May 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
54 More Women Accuse Bloomberg Firm of Bias
“At least 54 more women are accusing Bloomberg L.P., the financial-services and media company founded by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, of discriminating against pregnant employees, a lawyer for the federal government said on Thursday….Previously, the lawsuit involved only four women who claimed they were demoted or had their pay cut after becoming pregnant and taking maternity leaves. Word of the additional women came at a brief hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan, where the suit was filed. The women’s names were not released at the hearing, nor was there any mention of their specific claims. Government officials said that their names had not yet been made public. The number of women involved is likely to grow, Raechel L. Adams, a lawyer for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, told Judge Loretta A. Preska. The commission has identified 478 women at the company who were on maternity leave at some point from 2002 to the present and is reaching out to them, she said.”
Agencies Urged to Pitch Job Flexibilities to Attract Applicants of All Ages
“The federal government should expand its use of flexible schedules and promote them more widely if it is to become a model employer for workers of all ages, workforce specialists told the Senate Special Committee on Aging on Thursday. "Any creative and effective system to engage older workers in the federal government has to include a specific and focused effort on increasing flexibility in the workplace," said Chai Feldblum, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and co-director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, a research and advocacy group. "Workplace flexibility can't be the tagline; it has to be the headline.” Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, said the federal government's challenge was less a matter of tailoring policy to older workers than crafting policies and workplaces so that all workers would feel their work was valued and aligned with a strong mission.”
How Stay-at-Home Moms Are Filling an Executive Niche
“Lots of employers would like to be able to hire cheap, temporary teams of seasoned pros with experience managing $2 billion investment portfolios, running ad campaigns or earning Ph.D.s in neuroscience. But few know the secret to finding temps of that caliber: Look on playgrounds and at PTA meetings. The decision among some highly educated women to stay home with children is sparking a countertrend: The rise of the mommy "SWAT team." The acronym, for "smart women with available time," is one mother's label for all-mom teams assembled quickly through networking and staffing firms to handle crash projects. Employers get lots of voltage, cheap, while the women get a skills update and a taste of the professional challenges they miss.”
Pitfalls of Working Past Retirement Age
“To help make re-entering the work force easier for older workers, a slate of legislation aims to alleviate the disincentives. Sen. Herb Kohl (D., Wis.), chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, is spearheading several bills, one of which will be introduced Tuesday and another later this spring. Among the highlights: rules that would prohibit pension-plan-benefit penalties if an individual chooses to keep working on a reduced schedule, and a revision to Social Security benefits that proposes a reduction of $1 for every $3 earned before the full retirement age. These bills follow the Older Worker Opportunity Act and Health Care and Training for Older Workers Act that Sen. Kohl introduced in February 2007. The first act offers a tax credit for employing older workers in flexible work programs.”
90 Days: Working Productively As a Telecommuter
“While this might be some people's idea of telecommuting, it is not an approach destined for success, according to the experts. "The day you decide to wear your bathrobe, the CEO will want to do an iChat," says career counselor and executive coach Clay Parsons of Alternative Futures. "The people who succeed will be the ones who take it very seriously and go into it with their eyes and ears wide open. They are also disciplined people who work hard and can be their own boss." Here are six tips for success at taking on a telecommuting position.”
Only the Men Survive: The Crash of Zoe Cruz
“No woman has ever been CEO of a Wall Street firm. Now it looks like that won’t change for a very long time—there are no other high-ranking women in serious contention for a top job. If women across Wall Street viewed Cruz’s firing as a blow, there were men at Morgan Stanley who seemed almost gleeful about it…. There are any number of reasons why women don’t often reach the promised land of power: They lack the networks of their male counterparts; some of them leave work to raise a family; there are simply fewer women getting M.B.A.’s and going into finance in the first place. Then again, perhaps those factors would reverse if there were more women in positions of power. The real problem is that the proverbial glass ceiling is self-reinforcing.”
