November 4, 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
How to keep older workers on the job
“This study examines what it means to U.S. business to have an aging work force and speculates that time is running out to prevent labor shortages, talent wars and knowledge loss. According to the study, "Between 2006 and 2016, the age 55-plus work force will grow five times faster than the overall labor force. If the massive baby boom generation retires at historic rates, companies may scramble to find enough qualified younger workers to fill the empty slots." The study refers to this as "a perfect demographic storm" that threatens to roil the waters of the U.S. economy and compromise the productivity and success of U.S. businesses.”
While Partner Served in Afghanistan, Firm Made a Commitment
“Barreling down the Dallas North Tollway, it suddenly dawned on Brian A. Farlow that he was driving differently. He'd been noticing vehicles in the other lanes, sure, but he wasn't giving them his usual level of scrutiny to determine whether they were weighed down, moving erratically or driven by someone whose eyes were trained on him rather than the road. Farlow, a partner in six-lawyer Dallas trial boutique Elrod, also realized it had been awhile since he'd driven alone -- he was used to sharing space with at least two other guys -- and since he'd had to dodge donkey carts or drive anything smaller than a Humvee. That's because, until about a month ago, Farlow was an active duty soldier in Afghanistan. He returned to work at Elrod on Oct. 1.”
Reservists' Rocky Return To Job Market
“With the Pentagon relying so heavily on the National Guard and Reserve to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan - 650,000 have been called for active duty since 9/11 - the least you'd expect is that after they serve, they get their old civilian jobs back. There's a law, called USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), that says their employers have to take them back at the same pay. But what 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl found is that despite the law, thousands of guards and reservists come home to find themselves demoted or penalized, or out of a job completely.”
Broad coalition pushes for paid sick days for all
“When people go to work sick, they jeopardize not only their own health, but that of co-workers, the businesses where they work and the public at large. That was the message by a broad coalition that rallied Friday in St. Paul. Led by the community organization ACORN, several dozen people turned out to support proposed state legislation that would ensure all Minnesota workers have at least three paid sick days a year. "People don't want to have to choose between their jobs and their families" when they are sick, said Patty Tarji, president-elect of Business and Professional Women of Minnesota. "It's good for business" to have workers stay home when they're sick, she said.”
Finding work-life balance
“While women have made great strides in cracking the glass ceiling, some career-minded women, like Turner, say a double standard still remains, though work-life balance issues are garnering more attention than ever. For Turner, who started as a Kroger bagger at the age of 16, it's been about balancing time with what she calls talent, or work, and treasure, or family. "Women can have it all, but it's not easy. There are decisions you will have to make," said Turner, a recent speaker at the University of Tennessee Women in Retailing and Hospitality Leadership conference.”
Candidates Differ On Relief For Working Families
“As the economy constricts, with workers losing jobs or scrambling to retain them, pressures intensify at home, too. What do presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama propose to ease Americans' work-family tensions? Sizable differences separate the two camps on issues such as family leave and sick time, as well as child care.”
The World's Hardest-Working Moms
“Here's the problem: People are living longer and young people are having fewer children, especially in the world's industrialized economies. These trends threaten to shrink the supply of skilled labor, restrain economic growth and, ultimately, lower living standards in the developed world. Only one person can save us from a future of slow decline: Mom. A growing number of policymakers, academics and business leaders conclude that long-term economic growth hinges on wide participation in the workforce of women with children. As the supply of skilled labor shrinks in most advanced economies, women, who have begun to outpace men in educational achievement, are increasingly seen as a critical and largely untapped asset.”
Employers fear paid sick leave will raise their costs
“Milwaukee employers are in a tussle they say they'd rather not be waging over what many Milwaukeeans consider an essential employee benefit. Paid sick leave, business leaders say, is a good idea that could become bad policy if Milwaukee mandates private employers to provide it, as proposed in a Nov. 4 ballot initiative. Employers complain that the binding referendum on the Milwaukee ballot Tuesday circumvented the usual legislative process, depriving businesses of any chance to influence what the city would require of Milwaukee employers. They also contend that the proposed ordinance, as it is written, raises too many unanswered questions.”
