News Roundup

90 Days: Mixing Work and School Requires Serious Planning

“Thousands of people turn to part-time evening programs to earn everything from education degrees to culinary certificates to Master of Business Administration degrees. Indeed, the Graduate Management Admissions Council reports a 56% surge in applications to part-time M.B.A. programs from 2006 to 2007. Whether returning to school to move up at work or to make a career change, being a working student can be intense. Here are some ways to smooth the transition. …Making an early decision about the school-work balance is imperative. You'll need to decide early which will get the lead and when you'll need to shift that balance.”

• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121365519372878991.html?mod=CarJMain_columnists

Council Mulls Incentives to Make City Cops ‘Army Strong’

“Superior police officers could become Army strong. And the city’s human resources committee is willing to give them time off — when it won’t create overtime — as added incentive to improve sworn officers’ overall health and physical condition. The group on Monday agreed to allow police to use of up to 10 hours of flex time — one shift for most officers — to achieve goals established by U.S. Army standards of physical conditioning for their ages and sex. Those who make a bona fide effort and fall short of the fitness goal would receive up to three hours flex time for the effort of going through the physical tests.”

• http://www.superiortelegram.com/articles/index.cfm?id=28727&section=News&freebie _check&CFID=47329787&CFTOKEN=70018545&jsessionid=8830ef12c27460545555

Caregivers Unite

“FRD lawsuits come in numerous sizes and flavors. They always jump off from allegations that an employee was disadvantaged in terms of pay, promotion and work because he -- and men are increasingly filing suits -- or she either took time off, legally (under the FMLA) to care for a child or a parent, or was perceived to be less qualified for a promotion track because of the worker's presumed preference for caregiving over career climbing…. As the legal launching pad was being spring-loaded by those 1990s laws, the children of baby boomers were entering the workforce starting in the late 1990s with stronger feelings about the need for flexible work schedules to accommodate family responsibilities. It was this new generation, men and women in their 20s and early 30s, who provided the bodies for the catapult as the new century opened.”

• http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=102102067

U.S. Employers Pushing Women Out of Work Force

“With mothers representing about two-thirds of adult women those figures help explain why the United States is one of only two industrialized countries--the other is Japan--out of 23 where women's work force participation rate fell between 1994 and 2006, according to data from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. From the 1950s through the 1990s the percentage of U.S. women in the paid work force steadily increased. But that trend has begun to reverse and today 3.3 million fewer women are working than would be if the trend had continued. While a spate of news reports has explained the trend as women preferring to stay home or "opting out," an array of women's policy groups disagree. The real explanation, they contend, is a workplace that fails women on some basic interlocking fronts: inflexible scheduling requirements, job discrimination, lack of child care, lack of parental leave, lack of sick leave. Researchers for the San Francisco-based Center for WorkLife Law found 13,000 cases of discrimination that showed that mothers were 79 percent less likely to be hired and 100 percent less likely to be promoted because they are held to a higher standard than non-mothers in their companies. "Many women couldn't crack the motherhood ceiling," said Joan C. Williams, founding director of the center.”

• http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3640/context/archive

Finding Ways to Balance Work and Family, While Keeping on the Partner Track

“From everything I hear, it’s tough, it’s just hard” to balance caring for children with working at a law firm, said Dana L. Morris, assistant dean for career development at Maryland Law. Morris said both female and male students, especially those who marry other lawyers, ask firms recruiting on campus about their leave policies and alternative schedule options. David Anderson, chief operating office of Lerch, Early & Brewer Chartered, said his firm needs to be able to offer those students flexibility. The firm has noticed that the students it is interested in hiring, the ones at the top of their class, tend to be women, he said. Firms are wise to accommodate lawyers with families because, for each attorney who leaves, a firm can spend between 150 and 200 percent of the attorney’s salary hiring and training a replacement, said Linda Bray Chanow, director of research at the Washington, D.C.-based Project for Attorney Retention…. More popular than compression among Maryland firms are telecommuting and flextime, benefits offered by the majority of survey respondents. Flextime involves shifting the work schedule away from the traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., sometimes to more closely match the school day. Another benefit popular among Maryland firms is paid maternity leave, offered by all survey respondents.”

• http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=5671&type=UTTM

Smartschoolsplus Double-Dipping ‘Retired’ School Employees

“Smartschoolsplus is basically an employee leasing company that specializes in retired educators and administrators who wish to remain on the job or return to work under the guidelines of the Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS). It’s also double dipping, a means by which employees who belong to the ASRS can continue to receive a paycheck and their retirement check. …Brainard stated the chief advantages of phased retirement programs claimed by employers included: Retention of trained and qualified personnel, reduced costs associated with training new employees, along with reduced costs achieved through lower salary and benefits expenses made possible by employees shifting from full time to part time. Advantages claimed by employees were: Flexible work arrangements, the opportunity to gradually transition into retirement rather than a sudden abrupt shift, and the opportunity to supplement retirement income or increase future retirement benefits by deferring current retirement income. Brainard pointed out concerns over phased retirement plans, stating, “Modifying the designs of a … plan to implement phased retirement programs can impose new liabilities on a retirement plan. Plan designs that permit an employee to work fewer hours, for a shorter period of time, or that allow pension benefits to be paid earlier, typically increase the plan’s actuarial costs.” He also mentioned double dipping, which he said can cause negative reactions from a participant’s co-workers, the media and the general public.”

