February 29, 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
Marital and Parental Time Pressures Viewed Differently by Spouses
“Only about one-fifth of employed women and men are completely satisfied with the time they spend with their spouse and their children according to a recent study published in the Journal of Family Issues. "Typically in past studies, full-time workers and parents tend to be more time pressured than those who work part time or who don't have children," says Dr. Susan Roxburgh, associate professor of sociology at Kent State University.”
Michelle Obama Touts Work/Life Issues in Y City
“Michelle Obama took a private tour of the Zanesville Day Nursery Thursday afternoon and then sat down with some local women to discuss work and child care issues. "The little ones, they are so precious," said the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, who had fun getting hugs and kisses from 3-year-olds. But she was also on hand to get a feel for the tone, mood, challenges and struggles of local families who deal with work/life balance on a daily basis.”
Paid-Leave Bill Gets Support of Panel
“A Democratic-led effort to make New Jersey the third state to let workers take paid leave from work to care for a sick relative or newborn child received a boost yesterday, much to the displeasure of businesses and Republicans. The Assembly Labor Committee voted 6-2 to approve legislation giving workers six weeks of paid leave, marking the first time Assembly lawmakers advanced the paid-leave measure. Legislators have tried to get the measure into law for years, but this proposal hadn't received Assembly consideration amid worry paid leave could hurt businesses.”
More East Valley Firms Flexing their Schedules
“"Flexibility not only helps us retain good employees, but, in the long run, it adds to our bottom line," said Mary Benjamin, owner of the Realty company, which has more than a dozen employees. Her relatively small company was selected for honors by When Work Works, a program financed by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”
Offices Dangerous to Your Health, Doctors Warn
“Workplaces should have food-free zones to free employees from the temptation to overeat, says Dr. Alison Fry, a physician with Valley of the Sun Wellness Institute in Mesa who spoke this week to a Chandler business group. Fry spoke Thursday at the Chandler Chamber of Commerce in a seminar that focused on workplace flexibility and wellness.”
WorkItMom.com Offers Tips for Working Mothers to Gain Flexibility and Balance Work Life
“Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men in the US and more than 10 million small businesses are run and owned by women. According WorkItMom.com, the leading online community for working mothers, many of these women are moms who change careers and start a business as a way to gain more flexibility and work-life balance.”
Shifts in Pregnancy and Work
“As women have children later than ever and more work outside the home, they are also working longer into pregnancy and returning to work faster than they did four decades ago, the Census Bureau said Monday. The trend reflects a number of developments since the early 1960s, including more opportunities for pregnancy leave, paid and unpaid, and increased protections for pregnant women against job discrimination.”
The Conference Board's Work Life Leadership Council to Present 2008 Media Award to Bonnie Erbe
“The Conference Board's Work Life Leadership Council established the Media Award in 1999 to recognize accurate and informed news coverage of the changing workforce and changing family that increases public awareness of these issues. The award is presented annually at The Conference Board's Work Life Conference. Ms. Erbe will be the tenth recipient of this award. Ms. Erbe is host of PBS's long-running To the Contrary series, an all-female news analysis program that provides an important, timely forum for women to discuss national and international issues and policies. Ms. Erbe is also host of 9 to 5 No Longer.”
Blogs
To Come Back, Or Not, After Maternity Leave
“A woman recently wrote to the Washington Post’s career columnist Mary Ellen Slayter with this question: “I’m about to start maternity leave, but wondered how to answer questions about coming back when I’m not sure I will?” It’s not an uncommon scenario. Some friends and acquaintances have also struggled with this issue. Their position: How am I supposed to know how I’ll feel once I have the baby? Ms. Slayter suggests the woman be candid about her feelings with her boss. Still, that might make their relationship awkward, or could leave the pregnant employee wondering if her boss will still take her seriously.”
Join Online Rally for Paid Sick Leave
“Today there’s a nationwide rally to drum up support for the Healthy Families Act in Congress that would guarantee paid sick leave for workers to recover from an illness or take care of a sick family member….The National Partnership for Women & Families is holding the first-ever online rally for paid sick days, and it starts tomorrow.”
Finding Work at Home: Part 1 - Craigslist
“Here’s a tip that will save you time dealing with the issue that Craigslist searches are limited to only one city. A site called CrazedList, allows you search across multiple cities, regions, or the whole country. Before you get too excited, it’s not the solution it could be. The interface at CrazedList is the same as Craigslist, but when you do your search for telecommute jobs, what will come back is a long page with a mini-window for each of the cities that falls within the region you specified.”
Motherhood Manifesto Not Just for Moms
“Yeah, I know, I’m childfree, but I have great respect for the author’s of this work: Joan Blades, co-founder of MoveOn.org and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, an award-winning author and consultant on environment policy. Also, I was curious; I wondered, is their initiative likely to further the divide between mothers and non-mothers in the workplace? In my humble opinion, the answer is yes, and no. Most of what is advocated in The Motherhood Manifesto are changes that would benefit all: Flex-time, benefits for part-time workers, more paid vacation or sick time, minimum "living" wage, and equal pay for equal work.”
Cali Williams Yost (March 27th Forum's Keynote Speaker) Blogs about Workplace Flexibility
“As you may have seen on our events calendar or this very blog before, the Chamber's first big Workforce 2020 forum: Workforce 2020 Flex Forum on workplace flexibility is right around the corner (March 27). In addition to breakout sessions on workplace flexibility, generational diversity, flexible work and well-being and employee wellness, Cali Williams Yost will be giving a keynote address. Yost is the auther of Work+Life Fit and is also president and founder of Work+Life, Inc.”
Global News
New German Dads Taking Leave
“Fathers accounted for more than 10 percent of all German parents who took time off their jobs to help raise their newborns in 2007, the year after a new law made them eligible for parental leave benefits, the government said Friday. Nearly 23,000 of the 184,500 parental leave requests in the final three months of 2007 came from fathers, according to numbers released by the Federal Statistics Office. That is compared with only 6.9 percent in the January to March period of that year.”
A Balanced life - Better Than Prozac?
“As anti-depression drugs hit the spotlight this week, work/life balance expert Diane Child says we are suffering from an ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff mentality. Let’s help people avoid depression and stress in the first place, she says. “By building individual resilience and getting back to basics people are less susceptible to depression. Employers can help by resolving to reduce workplace stress and by supporting their people to become more balanced and healthy. People must be allowed time to recover and restore their energy to be able to work productively,” says Diane Child, Director of Success Consultants Ltd.”
Work Life Balance Day
“PAUL Partnership will, this Friday, be promoting Work Life Balance Day, at the Marriott Hotel, at lunchtime. They recognise the challenge that achieving this balance presents to both employers and employees. In order to explore what this can mean, they are partnering with the Equality Authority and other National Framework Partners, ICTU and IBEC, to promote the event.”
Flex-Time Means Career Crash for Working Moms
“One in three female corporate managers saw severe downgrading after having a child, with two-thirds of that number taking clerical jobs rather than returning to top posts, the report published in the Economic Journal found. But the worst-affected group of mothers were managers of shops, salons and restaurants. Half of those women could only find work as sales assistants or similar low-level roles when they tried to return to work on a part-time basis after motherhood.”