June 2, 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
Company Programs Help Employees Save on Gas
“Dupree's employer, watchmaker Lathem Time Corp., introduced a new program that has tremendously improved his lifestyle — and his budget: a compressed work week. Instead of driving to the office during peak traffic hours each day, the 34-year-old technical support worker now takes Wednesdays off and logs in 10-hour days the rest of the week. Leaving work at 6:30 p.m. means skipping evening rush-hour traffic, which has shortened his driving time by an hour. And commuting four days instead of five, he estimates, is saving him one tank of gas a month. "It's definitely improved my work," he says. "My stress level is down. Getting that break in the middle of the week is like a mini-weekend for me." Lathem Time, which started programs like van- and car-pooling for its factory workers and telecommuting for its management back in October 2005, is on the cutting edge of a new wave in employee benefits: helping employees offset rising gas costs.”
Flexible Schedules Can Pay Off for Employers, Too
“Unlike many working parents, Kris Cohan of Paterson doesn't have to worry that she will run out of personal and vacation days before the last week of the year, when schools close for the holidays. Neither does John Januszanis, who plans to spend several of those days between Christmas and New Year's Day skiing and snowboarding with his four teenagers. The two parents participate in a flexible scheduling program offered by their Morris County employer, Solix Inc. In exchange for working 40-hour weeks instead of the standard 37.5, the two employees have their kids' entire winter school break off without going into their allotment of vacation and personal days…. Solix was one of more than 100 companies across the country lauded by the Families and Work Institute recently for offering flexible work arrangements that benefit both the employee and the employer. The company's 40-hour workweek strategy was included in an institute report titled "When Work Works." Mentions Ellen Galinsky.
Hot Ticket in B-School: Bringing Life Values to Corporate Ethics
“Mr. Friedman encourages networking by pairing students with alumni coaches who serve as mentors to students going through the course. Harry Weiner, a founding partner of On-Ramps, a recruiting and consulting firm that focuses on flexible work arrangements, took Mr. Friedman’s Wharton class in the spring of 2006 and has acted as an alumni mentor ever since. …The course has been taught in Wharton’s regular M.B.A. program, but Mr. Friedman says it is particularly relevant for midcareer students in Wharton’s executive M.B.A. program, who often have families and children, and are feeling the pressures of managing their lives. “The reason it’s been so well received,” according to Michael Useem, the director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, “is that those in their 30s and 40s have mastered many essentials — finance, accounting, strategic thinking — and they are savvy about how your private life fits and should be reconciled with your work life, as opposed to in conflict with it.”
Office Advice: Workplace Flexibility Goes Overlooked
“According to a recent national survey, companies believe that workplace flexibility is an important retention and recruiting tool. However, most companies do not have the structure or support in place to maximize these programs and also do not effectively communicate their flexible work programs to employees, according to Aradhana Pati, of FlexPaths…. FlexPaths suggests that rough economic times may be the best time for employees to ask for flexible schedules. With tightened budgets, companies may not be able to offer raises or bonuses, but they can offer flexibility as a benefit. Visit www.flexpaths.com for interactive tools to help create a flex proposal.”
Commentary: Legal Profession Needs to Evaluate and Overhaul Itself to Retain Women
“Unfortunately, the effect (not necessarily intended) of this face-time paradigm is that women (and men) who are not in the office after 6 p.m. run the risk of missing better assignments, invitations to socialize with senior attorneys and, consequently, important mentoring and advancement opportunities. Oftentimes, flexible work arrangements are confused with a lack of ambition or part-time lawyering. To the contrary, the concept of a flexible work arrangement is designed to lead to increased productivity, improved work product, higher revenues, lower overhead costs, improved communication with clients, better recruitment and retention and a less stressful work environment.”
Telltale Signs of Job Turning 'Extreme': Work Stress Costing $33 Billion a Year in Lost Productivity
“Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding president of New York-based Center for Work-Life Policy and a professor at Columbia University, says successful professionals are working harder than ever before and find themselves in "extreme" jobs, which she defines as one in which an employee works 60 or more hour a week, and with at least five of the following characteristics: - Unpredictable flow of work; - Fast-paced work with really tight deadlines; - An inordinate amount of responsibility for one job; - Work-related events outside regular work hours; - Availability to clients 24/7; - Responsibility for profit and loss; - Responsibility for mentoring and recruiting; - A large amount of travel; - Many direct reports, and - Being at the workplace at least 10 hours a day… Another solution to burnout is greater work flexibility. In 2006, more than 80% of U. S. workers surveyed considered work flexibility more important than financial compensation.”
