July 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
More Men Filing Workplace Lawsuits
Tresa Baldas • The National Journal • July 28, 2008
"On the parental leave front, lawyers note, a growing number of men are filing Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) claims, many of them single dads with more responsibilities at home. Others are simply asserting their desires to spend more time with their children."
Workbytes: Shorter workweek sounds good, if it works
Karen Mracek • Des Moines Register, IA • July 28, 2008
"Whether it's to spend more time with kids or attend a championship softball game, giving employees time to live their lives is important to recruiting and retaining talented employees, said Principal's MinnehanGolightly. The key to making flexible start times and a condensed workweek effective is communication, she said. Knowing what works within your particular team and with your co-workers in critical to taking Fridays off."
The Worst Kind of Equality
Author Unlisted • Minnesota Public Radio • July 28, 2008
"Women have earned equality with men in one way that's not so great. They are suffering from layoffs and a tight labor market in the same way as men, according to a recent study. The study also tries to dispel the notion that women are choosing to stay out of the workforce to raise children." Note: Guests include Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Louis Uchitelle (New York Times Reporter), and Ariane Hegewisch (IWPR)."
Working Long Hours, and Paying a Price
Kelley Holland • New York Times • July 27, 2008
"Officially, the average workweek has changed little in the last two decades. But those figures mask a shift in who works the most. In 1983, the lowest-paid workers were more likely to work long hours, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. But by 2002, the most highly paid workers were twice as likely to work long hours as the lowest paid. After my last column, on obesity as a workplace issue, my inbox was full of messages describing long days of sedentary work — along with lunches gulped down in the office, frequent travel and BlackBerrys that never seem to quit. Is all this work a bad thing?"
More and more older workers choose to keep working
Andy Smith • Providence Journal, RI • July 27, 2008
"Since 1977, employment of workers 65 and over increased 101 percent, compared with 59 percent for all workers 16 and over. The increase was more pronounced among women (147 percent) than men (75 percent). According to the bureau, this trend does not simply reflect the aging of the baby boom generation, since as of last year the leading edge of the baby boomers — born between 1946 and 1964 — had not yet turned 65. That's coming in 2011. […] Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, director of the Center of Aging and Work at Boston College, said there are two sets of reasons to explain the increase in older workers."
Job market wasted on the young
Maggie Jackson • Boston Globe • July 27, 2008
"Here we are in an aging society, with more people living longer and hoping to stay in the labor market. More than 70 percent of baby boomers, for instance, want to keep on working past traditional retirement age, reports the AARP. Yet we still think of vibrant, experienced people in their 60s on up as too old to occupy the next cubicle. Can we as a nation afford to ignore such talent?"EmployMoms with Jane Seibel
Author Unlisted • WTNH.com, CT • July 26, 2008
"As every working woman knows, it's a constant juggling act, to try to find that balance between kids and bringing home a paycheck. But, that's where New England based, EmployMoms comes in. The web based company matches up companies with working moms who are looking for flexible hours. And the company's CEO AND Founder Jane Seibel tells us how it works."
Bridging the Gap
Kathleen Foley • Nevada Business Journal • August 2008
"Employees of all ages appreciate flexible work hours and work-life balance, but boomers, because they were trained at an early age to put the company first, are much less likely to ask about work arrangements. "Boomers are more likely to put in the hours and grind out the work," said Beckley. "Gen Xers crave flexibility in how and when they work. They may be able to get more done in less time by using technology to make themselves more efficient. If they complete their work at 3 p.m. because they are more efficient, they can't see why they shouldn't be able to go home early.""
Blogs
Portland parents getting behind paid leave legislation
Noelle Crombie • Oregonian - The Mom Beat • July 29, 2008
"What started as casual conversations over coffee about how to get the issue of parental leave some attention in Oregon has transformed into a serious and organized effort by a small but growing group of Portland parents pushing for change. As it stands, only California, Washington and New Jersey have laws that call for paying a portion of parents' income so they can stay home to care for their newborns. In Washington, for instance, the law calls for paying parents $250 for five weeks. A similar bill calling for six weeks of paid leave failed to gain traction during Oregon's 2007 legislative session."
