October 28, 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
Helping parents back to work
“The internship: It's not just for college students anymore, at least at Sara Lee Corp. The food manufacturer plans to soon offer "returnships," internships for people who want to climb back into the work force after an extended leave for personal reasons—such as raising kids. Brenda Barnes, Sara Lee's chief executive, say the idea came out of a brainstorming session with a women's executive network at the Downers Grove-based company. But "part of the seed for this came from my own experience," Barnes said.”
The Power of ONEsies
“Contemporary mothers are chron–ically overburdened, sleep-deprived, and usually busy organizing something or other. And that’s made these working women notoriously difficult to organize for political action and social change. A cyber-savvy bootstrap organization called MomsRising.org is up for the challenge. Recruiting thousands of mothers (and anyone who has a mother) to join via its website, MomsRising.org may have found the formula to engage, educate, and amplify the voices of America’s millions of mothers. Most women in America become mothers (82 percent by the age of 44), and most mothers with kids under 18 (71 percent) work in the paid labor force. While many mothers manage to juggle work and family commitments relatively successfully, millions of others find themselves crushed.”
Finding Good Work After You Retire
“A s retirement portfolios shrink, it's inevitable that some older Americans will consider going back to work. That's a good thing, says Marc Freedman, author of "Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life." He told NEWSWEEK's Caitlin McDevitt why retirees shouldn't polish their golf clubs just yet.”
More employees ages 65 and up staying in the work force longer
“More older workers age 65 and up are already staying on the job longer, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. From 1995 to 2007, the number of older workers on full-time schedules nearly doubled, while the number working part-time increased 19 percent, according to the federal statistics. As a result, full-timers now account for a majority among older workers: 56 percent last year, up from 44 percent in 1995. The increase doesn’t reflect the aging of the baby-boom population, whose members are now entering their early 60s. Rather, a “larger share of people 65 and older [are] staying in or returning to the labor force,” which consists of those working or looking for work, the bureau said.”
Telecommuting and the Green Office of the Future
“John Larson remembers when a U.S. Interstate Highway collapsed three blocks from where he worked in Minneapolis-St Paul in 2007. There was an immediate reaction by politicians and transportation officials who needed to reroute hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day. If these commuters' companies had put a telecommuting plan in place, that problem could potentially have been solved almost instantly. Larson is a spokesperson for Results-Only Working Environment, or ROWE, a new way of managing people developed by two women who worked in human resources at Best Buy. The idea of ROWE is to allow flexible schedules, forcing managers to concentrate on outcomes rather than hours.”
As the economy worsens, more people are taking on additional jobs
“Tina Wells is squeezed. Unable to find sufficient work in her field, the Clinton social worker and mother of two is now supplementing a five-hour-a-week consulting gig with weekend work as a restaurant hostess - a job she thought she'd left behind in graduate school. Her husband, Chris, is a project manager at a corporate audio-visual firm. "Is it enough? Not really," says Wells. "I guess you could call it emergency management. It will keep us slightly ahead of the game." Hit by the deepening economic crisis and fearful of what's to come, a growing number of Americans are taking on work - reluctantly. Young parents, retirees, and others who work part time or who have stepped away from jobs are wading back into the worst labor market in years to offset shrinking investments and rising prices. Others who'd like to cut back or stay home now can't afford to, so they unhappily work full time.”
Finding New Energy by Taking a Timeout
“TAKING off for an extended period can be a rare opportunity to recharge, recalibrate the life-work equation or reinvent yourself. And whether that break is paid for by an employer, supported by a grant from a foundation or financed by personal savings, many people are turning to timeouts to figure out their next steps. Only about 18 percent of American companies offer paid or unpaid leaves, and most leaves, unsurprisingly, are in the unpaid camp, according to Steve Miranda, chief human resource officer for the Society for Human Resource Management, a trade association. The practice is most common in government, higher education and among nonprofits, he added. [. . .] Flexible programs and schedules could become a popular, affordable option for companies if current economic conditions persist, he added.”