Anti-Hillary Message Says 'Women Go Home'
”What's really happening, says New York University sociologist Kathleen Gerson, is that full-time paid work has come to mean 50 hours or more. That overload is what working mothers are rejecting. Women, overall, aren't "opting out" of full-time work, but are getting pushed out by an increasingly inflexible workplace. That story is not being told. Just ask Joan C. Williams. In a report in the American Prospect in March she found the vast majority--more than 70 percent--of the newspaper stories she and others analyzed emphasized pulls rather than pushes. Women were following the pull toward home, "with little mention of how the workplace pushes them out." This is true even though a 2004 study by researchers Pamela Stone and Meg Lovejoy found that 86 percent of highly qualified women surveyed said work-related reasons, including workplace inflexibility, were key considerations in their decisions to quit. Only 6 percent of newspaper articles that Williams reviewed identified workplace pushes as key reasons why women left work.”
Workers Opt for 4-Day Work Week to Save on Gas
“At Neighborhood Development Services in suburban Cleveland, director Dave Vaughn says nearly half his staff is now putting in four, 10-hour days, or something similar, instead of the traditional Monday-Friday work week of 8-hour days…. Kent State University is experimenting with a compressed work week, trying it out with its custodial staff. A university spokesman says 94 workers were given the option, and 78 are taking advantage.”
More Employers Embrace Flexible Scheduling
“Lauren Krikorian had a wish list. She wanted to get her master's degree in social work while keeping her job to avoid thousands of dollars in student loans. Seems simple, but how could she fit in courses that met both night and day, internships, and her full-time position as a case manager for Old Colony Elderly Services, a Brockton nonprofit? Old Colony gave Krikorian the ultraflexible schedule she needed - for nearly three years. Flexibility in the workplace isn't new. Telecommuting, working part time, job sharing, and even ducking out early on summer Fridays are becoming the norm, not the automatic career-stallers they once were. One sure sign: Nearly all of the 1,100 companies polled by the nonprofit Families and Work Institute for its 2008 report on employer benefits and practices offer at least one form of flexible work option. The firms were drawn from a random sample nationwide. But now flexibility's reach is extending into new corners of the work world - from high-stress, low-budget nonprofits to call centers famed for their rigid work culture. More employees are getting more choices in how they work, a trend made clear by this year's winners of most prestigious awards in employer flexibility, the Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility: Employee choice in managing time - from daily scheduling to longer leaves - was offered by many of the 129 winners announced recently. To win, an employer must rank in the top one-fifth of US employers on more than 34 measures of flexibility.”
Blogs
Nannies and Caregivers Deserve Sick Days, Too
“It got me thinking about how people treat their caregivers. Sure, it makes sense, in theory, to say you’ll stick to the contract, say for a nanny who is promised five sick days or a certain number of vacation days. But I’ve always felt the relationship with your children’s caregiver is more than business and that sometimes, more slack is deserved (not to mention more humane). I know not everyone agrees. A parent email group I belong to recently had a debate as to whether one mom should pay her nanny while she was on jury duty. The mother, who would have to pay for a back-up sitter, was indignant when the group said she should: Sure, they said, the nanny will get a small $40 or $45 daily stipend, but she’s earning more than double that for a day at work and it’s not her fault she got called. Another dad warned, “Don’t give your nanny any reason to look for work elsewhere or feel less connected to your family.”
The So-Called Ambition Gap
“A new report from the Brookings Institution argues that there are fewer women in political office in the United States because of an "ambition gap" between men and women: Extensive research shows that when women run for office, they perform just as well as men...The fundamental reason for women's underrepresentation is that they do not run for office. There is a substantial gender gap in political ambition; men tend to have it, and women don't." Now wait a minute, here. Great news that women do as well as men in office; I'm glad to know those stats. And, according to the report, female politicians increased significantly in the 1980s and 1990s, although they don't come close to reflecting women's 51 percent population status… Here are the real roadblocks for women in politics: A lack of role models. Low self-confidence in the political arena. Abysmal financial support. Pitiful recruitment by entrenched political organizations. Reluctance to subject our families to public scrutiny. And my favorite: Our pragmatic acknowledgment that women, unlike men, are expected to keep up an endless grind at work and at home with limited support from employers or husbands, leaving little time or energy to add a third job -- running for office -- to the list.”
Is It Possible That One-Fifth of Companies Violate the FMLA?
