July 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
Women Are Now Equal as Victims of Poor Economy
Louis Uchitelle • New York Times • July 22, 2008
“Indeed, for the first time since the women’s movement came to life, an economic recovery has come and gone, and the percentage of women at work has fallen, not risen, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. Each of the seven previous recoveries since 1960 ended with a greater percentage of women at work than when it began. When economists first started noticing this trend two or three years ago, many suggested that the pullback from paid employment was a matter of the women themselves deciding to stay home — to raise children or because their husbands were doing well or because, more than men, they felt committed to running their households. But now, a different explanation is turning up in government data, in the research of a few economists and in a Congressional study, to be released Tuesday, that follows the women’s story through the end of 2007.”
Flexible schedules work best when thought out, detailed
Barbara Rose • Chicago Tribune • July 21, 2008
“Every week brings another announcement of a government agency adopting a four-day week or a business expanding telecommuting options to help minimize employees' pain at the gas pump. The spike in oil prices—the latest in a host of megatrends pushing organizations to offer alternative work arrangements—seems a golden opportunity for flexibility advocates. Yet there are pitfalls. Knee-jerk solutions such as four-day weeks and work-from-home Fridays are not necessarily the answer, experts say, and ill-conceived or hastily adopted programs serve neither customers nor employees.”
Phased retirement gaining traction
Cindy Kent • South Florida Sun-Sentinel • July 21, 2008
“According to Employee Benefit Research Institute's recently released survey, employers worry about the "brain drain" effect of older workers leaving their jobs, so they're are looking at phased retirement strategies. Especially effected has been the defense and aerospace industry, from which the survey polled almost 5,000 retirees. The questionnaire asked participants about their benefits, pensions and self-worth in terms of being valued and needed. They were asked if they would have been willing to continue to work part time, full time, or as seasonal or contract workers.”
Shared Struggle Led Women to Political Action
Katherine Shaver • Washington Post • July 21, 2008
“Most Sundays for the past six years, about 25 live-in nannies and housekeepers from across the Washington area have gathered in Silver Spring to share stories of mandatory six-day workweeks, 14-hour days and salaries that amount to as little as $1 an hour. Calling themselves the Committee of Women Seeking Justice, they gather in a circle and commiserate in English, Spanish, Hindi and French. Among the topics: no sick days, little overtime pay, feeling "on call" at all hours and sleeping on basement floors. Several have shared stories of having been kept as modern-day slaves, organizers said, rarely allowed out of the house and never seeing a cent.”
Lawyers, Pros Say Flex Schedule's Time Has Come
Rachel Breitman • The American Lawyer • July 21, 2008
“Lawyers won't have to be slaves to the billable hour for much longer, according to the panel of experts participating in "Flexing the Workplace," a roundtable discussion held in the New York offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell and sponsored by the National Association of Women Lawyers. Timed to coincide with NAWL's annual awards luncheon and the release of its study "Actions for Advancing Women Into Law Firm Leadership," the panelists emphasized that now, more than ever, law firms must begin offering more flexible work schedules to its lawyers. If not, they risk losing the young crop of talent needed to secure a successful future.”
Petition drive could send sick leave measure to voter referendum
Larry Sandler • Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, WI • July 20, 2008
“For nearly a century, Wisconsin voters have had the power to go over the heads of aldermen and village trustees by enacting municipal ordinances at the ballot box. That little-known power hasn't been used often, but now Milwaukee residents are likely to get their chance to become lawmakers. A coalition led by 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, has mounted a petition drive demanding an ordinance to require the city's private-sector employers to provide paid sick leave for their workers, and to let those workers take sick days to care for ailing family members. City Clerk Ron Leonhardt has certified that the petitions have more than the legally required minimum of 25,700 valid signatures.”
Michelle Obama shares with twist in exclusive
Laura Varon Brown • Detroit Free Press • July 19, 2008
“But what about professional women like me who may not fit the working families model that Sen. Obama seems to be talking about? We are working harder than ever and struggling with a work/family balance that gets only more impossible in a tight economy when flexibility and support programs in the workplace are in peril as budgets tighten. What about those families whose livelihood and contributions to society are enormous and are enormously at risk? Mrs. Obama said it was a question she had never been asked by the media before, and then without missing a beat, she said the balance we struggle with as working mothers, does not get easier with the size of our paycheck. The struggles, the guilt are the same. And she's right.”
Balancing work and life
Luke Howarth • The Metro West Daily News, MA • July 19, 2008
“Striking the right balance between professional and personal commitments is a common problem for many of today's workers. Lean staff levels and rising workloads require longer hours on the job, making it difficult to juggle deadlines and personal plans, presentations and trips to the gym, business travel and family vacations. In fact, a recent survey of workers by Robert Half International suggests a flexible schedule is the benefit employees value most. The reason? Increased control of their time enables individuals to balance competing demands.”
