September 30, 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
Council Is Expected to Recommend Simplification of Annuity Provider Rule
Putting Off Retirement Can Make A Huge Financial Difference
“Americans are changing the game plan for retirement, with millions laboring right past the traditional retirement age and working into their late 60s and beyond. While the average retirement age remains 63, that standard may soon be going the way of the gold watch — a trend expected to accelerate as baby boomers close in on retirement without sufficient savings. "We've seen a significant uptick in the number of people age 55 and older seeking employment in the last month and people in the 65-plus range that have been out of the work force and want to re-enter it," said Ed Dombroskas, executive director of the Seniors Job Bank in West Hartford, a nonprofit agency serving Connecticut.”
Mo. Lt. Gov. Kinder rewards employees while colleagues do political work
“In June 2006, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder's chief of staff received an e-mail with some good news about his financial future. Eric Feltner was about to get a 50 percent raise. Feltner had not been promoted. Instead, he was being rewarded because a co-worker was taking an unpaid leave to do political work. Kinder decided to split the paycheck of the departed worker between Feltner and another employee. For Feltner, it meant an extra $500 per week. The practice has been repeated in each of the last three years: One employee leaves for a few months to work for Kinder's political allies, and others in Kinder's office earn a windfall.”
Sports-minded dads juggle working, coaching
“Each night after his son's team practices in the Miami suburb of Davie, Fla., Stealy commutes three hours to work, spends his evenings overseeing his crew, and then, returns home the next morning. "I'm very fortunate to be self-employed because there is no way I would miss out on coaching my boy." Across the country, men are rearranging work schedules, fielding e-mails on their BlackBerrys and telling the boss they just can't make the client meeting. It's the time of year when youth sports kick in. Even in the Nintendo generation, more than 26 million children in America play some sort of sports. For more than 2.5 million parents who coach, most of them dads, it means stepping up role-juggling skills and handling work/life conflicts as they arise.”
More work-life strategies for busy moms and dads, too
“During my lengthy and varied career, no one has ever asked me how I could do all the things I do and still be a good father. Perhaps, I am not a good enough father, or maybe I just don't work hard enough for it to ever have occurred to anyone to ask me that question. Or just, maybe, there is a double standard for men and women when it comes to work and family. No one I know, male or female, has enough time these days to do everything they need to do at work and at home. Our lives are just too busy. For all of you struggling to handle the multitude of tasks re quired of us each week, I asked some experts for tips on time management.”
Turning 65? Maybe It's Not Time to Quit
“Apparently, a life of leisure is not all it’s cracked up to be. Or working until age 65 is simply not enough to keep the retirement account going until the end. Whether through desire or necessity, more older workers are staying in their jobs longer or returning after retiring, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the bureau, the number of employed people who were 65 and older doubled from 1977 to 2007, compared with a 59 percent increase for those 16 and older.”
Gregoire suspends paid family leave program
“Gov. Chris Gregoire suspended work on the paid family leave program this week, and announced it as evidence of her cost-cutting measures in a Thursday night debate with her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi. Her action ends work on a computer to run the program. Although lawmakers voted in 2007 to start the program beginning in October 2009, they have not yet said how the state would pay for the $250 weekly checks for new parents.”
When gas dwindles, ideas flourish
“Increasingly, area employers faced with spiking gas prices and shortages are reconsidering how they do business. Teleworking these days looks pretty good. A worker-filled van sliding into the parking lot is a lovely thing. And who’s to say that a four-day work week is a crummy idea? While school officials watch and worry about fuel prices, they aren’t too concerned with keeping their buses on the roads. They run on diesel, which is in greater supply than gasoline. But others who sit in corner offices are taking hard looks at creative ways to get people to work.”
Blogs
Law Firms Get Rated on Female Friendliness
“Two weeks ago, on the same day that Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection more than 300 corporate lawyers showed up at the Mandarin Hotel in New York City for a luncheon honoring the winners of the second annual survey of best law firms for women sponsored by Working Mother Magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers. The high attendance in the face of such economic turmoil suggested that work/life issues and the promotion of female lawyers has genuinely become a pressing business issue for the legal industry.”