“If you believe a headline from yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer, 20% of employers violate the FMLA. Or, at least that is what a recent study conducted by the Families and Work Institute concluded: “There are so many reasons you could imagine an employer not complying," said Kate Kahan, director of work and family programs for the National Partnership for Women and Families. "The bottom line is the same, which is the employee loses out. This is such basic protection that it's horrible." When employees are shortchanged, researchers and employment lawyers said, a combination of factors is usually to blame. The troubled economy may discourage workers from challenging policies that deny them the full leave, said Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute.” Department of Labor spokesperson Dolline Hatchett disagrees with the report: "We know of no independent verification of their number. Compliance rates are hard to verify without sophisticated sampling techniques, and there is insufficient data in their analysis to allow one to assess an employer's compliance with the law." Whether true or not, one thing is certain - managing FMLA leave programs is one of the most difficult tasks facing HR professionals and other management.”
Telecommute Pothole
“Despite the significant environmental and economic benefits that telecommuting offers, some state governments choose to thwart its growth. New York's government, for example, imposes a punitive tax on non-residents who telecommute to their in-state employers some or most of the time…. Because a telecommuter's state of residence can also tax the income earned at home, the telecommuter risks double taxation for choosing a "green commute."… To maximize the nation's capacity to conserve fuel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to help American businesses use telecommuting to compete successfully in a global market, Congress should take a serious look at pending legislation that would prohibit states from taxing non-residents on the income they earn at home.”
Reports & Surveys
Governments of 20 Countries Ahead of US in Workplace Flexibility
“A new report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and the Center for Work Life Law at the University of California, finds that of 21 countries reviewed, 17 have statutes that allow parents to move to part-time work or otherwise adjust their working hours; 12 have statutes to help workers adjust work hours for training and education; 11 allow reduced hours with partial pension prior to full retirement; 5 allow working time adjustments for those with family care-giving responsibilities for adults; and 5 countries give everyone the right to alternative work arrangements. According to the latest data from the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, college-educated women in the United States are now less likely than women in many other high-income countries to participate in the labor market.”
Analyzing Female Brain Drain
“The results of the Athena Factor study are in stark contrast, however, to two previous studies done in the recent past according to the Boston Globe. Those studies found that women who possess the qualities to perform well in highly technical areas are simply choosing jobs in other fields, such as medicine and biosciences. One report, entitled Why Are There So Few Women in Information Technology? Assessing the Role of Personality in Career Choices, was co-authored by University of Kansas economist Joshua Rosenbloom and will be featured in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Economic Psychology. Rosenbloom's study found that personal preference largely determined whether a qualified woman would go into the information technology field. People who expressed a preference to work with tools (mostly men) were more likely to go into IT work, while people who preferred to work with people (mostly women) avoided IT, according to the study. That so-called "self-selection," according to Rosenbloom's research, accounted for approximately two-thirds of the gender imbalance in the IT field. And a 30-year-long study by Vanderbilt University entitled The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth followed the career paths of 5,000 participants and found that girls who excelled at math were more likely to pursue careers in fields such as medicine, humanities and social sciences because of a desire to work with organic, living things…Finally, the [Athena] report states, extreme work pressures in the SET field contribute to the hasty exit of women. "SET jobs are unusually time-intensive and, because of their global scope, often involve working in multiple time zones."
Wall Street Journal Online Launches 'Journal Women'
“The Wall Street Journal Online has launched a new section devoted to women in business -- Journal Women (www.wsj.com/journalwomen), a place where ambitious professional and executive women can come together to read about and share ideas on work, family and the intersection between the two. Content will examine the issues women deal with on a daily basis, and will cover three key areas: career, balance and lifestyle. The Journal's Carol Hymowitz, the site's key writer covering leadership issues, will pen a new online-only column entitled "Above the Glass." Sue Shellenbarger, who writes the weekly column "Work & Family" for the Journal, will cover family issues. Journal Women will also feature The Juggle, a blog on the trade-offs of juggling work and family, as well as Front Lines, a daily news brief about women making headlines and other women-related issues in the news. The section will also host community discussion boards, Q&As, videos, polls and more. "Journal Women is an expansion of the Journal's growing business of life franchise," said Alan Murray, executive editor for The Wall Street Journal Online.”
Work-Life Balance Becoming a Key Tool for Retention
“Inflexible work arrangements are a primary reason top talent leaves an organization. "It used to be that an employee’s relationship with their manager was the No. 1 reason for employees voluntarily leaving an organization," says Kate Martiné, senior vice president, human resources and corporate communications for the Trustmark Cos. in Lake Forest, Illinois. "Now it’s a lack of employer work schedule flexibility. That’s the No. 1 reason." Demographics paint a picture of a workforce in search of flexibility…. Flexible work arrangements can be difficult to implement. The authors of this article surveyed six firms to discover how they are applying flex strategy. What follows are some key insights into what makes this strategy so successful.”
