April 21, 2009 .
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
Choosing alternatives to layoffs
“Businesses are trying to keep their companies alive, and their workforces intact, so they are ready to grow when the economy recovers. [. . .] For small businesses that want to avoid layoffs, it's important to understand that cutting employee hours or pay carries risks. Resentment, anger, damaged morale and lost productivity are real concerns. Some employees probably will leave. And tinkering with hours and pay can be especially tricky in California. The state has rules with very little flexibility for certain classes of employees, such as those who get a salary and are exempt from overtime pay, said employment law attorney Frank E. Melton, a partner at Rutter, Hobbs & Davidoff in Century City.”
Tech firms seek solution to mass exodus of female employees
“As the founder of Adventium Labs, Bonnie Holub had the luxury to mold her Minneapolis company’s culture in a way that would attract and support female employees. Adventium, a nonprofit, 6-year-old developer of advanced software, places a premium on providing its employees with flexible work schedules, which has helped the company attract and retain “highly talented, creative individuals” – slightly more than a quarter of whom are female – she said. In the world of science, engineering and technology, however, stories like Adventium’s remain all too rare. According to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the New York-based Center for Work-Life Policy, more than half of women who take jobs in the sciences drop out by the time they are in their mid- to late 30s.”
Sharing the burden
“Nurturing isn't just girl's work, and breadwinning isn't strictly a guy thing anymore. Traditional attitudes - that men should work and women care for home - are crumbling rapidly, especially among younger generations, according to a national study of workers published recently by the Families and Work Institute. Today, equal numbers - about two-thirds - of both men and women age 28 or under want to advance at work, closing a past "ambitions gap" marked by significantly fewer young women than men wanting to move up in their jobs, the study shows. As well, just 40 percent of workers across generations still believe in the supremacy of the male-breadwinner model, down sharply from 64 percent in 1977.”
Retirees going back to work, older workers delaying retirement
Family life, roles changing as couples seek balance
“Changes in family life have made men's and women's roles more alike than ever as couples try to find the right balance between work and home, according to researchers at a weekend conference on relationships, sexuality and equality. [. . .] Also at the meeting, Pennsylvania State University's Robert Drago, a professor of labor studies and women's studies, presented data on a study of parents of infants that found differences between single mothers and those in couples, as well as differences in race and ethnicity and maternity leave.”
Blogs
Flexibility for the Road
“Balancing work and a home life is enough for some of us to meet our ambitions at life. But when your goals don’t look like a classic climb up the company ladder, flexibility can make all the difference in how well you’re able to balance everything. When your plans include different geographic locations, flexibility become the only option. The idea of a location independent lifestyle — the ability to take your work with you and head wherever you want — is becoming increasingly popular. With it, though, comes new questions about work-life balance. If your entire office is your laptop, how do you leave it behind at the end of the day? If you’re exploring a whole new city, or even a country, every few months, how can you guarantee that your work gets done?”
New face of retirement or work?
“Once again, the underlying economics of retirement are changing and the core difference between the old and new retirement revolves around work. The message in the Great Recession: Most of us will end up working well into our Golden years. But the work-longer-into-old-age "retirement" strategy involves more than putting in more years on the job. It has implications for saving and work. It won't simply change the way we think about retirement. It will change the way we think about work. That's where the real revolutionary change lies.”
Distraction as a Cause of Recession; Why Recovery Will Require Paying More Attention (Plus: How I Finally Disconnected on Vacation!)
“I waited a couple of months to share my conversation with Maggie Jackson because I wanted to see if I could tackle one of my ongoing distraction challenges—not fully disconnecting from work during vacation. After reading Jackson’s book last year, I understood why it was so important to take real meaningful breaks from work, vacation being one of them. I’ve struggled with what I call my “vacation quandary” for years. Specifically the push-pull between wanting to take a vacation, but finding myself for a variety of seemingly valid reasons to continuing to check in. The brain research presented in Distracted finally convinced me I needed to commit to completely disconnecting.”
Lack of Sick Leave Legislation Is Getting Old, and So Are Your Parents
“Until recently, many of us twentysomethings believed that we were invincible. Alas, in these tough economic times, some of us have succumbed-- gracefully, no doubt-- to that catchy "last one hired, first one fired" refrain. Some of our smugness may be gone, but at least we still have our dashing good looks and our health, right? But what about our parents? I've recently begun thinking about mine. My mom walks religiously and eats organic, darling. Dad is a 61-year-old trapped in a 45-year-old's body. He hasn't touched a drop of liquor in 20 years (had a lifetime share back in the Russian Motherland), doesn't smoke or even drink coffee, and can be seen darting back and forth in his pool year-round. Unfortunately, absolutely none of these enviable habits guarantee that my parents will remain healthy in the years to come.”
Global News
We must help employees strike a better work-life balance
“The extension of the flexible working law is a welcome development for businesses up and down the country (Flexible hours for parents of under-17s, 6 April). As your article explains, "millions of parents with children up to the age of 16 will be able to request flexible working from their employers". This is a key milestone which has the potential to give the face of the UK workforce a much-needed lift. The only thing standing in its way is our fear of change. [. . .] As the article outlines, flexible working can encompass a variety of arrangements, ‘from working from home, working part-time, working agreed hours over fewer days, term-time working to job-sharing’. I would add that this fluidity is crucial to helping employees strike a better work-life balance. Its breadth will also touch millions of people's lives. As you report, ‘an extra 4.5 million parents will now have the right to ask for flexible working, in addition to the 6 million parents and carers already eligible’.”
Promises broken on maternity leave
“Fiona Stanley, the 2003 Australian of the Year, is an expert on children's health. She has written about the benefits of one-on-one child care. She is also a vocal advocate for paid parental leave: "The optimal care for a young child is with a loving adult for whom that child is the centre of the universe." Such care can be delivered by a parent, grandparent or nanny. Of course, as children get older, the socialisation skills group child care offers is extremely valuable. The age at which to make the transfer varies from child to child. Most parents would like to be able to stay at home with their newborn child. If unable to do so, more often than not they would prefer employing a nanny to using day care, to provide the sort of one-on-one care Stanley refers to, at least initially.”
For Japan's Young Families, a Little Good News
“The number of children here has fallen for 28 consecutive years. Japan has the world's lowest proportion of children younger than 15 and the highest proportion of people older than 65. Population loss will strip away 70 percent of the workforce by 2050, according to a recent forecast. Japan desperately needs its young women to marry, have children and remain in the workforce. But women are postponing marriage and delaying childbirth as never before. After they become mothers, only about a third of Japanese women return to work, compared with about two-thirds of American women. The squeeze on working women with children is quickly becoming a vise on corporate profits and a dire threat to Japan's social well-being, according to Japan's largest business federation, the traditionally conservative Nippon Keidanren. In an eyebrow-raising report this year, the federation implored the government to use the economic crisis as an opportunity to invest $10 billion to build day-care centers for 1 million children who need placement in them.”