Highway employees to work 4-day weeks
Ariel Zangla • Daily Freeman, NY • July 18, 2008
“During a meeting Wednesday, the county Legislature unanimously adopted a resolution amending an agreement with the union that represents Highway Department employees. Under the amendment, the union members would work four, 10-hour days instead of five, eight-hour days each week in an effort to reduce expenses incurred from high fuel costs. The number of employees affected was not immediately available.”
In Hudson, McCain makes pitch to women
Bill Salsibury • Pioneer Press, MN • July 12, 2008
“"There are some issues where womenface special challenges," he said. "So I want to make sure that they understand that I am in tune not only with their overall challenges as they struggle in businesses and struggle to keep their homes, educate their children, make their home loan payments, etc., but (that they) get a chance to talk to me directly, too. But in his speech, McCain failed to address many traditional "women's issues," such as children's health care, early childhood education, unequal pensions and family medical leave.”
Blogs
Empty mommy wars? Women leave work for economics
Paul Nyhan • Seattle Post-Intelligencer - Working Dad • July 21, 2008
“Of course, some moms are leaving their jobs to raise families, but the article points out that a dip in work force participation by women in the early 2000s was perceived at least by some economists as a motherhood movement. Research suggests moms and dads are leaving because they got laid off, outsourced, saw their wages cut or hit another economic barrier on the job.”
A Magical moment in the Women's Movement
Joan • MomsRising Blog • July 21, 2008
“The conversations expanded our horizons and reassured us that we can have a diverse movement given partners with such big hearts. We don’t have to agree about everything; we do need to focus on our core shared vision of mothers and families thriving in our country and we trust that, if we do this, if we model respectful, joyful, collaborative and non-judgmental engagement in our work and in our communication, we will create a country conducive to the success of families and communities. Perhaps even more inspiring, we will invigorate both our democracy and our economy!”
Parental Incentive Program
Tiffany Gabrielson • Sloan Work and Family Blog • July 18, 2008
“Over a year after it was established, the eyes of the world are still on a privately funded New York program that offers financial incentives to impoverished parents. The controversial program is aimed at families in the poorest New York neighborhoods and can only be used by families whose income falls well below the poverty line. Through privately collected funds, parents are offered yearly payments of up to $5,000 for assisting their children in receiving the educational and medical assistance that all children need. The money is earned in increments, depending upon what task is performed. Rewards are given for school performance, such as children who receive high scores on standardized tests or have exemplary school attendance records and for proper medical and dental attention.”
The Vacation Quandary Continues
Cali William Yost • Work + Life "Fit" Blog • July 17, 2008
“Then there are the people like me who struggle not to work during vacation. Once again, as my vacation approaches, I’m consciously vowing to limit the amount of work I am going to do. The fact that we are traveling to a pretty remote island location that has “spotty” email and mobile reception may help my cause. But in the end, will I bring work-related reading to “catch-up on” or finally pick up the novel that’s been gathering dust on my nightstand? Unfortunately, a law won’t help me choose the novel. Only I can make that decision.”
Global News
Briefing: Parental Leave
David Smith • Times, UK • July 20, 2008
“Brewer said that while we live in the 21st century, “we have a workplace often stuck somewhere in the 1950s” and women are often described by employers as being on the “baby track”. Statutory entitlement to paid maternity leave, which stood at 14 weeks in 1994, is now nine months and will be increased to 12 months at the end of this year. Flexible working rights for parents will also be extended.”
We all need time off. Only the reasons differ
Joan Smith • The Independent, UK • July20, 2008
“There are many reasons why someone might need or want time off work. On Thursday, a legal secretary won a landmark legal ruling after arguing that she was forced out of her job because she asked for flexible working hours to look after her disabled son. Judges at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg agreed unanimously that Sharon Coleman has the right to claim "discrimination by association" in a British court, which will now rule on the facts of her application. The decision establishes that Europe's ban on employment discrimination protects not only disabled people but those who care for them.”
Flexi-working can stop stars walking out
Liz Lightfoot • Times, UK • July 20 , 2008
“According to The Economist, women are likely to be the main casualties of the downturn as family-friendly initiatives such as flexi-time and job shares are axed. Research by the Institute for Employment Studies at Sussex University claims that managers persist in seeing part-time workers as less committed and are more likely to give them lower performance ratings, leaving them the most vulnerable to staff cuts. However, some firms are now realising that flexibility and work-life balance can compensate for lower financial packages and bonuses, said Hewlett, founder of the Center for Work-Life Policy in America. “When things get bad, the stars are the ones who quit to take up new opportunities in Hong Kong or India,” she said, and the clever way to stop them was to offer sophisticated working patterns that increased their control over their working lives.”