McCain, Obama, and Biden Balance?
“Does anyone else find it curious that we are not hearing about how John McCain, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden will have to balance work and family? We are all WELL aware of the fact that Sarah Palin will…but what about the men? I acknowledge that, historically and traditionally, the male head of the household was responsible for work outside of the home, while the female was in charge of child care and home tasks. However, haven’t we seen a shift in that paradigm?”
Main Street's Agenda: Give Workers the Tools to Lead and Sustain a Recovery
“In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt's first step to stabilize a collapsing economy was to declare a bank holiday and implement a regulatory structure to secure our financial institutions. But then, and for the next several years, the Roosevelt Administration and Congress invested in job creation and enacted the labor policies that gave workers the tools needed to lead a sustained economic recovery. Unemployment insurance, minimum wages, the right to form a union and engage in collective bargaining laid the foundation that allowed workers to receive a fair share of the economic progress they helped to create. In our current crisis Congress and the Administration have taken the first step to stabilize the financial sector, it will be left to the next President to complete the task. We must decide which candidate offers a remedy for the economic issues facing the working people of America in the 21st Century.”
Sarah, Michelle and the Post-Balance Era
“Reading Anne Applebaum’s OpEd in The Washington Post entitled “The Class of ’64,” confirmed my hunch that, ultimately, the most important aspect of both Sarah Palin’s and Michelle Obama’s impact will be a subtle yet powerful shift away from the “balance” mindset and the “all or nothing” work life dichotomy that drew the battle lines of the unwinnable mommy wars. They have the power to usher in the post-balance era of countless work life fit choices based upon our unique work and personal realities, and finally begin a productive discussion about the way work is done, life is managed, and business operates.”
Global News
In a man's working world parental leave should be about fathers, too
“Working life for men today has morphed into a 1950s model of male employment. Job security and reasonable hours have been curtailed by an economy organised on short-term contracts, in industries exposed to international competition. This has greatly intensified demands on full-time male workers. Limiting the role men play as parents limits men's choice to be involved in family life and reinforces the exclusivity of women's role as primary carers. In turn, this limits women's participation in work, forcing many to opt for flexible and part-time employment to meet the competing demands of work and family. That leads to a deeply divided labour market, one where women have less job security and are paid less, which forces men to work more to maintain family income, and that reduces their capacity time, mainly to be active fathers and at home when their children are awake.”
20 weeks' paid leave plan for new parents
“Families would be given 20 weeks' paid leave to help them spend more time with their new-born babies, under a scheme to assist working parents commissioned by the Federal Government. The Productivity Commission this afternoon recommended working mothers be given 18 weeks of paid leave and fathers two weeks to allow people to spend more time with their children without having to leave their jobs. "We want to enable mothers to stay at home for at least the first six months of their babies' life, since this is the most critical time for the nurturing of a newborn child," one of the scheme's designers, Angela MacRae, said.”
Part-time bosses see firm grow
“It is hard enough building a £7.5m recruitment business from scratch, but life is even more complicated when the key people behind the business work part-time and have six children to look after. Judith Thorpe and Karen Molloy set up their Aberdeen-based Thorpe Molloy Recruitment in 1997 and expect to crack the £10m turnover barrier next year. [. . .] Aberdeen is a centre for Europe’s oil and gas industry, and demands a highly skilled construction, engineering and professional services workforce, so the growth of the company in such a location is not really surprising. What has raised eyebrows is that these two English women have managed to succeed despite one of them stopping work to have a baby every other year.”
Working mums keep families happy
“The majority of mothers feel no guilt about leaving their children to go out to work and believe their working life has improved since having children, according to a new survey. More than 90 per cent of full-time working mothers say they are a good role model for their children and more than half say they are happy to combine parenthood with a career, according to research by Mumsnet.com, the UK's biggest online parenting network. The survey of more than 1,500 working mothers also found women believe they work more efficiently after having children. They add that they do not feel discriminated against, with the majority believing their employment and promotion opportunities were just as bright as before they had children.”