New Research Reveals Untapped Potential for Real Estate Savings Through Alternative Workplace Solutions
“In these volatile economic times, organizations are looking for ways to reduce fixed costs and are closely examining their real estate portfolios, typically their largest expense after people and technology. Yet, many organizations are ignoring a largely untapped resource: acres of empty desks. Technology has freed employees to work virtually anywhere – and they are doing so each day. A study released today by New Ways of Working, a member organization focused on alternative workplace solutions, found that more than a quarter of employees in leading edge organizations do not work in a traditional workspace. Yet, 73% of respondents still assigned a dedicated workspace to these workers, therefore not realizing the full potential of space savings.”
Blogs
Should We Vote on the Weekend?
“There’s a movement afoot to move Election day to the weekend, instead of Tuesday, to increase voter participation, as a recent New York Times op-ed points out. Voting during the workweek is tough for working parents, who often choose to forgo long election lines before and after work, or during lunch break, in order to earn their paychecks or to get home to be with their families. (We’ve also discussed how hard it is to vote and juggle.)”
Opting Back In
“Seema Kalia left the paid workplace when she went on bed rest while pregnant with her second child two years ago. She was the host of a current-affairs TV show on her local PBS affiliate back then, completely certain of the nuts and bolts of her industry, and of how to do her particular job. Now she is looking to get back to work and is stunned by how the world has changed since she’s been gone. It’s that “unknowing,” she says — the feeling that “nothing is the same as when you left — is there still a place for me? Does the kind of work I did even exist?” — that is the hardest part of re-entry.”
A Board Game for the New Rules of Work
“A few months ago, Venkatesh Rao caught my attention with the whimsical drawings about work-life issues he posted to his blog, Ribbonfarm. I have never met Mr. Rao. But through his comments on Shifting Careers, his posts on Ribbon Farm and on Twitter, and a series of e-mail exchanges, I’ve gotten to know him a bit. Meeting Mr. Rao reminded me that in this globally connected, 24/7 world, it really can be simple and productive to engage with strangers whose ideas intrigue you.”
Paid Parental Leave for All
“In my life, I have only met two men who took paternity leave. I didn’t stop to think about that until this summer, when a family in my neighborhood had a second baby and the dad stayed home for 2 weeks. I wondered why taking paternity leave wasn’t more common. So I decided to look it up. Then, I was terribly surprised to find that even paid maternity leave is not standard in the United States. Some women are lucky: they get paid during their maternity leave. But, many (perhaps most) women who do take maternity leave don’t get any sort of pay during the time they spend with their new babies. Even worse, many women have to use up their sick days and vacation days to patch together a maternity leave that’s still inadequate. And for so many women who need an uninterrupted income to make ends meet, taking maternity leave just isn’t an option.”
Global News
A dose of austerity for a pampered generation
“There was surprising unanimity. The young workers I spoke to agreed that the past few years had been a cushy time for them. Those most in demand could demand time off for other interests, whether that was travelling, skiing or training for a triathlon. BlackBerries and mobile phones meant that working from home was common - and there was often no one paying attention to how much work was done. To the baby boomers, work-life balance usually meant having enough time to spend with the family. To their children, it often meant time off to practise the piano. But generalisations are dangerous. Some workers in their early 30s remember the end of the dotcom boom. Some even lost jobs then.”
Attention deficit disorder can make work life difficult
“Commonly, people with any form of ADD struggle to organize their workload and meet project deadlines. "The research is proving more and more that we're not good at multi-tasking, as a species," she says. "People with ADD are constantly multi-tasking in their brains, but they don't do it well." Because of the difficulty in completing tasks, many people with ADD compensate by working late or taking work home. "A lot of adults with ADD will use their own personal time to catch up with something at work," says Tilley, adding that their work-life balance often suffers. She has a few clients who've gone on stress leave as a result.”
Success comes with good work and life balance
“While people in the business community hear a lot about the importance of work/life balance, it is often unclear exactly what that phrase means or how one achieves it. Stewart Friedman, founding director of Wharton’s Leadership Programme and the Work/Life Integration Project, thinks he has an answer. He talks about his new book, titled Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life.”