt over "quality time" spent with kids, whether to be a stay-at-home mom, work from home, or remain in the workplace after having children. It's about finding and being comfortable with your private level of balance. And your balance is as unique as your own fingerprint.”
Would Better Info About Your Fertility Lead to Different Career Choices?
“The article goes on to say that the emergence of new egg-assessment technologies comes at a time when women are increasingly pushing the limits of their childbearing years, fueled in part by the strides women have made in the workplace. According to the 2006 National Vital Statistics Report, the biggest increases in birth rates from 1990 to 2004 occurred among females over age 30. For women 35 to 39, the birth rate jumped 43%. For women 40 to 44, it climbed 62%. And for those 45 to 49, the rate rose 250%.”
Recession, Depression and Their Impact in the Workplace
“In fact, in 1997 the WHO considered depression the second greatest cause of disability in the world. The impact of depression on work is backed up with statistics measured in the report in terms of absence, higher health care costs and loss of productivity… But lets take a deeper look at the indirect costs. In the report, which was funded by Servier Laboratories Limited, "79% of people diagnosed with depression in the UK felt that disclosing their condition to colleagues would have a detrimental impact on then and nearly a third believe they have been turned down for a job." It also revealed that many workplaces do not have the structures in place to support their employees… The pressure is building and creating stress for everyone to perform in a competitive 24/7 marketplace. The elusive quest for worklife balance, will remain just that - elusive unless we start taking a closer look at the impact of the greater worldly challenges on the daily life of our human capital.” Author references a new UK report accessible here: The Inside Story: The Impact of Depression on Daily Life (PDF), and a survey from the National Association for Business Economics linked here: http://www.nabe.com/publib/indsum.html.
Motherhood as a Career Obstacle
"There's a clear penalty to motherhood and caregiving in this country," says Eileen Appelbaum, director of the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers University. "Basically we've said to women, if you can conduct yourself in the workplace as if you were a man, without any other responsibilities, being available day and night, then (and only then) will your pay and opportunities will be similar." As long as women play the game, they can be successful. Pick your career or pick your family. This is the dilemma faced by women in the workforce. While many have negotiated the flexibility they need in order to be successful both at home and at work, change is still needed. In addition to making changes in your own work arrangement, you can join the efforts of MomsRising to promote open and flexible work here.”
Reports & Surveys
New Study Quantifies Pollution Reduced by Telecommuters - Confirms Work from Home Jobs Save Money, Reduce Oil & CO2
“An analysis of published research, released today, offers hope for Earth Day on April 22nd. The study shows that while less than 4% of the U.S. workforce currently work from home, 40% have jobs that would allow them to telecommute. If they did, according to the study, these new teleworkers could annually save 625 million barrels of oil, reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 107 million tons of CO2, and save almost $43 billion at the pumps. Each worker would save 26 work-days and over $800, time and money now wasted commuting. The independent study by Kate Lister and Tom Harnish is part of an ongoing effort to quantify the costs and benefits of telecommuting for workers, employers, communities, and the nation. The work is part of their research for a forthcoming book titled Undress4Success: The Naked Truth About Working From Home about telecommuting jobs and home based business. Earlier results, reported in January, revealed that increased telecommuting could reduce Gulf oil imports by 80% while significantly reducing pollution.” Visit Undress4Success.com (linked here) to learn more about the report and local, state and regional details.
Global News
Women Seek Work-Life Balance
“Flexibility within the workplace is becoming essential for workers and professional and corporate women want employment that offers flexible hours, locations and options of job sharing. The women are rejecting businesses that won't take flexibility seriously at a time when employers are struggling to find and retain top staff…Businesses are now being forced to face the fact that it's hard to keep good women. On July 1 flexible working arrangements will come into force which will allow some employees to request a variation to their hours of work, days of work, or place of work.”
Move Over Chaps, It's Our Turn Now
“There is also the issue of working hours. This affects male MPs, too, but mothers will be particularly put off by the retreat of the more family-friendly hours that were introduced to great fanfare in 2003. If some find the parliamentary life unattractive, there are still many women who are engaged in the political arena. A large number of influential think tanks are headed by women, many of whom were put off becoming MPs. “Some women in parliament end up feeling very isolated and unhappy. In many ways it is better to be in politics in my position because you get to choose your own voice,” said Catherine Fieschi, head of Demos. Lisa Harker, who runs the Institute for Public Policy Research as a job-share with Carey Oppenheim, agreed: “Think tanks give far greater flexibility. They are more collegiate, we work as a team. “Carey and I job-share, which is another step away - can you imagine a job-sharing chancellor or prime minister? Maybe one day.”
Retirees, Mothers Urged to Stay at Work
“Retirees and mothers are being encouraged to stay in the workforce longer under a NSW government plan to address the ageing population. NSW Ageing Minister Kristina Keneally said the state government faced a budget crisis in 2030, with the number of people in NSW aged over 65 predicted to double by that time. But the government has denied media reports that the plan, to be presented by NSW Premier Morris Iemma at the 2020 summit in Canberra this weekend, would involve pushing back the retirement age.”
South Africa: White Men 'Still Rule Executive Roost in SA'
"One would assume that with the continued emphasis on transformation both race and gender specific appointments would receive substantial focus from employers," Goodman-Bhyat said. "However, last year we received many employment equity mandates from our clients, but none specified gender," she said. "Perhaps this might reflect progress in terms of a diminishing gender bias, but with women accounting for just 30% of Jack Hammer's executive level placement, the reality is that there is still a substantial disparity."...Goodman-Bhyat said there were job market changes that would have an effect on women and their career paths. For instance, some companies are offering "work-life balance" solutions that appeal to women, including flexitime, work from home options and improved maternity benefits."