Who Really Pays for Paid Sick Leave
Liz Wolgemuth • US News and World Reports - The Inside Job • July 28, 2008
"Anxiety over the financial repercussions of taking a sick day had 50 percent of Ohioans heading to work when they should have stayed home in this past year, according to a new survey. The poll, conducted by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health, found the chief reasons employees in swing states Ohio and Florida were not taking sick days were because those days weren't paid or because they felt pressure from their employer to show up. Supporters of a sick-leave mandate are trying to get a measure onto the November ballot in Ohio. The proposed legislation would require employers of 25 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave annually to employees who work 30 hours or more a week."
Do City Moms Have An Easier Time Returning to Work?
Jennifer Merritt • WSJ Online - The Juggle • July 25, 2008
"Is it easier to rejoin the workforce if you live in a city? An article in the August issue of Time Out NY: Kids (not yet available online) argues that staying home with your kids for a few years isn't as much of a career-killer for city moms as it might be for those who live in far-off suburbs. (The article doesn't have anything to say about stay-at-home fathers.) The idea comes from a book slated for release in September called "The Comeback," which profiles women who've successfully ramped their careers back up after several years away — including a lawyer who took a five-year leave after her third child was born and recently made partner at a large law firm. Another woman left finance for 10 years but is now vice president at a venture capital firm."
Sex Discrimination and Fathers
Sandee Tisdale • Sloan Work and Family Blog • July 25, 2008
"Australia's federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, has just announced her position on several work-family policies (paid maternity leave, women in leadership positions, and sexual harassment, to name a few) as a result of her "Listening Tour," a 6-month venture across Australia speaking with over 1,000 people about their journey for gender equality. I found one of her post-tour agenda items particularly interesting. As it turns out, she finds herself in a great corner to advocate for gender equality in the workforce, specifically mentioning sex discrimination against working fathers."
Global News
'Can you hold the fort? I'm off for a book break'
Hermione Buckland-Hoby • Guardian, UK • July 28, 2008
"Could reading become the new smoking? This appears to be the overly-wishful aim behind the Adopt a Book Scheme, a joint venture between The Book People and National Year of Reading to encourage reading via the workplace. Note the "via": clearly this won't provide a license to lounge all day in your swivel chair, engrossed in Richard and Judy's latest recommendation. It seems that as with smoking, reading is deemed something best done away from your desk. Although as anti-social activities go, it is of course a lot healthier."
Work interferes with life - study
Steve Larkin • The Australian • July28, 2008
"AUSTRALIANS want to work less, believing they're overworked and their job interferes with their life, new research reveals. Most people want a working week of 34.6 hours, the 2008 Australian Work and Life Index shows. That desire compares with an actual average working week of 38.2 hours, according to the national index, produced by the University of South Australia. The university's Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies' latest annual work-life index revealed more than one in five Australians worked 48 hours a week or more."
CEO aims for 'healthy work-life balance'
Zweli Mokgata • Telegraph, UK • July 28, 2008
"She explains her added role as a motivator of staff rather than just running operations: "While it's important for me to be visible and let people know I'm accessible, it's difficult for me to connect with each individual. Some people are just intimidated." She opts rather to implement open-dialogue sessions, with managers collecting information from workers and passing it on to her. "We've implemented a programme called Speak Up, where people internally and externally can complain about anything at all, and we give people permission to develop a healthier work-life balance," she adds. Siebrits is a single mother with two children, aged four and eight. While she has made some sacrifices to ensure that her career prospers, she still manages to stay connected with her family."
The complexities of overtime work, and the implications on the family
Dr. Paulin Straughan • AsiaOne, Singapore • July 27, 2008
"People engage in overtime work for various reasons. Some do so because it is a personal choice - either to advance their career, accumulate surplus for future plans, or simply because they enjoy their work. As long as it is a free choice, and they choose to invest in work more than in other aspects of their lives, it is indeed their prerogative."