Blogs
Coping With Work Schedule Changes
“In the year since my post on the tight morning schedule in our house, things had loosened up a bit thanks to some changes at work for me. My wife and I were able to drop both kids off at school together and then make a commuter train that would put us each at work before 10 a.m., and if we missed it, generally it was OK to stay in touch with work via BlackBerry and get in a little later. That’s in the past tense because of a temporary assignment I’m on at work that has changed my hours a bit—and has added a little more stress to our morning juggle. I now have to be physically present at a meeting that starts at 10 a.m. sharp each morning, so the leeway I’d grown to count on has vanished. I need to be in by 9:45, or ideally earlier.”
Book Review: CEO of Me
“I am a work-life researcher and an expatriate here in the U.S., in a dual-career marriage, with a young family (local) and elder care responsibilities (at a distance). I approached the book with the greatest expectations and was delighted to find new and insightful food for thought. Based on hundreds of interviews in the U.S. and Canada, Kossek and Lautsch coin the concept of “flexstyle.” They define flexstyle both as a strategy to handle one’s life and an understanding of what is driving the relationships between one’s work and one’s life.”
Mundane Work & Inflexible Hours Make It Tough to Retain Nurses
“Why is it so tough for hospitals to recruit and retain nurses? A GAO report out today on nursing at the Veterans Administration highlights a few key factors. [. . .] Work-life balance is also an issue. Back in 2004, Congress gave the VA legal authority to offer “alternate work schedules” to nurses — a 36-hour work week comprised of three 12-hour shifts (paid at a 40-hour rate), or the chance to work full-time for nine months and take three months off, for 75% year-round pay. But these options are rarely actually available to nurses. “Flexible” work schedules — like eight 10-hour shifts in a two-week period — are also pretty limited.”
Design Careers: Remote, flexible, great for the relauncher
“One of the biggest benefits of a career in design, shared by other creative careers such as freelance writing, is the non-traditional nature of the work itself. You can’t program people to create during set business hours. They have to work when the creative moment strikes them. Some designers have a strict discipline about the process; setting aside a certain number of hours each day to work. But those hours may not all be in a row and they may not be between 9 am and 6 pm. Others go for days thinking and reflecting, and then have a prolonged burst of intense production.”
Global News
Don't let hard times lead to staff burnout
“THE WORKPLACE has changed. Work overload is an increasing and dangerous phenomenon. With lay-offs and cutbacks and a cultural message of fear being sent to employees that their jobs may be axed, organisations are in danger of authoring their own demise if worker anxiety, stress, disengagement and burnout are not attended to. Economic change brings about economic realities. That is accepted. But how organisational change is managed and the manner in which the necessary structural and personal adjustments are communicated to staff is crucial. The degree of inclusion of staff in the process (not just perfunctory consultation) is important. Redefinition of roles, of expectations, of prospects need the involvement of those they affect.”
Warning over the downturn drudges
“Despite the impending recession, overstretched employees should not succumb to pressure to turn up at the office earlier and leave work later – it’s bad for the economy. Cary Cooper, professor of organ-isational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School, believes that the worst thing people can do in a downturn is spend more time at the office. Presenteeism, where people feel obliged to put in ever more hours for fear of losing their job, is not just bad for your health, it’s bad for productivity, said Cooper, lead scientist on the report Mental Capital and Wellbeing, published last week. He said that far from being a luxury we cannot afford, a mentally healthy workforce is more vital than ever now that the country is heading towards recession.”
The mothers who fit flexible second-chance work around their children
“Your maternity leave is over. Your baby is safely installed in a nursery, or with a child minder, or in whatever other child-care arrangement you agonised over. You've managed to fit into your work clobber and get to your job on time. Ta-dah - you're a working mother. Except it's not quite how it used to be. Perhaps your previous job has been sidelined "because we know you have to get back to the baby", maybe the work simply doesn't have the same interest for you that it did before, or perhaps it's the impromptu drinks after work that you've had to rule out.”