September 26, 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
Finding Balance: Work and Family Summit: a vital opportunity
“This meeting has a simple yet profound goal: to initiate a dialogue between and among business leaders and human resource professionals, state legislators, labor leaders and researchers on how to make New Hampshire a better place for working families. Experts and business leaders will share ideas and information in talks and breakout sessions throughout the day. Here’s what we know: When workers are forced to neglect their families’ needs because of work-related pressures, the quality and quantity of their work suffers. In addition, when work pressures and job strain pile up at work, our families suffer. Therefore, it is vital that business, community, state and national leaders pay attention to the issues surrounding work and family balance.”
As workers, baby boomers are a major asset to Idaho
“Baby boomers have played a major role in Idaho's economic evolution over the last half century. Their solid judgment, ingenuity and reservoir of experience are now providing Idaho businesses with the wherewithal to remain profitable as the economy changes yet again and slows considerably. Our state is aging, just as the nation is. Since the 2000 census, the number of Idahoans 55 and older has increased over 27 percent. This group now accounts for more than 22 percent of our population.”
Instead of retirement, baby boomers to invent new stage of life and work
“Instead of retirement, most of the 78 million boomers born between 1946 and 1964 will be "inventing a new stage of life and work," he said, addressing a 220-capacity-filled assembly hall in the Alumni Center at Ball State University. Four out of five boomers consistently tell researchers that they expect to work well into what used to be known as the retirement years, according to Freedman, 50, author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life and Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement. "Work is replacing retirement," he said Thursday.”
Study Highlights Gender Inequality in the Workplace
“Overworked husbands push their wives out of the workforce, according to a study by Youngjoo Cha, a graduate student in Cornell’s department of sociology. The study, presented Aug. 1st during a meeting of the American Sociological Association in Boston, was based on data from the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation, a longitudinal study managed by the U.S. Census Bureau. It was funded by a research grant from the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center. The data indicated that women whose husbands worked over 60 hours per week were 44 percent more likely to quit their jobs than women whose husbands worked regular hours. Furthermore, Cha found that the subgroup of professional women with overworked husbands were 52 percent more likely to quit their jobs than similarly-situated women with husbands who worked normal hours.”
Local Companies Work to Expand Telecommute Opportunities
“More companies around the metro are offering ways to work at home. [. . .] As budgets tighten and prices increase, more people like Paul seek telecommuting options.”
Midlifers live their dreams by changing careers
“With the economy on the skids and retirement benefits being cut, many people realize they will need to continue working much longer than they ever expected, and they're rethinking how they want to spend those years. Is there still time to switch, take a risk and pursue an old dream, a secret passion, something meaningful? USA TODAY asked to hear from readers who did just that, and dozens responded with details about how they changed course. "People are realizing that they might be working for a long time, so they might as well find something that they like," says life coach Laura Berman Fortgang, author of Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction.”
Palin neutralizes James Dobson's "threat"
“According to Dr. James Dobson, self-proclaimed spokesman for Christians everywhere, I am a threat to civilization. Apparently, by driving my kids to soccer practice and teaching classes and cooking supper for the family while grading my students' essays, I am set on destroying the western empire. Who could imagine a thousands-year-old civilization might be brought low by someone like me? Okay, so Dobson wasn't talking only about me: he was denouncing working mothers everywhere when, in a 2006 interview, he called us a "threat to civilization" And, really, I doubt he was talking about women everywhere, since surely Dobson would not condemn women who work out of necessity, to feed and clothe their children or to provide their children with adequate health care coverage.”
Blogs
Blackberrys Ruin Vacations, Sick Days
“A new study out this week by the Pew Internet and American Life Project studies the way people use technology in the workplace and the effect these technologies have on their lives. There’s a ton of information in the report and we’ll write a bit more about it over the next few days. But here’s something that stands out: People who own BlackBerrys and similar devices pretty much never stop working. Seventy percent of device owners check work-related emails on the weekend, and 40% do so often. Fifty-five percent check work-related email on vacation, 25% often. Seventy percent check work-related email when they’re taking a sick day, and most regularly check in before going into the office and again when they get home at night.”
Reweaving the Safety Net
“Last week, I had the opportunity to testify on work-life issues before the Income Support and Family Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. Importantly, this was not a hearing specifically about work-life issues, but about the challenges facing American workers. It’s a big step forward for the lack of paid family leave and the part-time penalty to be treated as a concern on a par with stagnant wages and the increasing cost of health insurance. I thanked the Committee for their recognition that workers are experiencing a time squeeze, as well as a financial squeeze, and that both are fundamental to the well-being of American workers and their families.”
Paternity leave is one of the fastest growing benefits
“Forget health care, free parking or vacation, paternity leave is one of the fastest growing benefits at companies, according to Working Mother. Two years ago, 42 percent of the nation's most family-friendly employers offered paid dad leave, while today 75 percent offer the benefit, Carol Evans, CEO of Working Mother Media, told me yesterday. There is still a ways to go because only 13 percent of companies in general offer daddy leave, the magazine reported this week.”
Is Telecommuting Risky?
“It's a dicey economy. And if you are a telecommuter, you may be at special risk. Fact 1: In these days of economic uncertainty, everybody is looking for ways to cut back. That everybody may include your employer. Fact 2: Employers are only human. Humans tend to take the easy way out. And it's easier to lay off someone you only see rarely than to lay off someone you see every day and who has become an integral part of your work life.”
Calling all working moms
“When Amy Keroes had her son Matty, she was senior corporate counsel for the Gap. She was managing the company's intellectual property litigation and all marketing-related partnerships, including celebrity advertising deals. Remember the Gap television ad with Lenny Kravitz jamming on the guitar and Sarah Jessica Parker shaking her hips in low-rise jeans? Keroes oversaw contract negotiations for that project. Sound fun? Yes, Keroes loved her job. Sound stressful? Yes, it was a big load and Keroes eventually gave up her position at Gap and later her lawyer title entirely to work on MommyTrackd, a Web site for working moms. Today, more than 50,000 women visit the site a month for advice on tackling the tug-of-war between work and home.”
Global News
Award for new mum sidelined by bosses
“A MODEL employee with an excellent employment history spoke of her delight in winning one of the highest awards for pregnancy discrimination and victimisation at work. Mother-of-two Heather Lane (35) from Roscommon, who worked for over five years with credit card provider MBNA -- now Bank of America -- was awarded €56,315 by the Equality Tribunal against the company in a pregnancy-related discrimination case.”
Putting family before work
“Many people put family first and take on only jobs that will fit in with their responsibilities at home, Families Commission research has found. And some at-home parents say they would take up a job if it allowed them the flexibility their family needed. The research, Give and Take - Families' Perceptions and Experiences of Flexible work in New Zealand, used focus groups, case studies and a survey of 1000 people to get a family perspective on the issue.”
Does anyone really give up politics for family life?
“Norman Fowler said he was leaving Margaret Thatcher's cabinet in January 1990 "to spend more time with my family" and the country laughed heartlessly. The phrase instantly became the euphemism of choice for anyone in need of a dignified excuse. Yet so far as anyone can prove, Fowler was telling the truth - even though he couldn't stand too much family. He came back as Tory chairman (1992-94) and (desperate to get out of the house?) as shadow home secretary (1998-99).”