Global News
Sarkozy Moves to End France's 35-Hour Workweek
“President Nicolas Sarkozy's government presented a draft bill that would effectively scrap the 35-hour workweek, one of France's sacred cows. French labor unions were caught off guard by the move and were meeting late Thursday to decide whether to call for strikes. Tackling the workweek is becoming one of the toughest tests of Mr. Sarkozy's one-year tenure. The 35-hour week was introduced in 1998 to let more people into the workplace by lowering the time each employee worked -- 39 hours at the time.” Subscription required.
For Anesthesiologists, A Very Painful Exodus
“At one time, the center had three anesthesiologists. However, after one left for family reasons, the other two soon bailed out in quick succession. They complained that they often had to work 36 to 48 hours straight to treat emergencies. After losing all its anesthesiologists, the center suspended all emergency surgery two years ago. …A recent trend mainly in urban areas is for anesthesiologists to work freelance.... Doctors working at public hospitals earn on average about 14 million yen a year. In contrast, one anesthesiologist in the Tokyo group made over 30 million yen annually, and worked only five days a week with no on-call duty. The higher fees paid to freelance anesthesiologists add to the financial pressure on municipal hospitals. In response, some hospitals are offering flexible working conditions for staff anesthesiologists. In part, this is to help the 30 percent who are women. Many women doctors end up quitting their jobs when they have children because of the long work hours. However, Osaka University has set up a new system that allows women doctors with children to arrange their work schedules to enable them to take care of their kids when they become sick and that take into account day-care center operating hours.”
New Parental Leave Option
“Unions want stay-at-home dads to get taxpayer-funded paternity leave if their child's mum returns to work early. In a plan to be unveiled today, the ACTU [Australian Council of Trade Unions] will call for a 14-week paid maternity scheme based on a mother's normal wage. All mums would be eligible, but fathers would be able to claim it if the child's mother didn't. Under the submission to the Government's maternity leave inquiry, employers would be required to top up a taxpayer-funded benefit -- paid at the minimum wage. The leave could be taken over 28 weeks at half pay.”
Frankfurt Gets Flexible Over Working Hours
“According to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Sweden – compared with other European countries – has the greatest number of people enjoying flexible work arrangements. “Why do we need to work at the same time and in identical patterns as the industrial times, when today's innovation society does not demand this from us?” ask B-Society advocates. That’s a question more and more Germans are posing as well…. In the Frankfurt area, people who can remember clocking in and out at the office as recently as last year are now enjoying increasingly popular flexible working arrangements. Employee-friendly schedules, which allow workers to adjust their office hours to personal commitments, are becoming more and more common especially among high-skilled employees and those in managerial positions. The term “flexitime” supposedly even has German roots. It comes from the German word Gleitzeit, which means “sliding time” and was developed by German businessman Wilhelm Haller. Working outside the traditional 9-5 structure, a flexitime arrangement allows the employer to typically designate a Kernzeit or “core hours” – say between 10 am and 3 pm – when all employees are expected to be at work. The rest of the day is flexible, with employees choosing when to put in the hours to arrive at the contractual weekly or monthly total and make sure all work is completed in time.”
The New Grey Power (Canada)
”The CNW Group announces the results of a recent Montreal survey of Quebec workers, which revealed that 61% of the workers surveyed planned to retired between the ages of 55 and 64. Fifty-three percent of the workers preferred phased retirement, while 41% preferred complete retirement. Complete results, in French only, are available from the ORHRI.”
Working Conditions of an Ageing Workforce
“Over the last decade, the issue of Europe’s ageing population has emerged as a central priority for policymakers in the EU. This demographic shift calls into question both the sustainability of pension systems and the future of Europe’s labour supply, which in turn pose serious challenges for the prospects for economic growth. This report looks at ways in which the quality of work and employment can be promoted in order to encourage workers to remain in the labour market for a longer time and thus achieve the Lisbon and Stockholm employment targets across Europe by 2010. A prerequisite for this is increased job quality and sustainability over the lifecycle. In this context, the report focuses on four key areas: ensuring career and employment security; maintaining and promoting the health and well-being of workers; developing skills and competencies; and reconciling working and non-working life. All of these factors are significant in shaping the age structure of Europe’s workforce. The findings are based on data from the fourth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), carried out across 31 countries in Europe in 2005.” Click here for a copy of the report (PDF).