Blogs
Zoe Cruz and Playing Down Your Mom Status at Work
“According to the article, Ms. Cruz had her first child shortly after starting as a foreign currency trader at Morgan Stanley in the early 80s, and told a colleague she had no qualms about leaving the child at home. She had a second and third child, and returned to work “within weeks” — even making some calls while in labor. Later on, she argued against “flextime” programs for women who wanted to have children. She advised a manager to pay off women who sued the firm in 2001 for discrimination, to “make the whole thing go away,” the New York Magazine story says…. We’ve talked a lot on this blog about finding family-friendly firms, or convincing bosses to be more open to flextime or telecommuting for working parents. But perhaps for women on Wall Street or in traditionally male-dominated fields, playing down mommy status is still the best way to go — along with hard work and competence, of course — to rise through the ranks.” See Articles section (above) for a link to the New York Magazine cover story about Ms. Cruz.
Do Dads and Moms Have the Same Back-to-Work Plans?
“This is apparently the season for at-home dads to consider returning to work. First, M.P. Dunleavey penned a piece for the New York Times about her at-home husband's impending move to go back to work full time. Then, The Washington Post Health Section, Mark Trainer raised the question of when his stint at home would end. Both Dunleavey and Trainer make similar points by the end of their respective pieces: At-home dads rarely see their gig as open-ended. There is a point at which almost every at-home dad decides that re-entry back into the workforce is inevitable. Dunleavey even goes one step further, suggesting that perhaps the eventual return to the workforce is taken more seriously if you're an at-home dad than an at-home mom.”
Lady Law Is Not Entirely Flexible
“The law can be all encompassing. It’s always been that way — hence the saying “the law is a jealous mistress.” Attempting to juggle one’s chosen career with non-legal obligations such as the demands of family life can be a delicate and difficult balancing act for both male and female lawyers….Recently, an interesting study was conducted by the Massachusetts- based Equality Commission. Entitled “Woman Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership,” the report concluded that “female law-yers continue to face intractable challenges in their attempts to become partners, causing them to abandon law firm careers — and the legal profession entirely — at a dramatically higher rate than men.... In attempting to explain this disparity some echo U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s language in the recent decision Gonzales v. Carhart, claiming that the reason for the variance is the special bond between a mother and child, and that women can’t help but stay at home with their children. Others allege that women make the decision to have children and must, therefore, face the music when it comes to the consequences of that choice.”
Penelope Trunk: Where to Start?
“Thanks to Joeprah, I just read Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk's bizarre/unfair/sad post, provocatively titled: "Guest post: What life’s really like for a stay-at-home dad. I'd summarize it here, but I just can't do it justice. You'll have to read it. Suffice it to say that for the first time, Penelope hands her blog over to someone anonymously, and that at-home husband proceeds to out himself as: An adulterer, A chauvinist, A guy who has been repeatedly propositioned as a SAHD, Pretty self-centered ("I can pretty much do what I want to do"). If I had to pick four traits of the at-home dads I've encountered in my life (and that's a pretty big number), these are probably the four *last* traits I'd list. Also suspect: the kids are mentioned only in passing. But Penelope praises this guy for "because he is more honest with me about his life than any other stay-at-home dad I know.” See below (April 30, 2008) for Penelope Trunk’s article.
Telecommuting Can Help Retention
“Work/life balance and big corporations have seldom gone hand in hand. But an increasing number of companies are realizing that to compete in the global environment, they must have, you know, like, talent available. At the same time, some have recognized that the old-school mentality of expecting employees to work 16-hour days is no longer the smartest way to proceed….Educated, professional women, for example, are leaving the workforce. A study, “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success,” conducted by the Center for Work-Life Policy, found that 37% of highly qualified women and 43% of women with children had left the workforce. Keeping them is particularly crucial if companies want to attract younger female recruits out of business school. Why is this a big deal? The number of women with graduate and professional degrees is expected to grow by 16% during the next decade, compared with 1.3% for men, according to the study.”
Guest Post: What Life's Really Like for a Stay-at-Home Dad
“I have never let anyone guest post anonymously on this blog before, but today is an exception, and you’ll see why if you keep reading. Every time I write about stay-at-home dads, tons of them write to me. They always want me to tell their story. The only emails I get that say “contact me if you want to interview me about my life” are from stay-at-home dads. Not much ever comes of this, but there’s one exception: a guy I’ve been corresponding with for the last year about what life’s like as a stay-at-home dad. Today’s guest post is actually a bunch of his emails that I’ve edited, with his permission. I like this guy because he is more honest with me about his life than any other stay-at-home dad I know.”