• http://www.sonorannews.com/archives/2008/2008-06/080611/Smartschool.html

Bucking the Trend, Some Employers Grant More Parental Leave

“If ever there was a time for new ideas to help employees get time off for parental leave, this is it. As employer cost-cutting squeezes both time off and pay for parental leave, as covered in my Work & Family column last week, a few employers are figuring out other ways to help parents extend post-childbirth leave with their babies. Accenture broke the mold last year by testing a novel program enabling employees to save in advance for planned leaves of all kinds through employer-managed payroll deductions. Called “Future Leave,” the program has advanced beyond the pilot stage and is drawing about 50 participants each quarter, a spokeswoman says. Based on inquiries the consulting firm has received from other employers, Accenture estimates about 15 other companies are creating similar programs, a spokeswoman says. Accenture also provides a minimum of eight weeks’ paid leave for birth mothers and one week of paid time off for dads. Other employers are bucking the trend by extending more financial support and flexible time off to parents, rather than less. Deutsche Bank last year expanded paid maternity leave to 16 weeks from 12; new fathers who are primary caregivers can apply for the full 16 weeks too. Other companies, including Bank of America, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Phoenix Cos. and Pfizer, also have expanded parental leave options.”

• http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/06/17/bucking-the-trend-some-employers-grant-more-parental-leave/?mod=jwomen

Follow Up On Father's Day

“A work week consists of the total number of hours per week spent doing housework, childcare and employment. Note that on average, when the oldest child is 0 to 3 years of age, the average woman works more than 24 hours more a week than a man. This is the peak of the discrepancy. Note too, that at no time does the average man put in as much work into the household as does the average woman. It is this discrepancy that I was discussing in my previous post. It was this discrepancy that Gill Hornby was discussing. If you would like to read an entire book on this subject, I suggest you read Arlie Hochschild’s seminal work, Second Shift. As I said before, I would never dispute that some men put in as much or more work towards the household as do their wives. What I am saying is that this is not the norm, and we should stop pretending that things are equal. The data tells us otherwise.”

• http://blog.sanbargo.com/?p=273

Get Sneezed On Much?

”We moms have lots of practice dodging sneezes. But how long can you really last without getting sick? Play our new, wacky, addictive, nation-changing, sneezing nose game, "Don't Get Sick," at http://www.momsrising.org/dontgetsickgame. Why the game? Nation-changing!? What gives? Well, nearly 50% of private-sector workers--and almost 80% of all service sector employees--don't have a single paid sick day. It's ridiculous. No one should have to work sick, or risk losing their job or needed pay because they get sick, and kids shouldn't have to stay home alone while they're sick. So MomsRising is taking the fight for paid sick days to a new, unexpected level…. You too can fight off disgusting germy online sneezes while helping raise awareness that paid sick days are needed for all. Play the game, share your personal stories of paid sick days (or your lack thereof) at the end, and help spread the word--not the germs! Your personal story is a powerful way to show that real people are grappling with a real problem that must be addressed now.”

• http://www.momsrising.org/node/891

Life in the Break Down Lane

“The groups advocate using time differently than our overworked, over-scheduled culture advocates -- to cook and eat food slowly, to gather with friends for no reason but to spend time together, to work and consume less…. Some slow movement leaders also advocate to change public policy to give employees more leisure time. John de Graaf, national coordinator for Take Back Your Time, explains that the nonprofit group wants legislation guaranteeing at least three weeks of paid annual vacation for all workers, paid leave for new parents, and workplace rules limiting the amount of compulsory overtime. "Companies will actually profit more if they don't overwork employees because they will become healthier and more productive" he argues."

• http://blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/2008/06/life_in_the_break_down_lane.html

Press Release: Sun Microsystems Study Finds Open Work Program Saves Employees Time and Money, Decreases Carbon Output

“Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the findings of its Open Work Energy Measurement Project, an in-depth study of more than 100 participants in its progressive, award-winning flexible work program. The project sought to determine how much energy is consumed while working in a Sun office, while working at home, and during commuting to and from a Sun office. Recently recognized by the Environmental Defense Fund as an innovative example of eco responsibility, Sun's Open Work platform is an integrated suite of technologies, tools and workplace practices that enable Sun employees to work effectively virtually anywhere, anytime, using any device. Through this program, nearly 19,000 employees around the world work from home or in a flexible office, representing more than 56 percent of Sun's employee population…. Employees saved more than $1,700 per year in gasoline and wear and tear on their vehicles by working at home an average of 2.5 days a week…. By eliminating commuting just 2.5 days per week, an employee reduces energy used for work by the equivalent of 5,400 Kilowatt hours/year. Working from home 2.5 days per week saved the employees in the study an average of 2.5 weeks of commute time.”

• http://www.prweb.com/releases/sun_microsystems/open_work/prweb1009224.htm