High Gas Prices Are Hurting Workers
“We’ve talked about steep gas prices before on the Monster Blog, but never have they been this high. Yesterday, the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.60 for regular, and crude oil futures were at $120 a barrel. With summer coming up and the threat of stagflation -- inflation coupled with slower economic growth -- there doesn’t seem to be much relief in sight. Yes, it’s painful for me to spend $50 filling up my Camry, but workwise, I feel the biggest pinch on my commute. Workers who are really feeling gas pains are those who drive as part of their jobs -- for example, delivery people and truck drivers (especially independent owner-operators). So what’s a worker to do? The obvious solution: Take steps to improve your gas mileage. If you can, try to take public transportation, carpool or even work from home.”
People Can Just Be Jerks, No Matter Their Choices
“I am (yet again) pondering the non-working and working mom divide. Previous posts have explored whether we really do hate each other, judge each other, or even understand each other. Because I somewhat straddle both worlds, I have a new insight. It may be that people, in this case moms or women, aren’t easily divisible into groups by their work status but rather by their personality types…. Instead, I would argue that people can just be jerks, no matter their choices in life. Childless people can be rude, a mother of four who never works may be absolutely delightful and interesting to talk to. Stay-at-home-moms who are pushy and selfish probably were like that when they worked. I’m sure everyone knows someone at work they cannot stand being around; people whose email they dread. Staying at home doesn’t cause personality flaws, nor does it bring them out. The same goes for working moms.”
Reports & Surveys
Hewitt Survey Suggests U.S. Companies Not Effectively Managing Workplace Flexibility Programs
“A rapidly shrinking talent pool, coupled with increased work-life pressures and a more diverse, global and independent workforce, have prompted an increasing number of companies to offer flexible work arrangements as another way to attract, retain and engage talent, according to Hewitt Associates, a global human resources services company. But while companies believe that workplace flexibility is a critical retention and recruiting tool, most do not have the structure or support in place to maximize the value that these programs can provide. Hewitt’s survey of 90 U.S. employers revealed that, of those companies who offer flexible work arrangements, almost all (98 percent) believe the benefits of workforce programs match or outweigh the costs associated with implementing them. Two-thirds (66 percent) said the programs increased employee engagement, 64 percent said they improved employee retention and another 49 percent cited enhanced recruitment results.”
Flex-time and Telecommuting On Par with Total Compensation in Weighing Job Offers
“Competition and Rising Gas Prices Make Strong Incentives for Flexible Work Policies. Ft. Lauderdale-based IT search and staffing specialist, PROTECH, released the results of its fourth annual IT Professionals Survey in which flex-time and telecommuting tied total compensation as deciding factors in accepting a job offer from a prospective employer. The recent survey of technology professionals in Florida’s Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties had 544 respondents. In addition, the highest share of area technology workers, 23 percent, said flex-time and telecommuting were the best perks offered to them by a past or present employer, edging out bonus and paid expenses (each at 18 percent). Similarly, work-life balance came in second after salary as the most important consideration when weighing a job offer followed by stability and career growth.”
Telecommuting Could Save America $4.5 Billion
“The American Electronics Association released a report last week as part of Earth Day celebrations making a strong case for telecommuting. The study found that if all employees in the U.S. whose positions allowed it worked from home two days a week the demand for gasoline would drop by 1.35 billion gallons! The report also addresses many of the concerns managers have with their underlings telecommuting, dispelling several, and providing additional reasons for companies to support working from home. The strongest reasons other than cost savings are that working from home improves both employee retention and productivity.” Click here for a copy of the American Electronics Association report (PDF).
Global News
Businesses Worried About Extension to Parental Leave
“Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are concerned over government plans to extend parental leave, according to new research. The report by Citrix Online, which surveyed almost 300 SMBs and 1,800 working parents, found that 58% of SMBs believed that extending maternity leave would have a negative commercial impact on their business, while 48% said the same for paternity leave. However, the findings also revealed that 74% of businesses have implemented flexible working options, while almost half welcomed the government's plans to extend flexible working to parents of older children. Denise Tyler, founder of Mother@Work, said: "Working parents worry about the affect that having children will have on their career aspirations, so it is promising to see that businesses are recognising the benefits of flexible working and introducing options that will really help employees."