April 24, 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
Fearful Associates Opt for Partner Face Time Over Work-at-Home Time
“The balance of power has shifted away from associates at big law firms who got top pay, demanded interesting work and flexible schedules. Now associates fearing layoffs are more reluctant to raise workplace concerns and to ask for work-life balance accommodations, observers told the National Law Journal. And with good reason. That’s because some law firms have targeted part-time lawyers in layoffs. Joan Williams, co-director of the Project for Attorney Retention, and Deborah Epstein Henry, president of work-life consulting firm Flex-Time Lawyers, reported the troubling trend. They say some law firms that haven’t gotten serious about flexible work alternatives are discouraging such options and, in some cases, laying off part-timers.”
Does Avoiding 9-to-5 Target You for Layoffs?
“As layoffs spread, part-timers, flex-timers and telecommuters fear they'll be the first to go. Unfortunately, they're sometimes right. The outcome depends on where you work. At some employers, people on reduced-hours or work-at-home setups are the first to fall under the budget ax; other employers revert to an "all hands on deck" mode and revoke flexible arrangements. At other companies, however, oddball work setups are considered an advantage in the drive for efficiency. Either way, hanging onto a flexible work setup during a recession requires planning -- and luck.”
EEOC Issues Employer Best Practices Document on Work/Family Balance
“The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issued a document on best practices to avoid discrimination against workers with caregiving responsibilities, and held a public meeting to discuss the importance of policies that protect caregivers in an economic downturn. The technical assistance document, Employer Best Practices for Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities, is available online at http://www.eeoc/policy/docs/caregiver-best-practices.html. The best practices document supplements Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities, a guidance document issued by the Commission in 2007. The 2007 guidance, available online at http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/caregiving.html, examines how federal anti-discrimination laws apply to workers with caregiving responsibilities.”
New OPM chief vows to address pay, hiring and other workplace challenges
“Testifying before Congress for the first time as director of the Office of Personnel Management, John Berry described the federal government's personnel systems as Balkanized, incoherent and badly out of date. "Sometimes, I don't know if my job is like Back to the Future or Groundhog Day," he told the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia on Wednesday, referring to movies in which the protagonists find themselves stuck in a time warp. Berry told lawmakers he wanted to promote telework, flexible work hours, and a more standardized pay and benefit system, but he gave mixed signals about pay for performance. Performance-based systems could be useful, but "there are some warning lights," he said.”
Small Firm's Flex-Time Program Avoids the Guilt Trips
“Laura Friedl Jones spent a recent Thursday morning not behind her desk at Houston litigation boutique Schirrmeister Diaz-Arrastia Brem, but at her 4 1/2-year-old son's preschool Easter egg hunt. Ducking out of the office for a few hours to attend a family event isn't unheard of in the law firm world, but one important difference sets Jones apart from many of her attorney counterparts who attempt to balance their work and home lives: She didn't feel guilty or anxious about spending her morning snapping photos instead of billing hours. Five of the 11 associates at Schirrmeister Diaz-Arrastia Brem are mothers who work part-time schedules, and partner Michael Brem said offering flexible schedules has been a key to snagging talented women attorneys who may otherwise have left the practice of law.”
Blogs
Part-time Breadwinners in the New Economy
“Despite shrinking budgets and dire economic forecasts, at least four Republican governors are planning to turn away a portion of the federal stimulus funds. Why? Because these funds would require them to extend unemployment insurance benefits to part-time workers who have been laid off in their states. As Republican Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi recently told FOX news this reform would “require the state to pay people who are not willing to take a full-time job.” Tell this to the mother of a special needs child whose part-time work schedule makes it possible for her daughter to get the ongoing medical or social services she needs. Or the worker who took a cut in pay and hours to care for her elderly father because he could no longer care himself.”
Breast-feed More, Earn Less
“Finally, the study I've been waiting for: "Is Breastfeeding Really Free: The Economic Consequences of Breastfeeding for Mothers." Two researchers looked into the effects of breast-feeding on a mother's work life. "Because of the massive push in the public health community to get mothers to breastfeed, understanding the economic consequences of breast-feeding on women's lives is essential," write Phyllis L. F. Rippeyoung from Acadia University and Mary Noonan from the University of Iowa. This should be an obvious question, but none of the breast-feeding literature addresses it. In most studies, the question is relegated to a footnote, in which authors assert that breast-fed babies are sick less so mothers have to stay home from work less.”
How a Parent Gets Through a Day
“After reading about a day in the life of Megan Garrett and her husband Tim in The Oregonian earlier this week, I needed a nap. The couple — both college educated, both lucky enough to be employed in a state where unemployment is over 12 percent, together earning $64,000 a year — work staggered hours and “tag team” their parenting so that they pay as little as possible in daycare for three-year-old Cole and 19-month-old Bailey. [. . .] It is a portrait of modern parenting, the complex dance that gets every family from breakfast through bedtime. And it is often driven by the need for childcare, and the inability to pay for it – or, at least, to pay for as much as you need. Parker quotes University of Maryland professor Harriet B. Presser’s estimate that “in nearly 60 percent of two-working-parent couples with children younger than 5, at least one spouse worked some combination of weekends, evenings and nights,” a decision driven by the particulars of childcare.”
Family Responsibilites Discrimination (FRD) Case is Found to be Viable
“Laurie’s story appears to get to the heart of caregiving discrimination. Laurie was objectively found to be an excellent, hardworking employee over 9 years, and there had never been any allegation or insinuation that her work suffered because of her child care responsibilities. Still, when the hiring manager learned of her caregiving responsibilities outside of the home, including care for triplet 6 year olds, it seems there was an assumption that her work could suffer, as Laurie’s “plate was full.” Ultimately, it appears that it was the hiring manager’s assumptions (interestingly, the hiring manager and fellow interviewers were all women) about Laurie’s caregiving needs and how they would interfere with Laurie’s work, and not Laurie’s long term work track record, that were the basis for the hiring manager’s decision.”
Stay Home and Work
“President Obama, here is a deceptively simple action item to put on your agenda for business growth, working families, and a green future: Make it the norm for everyone to work at home at least one day a week. That single step could raise productivity, save energy, decrease pollution, reduce traffic congestion, cut household expenses, increase quality of family life, and keep educated women in the work force. Workers of the world, go remote! During this time of economic crisis and reinvention of global capitalism, one of the things crying out for reinvention is the rigid workplace of the last century. It is amazing in the digital age that most work is still associated with industrial age work rhythms and the symbolic chains that tie workers, knowledge and otherwise, to fixed locations. Flexible workplaces with flexible hours and days are long in coming.”
Global News
Parental leave eased to keep Germans working
“Now parents can spread their leave compensation over a combined period of 28 months instead of 14 months – if they decide to work part-time during that period, von der Leyen told the paper. [. . .] If new mothers and fathers fear taking a long leave of absence, they now have the choice to work half days and still receive half of the parental leave compensation provided by the government - spreading the total amount over twice as much time.”
Worried office workers start earlier (except in France)
“Worried workers are coming into the office earlier, according to research published today, concerned that their absence may be noted by bosses looking to make cutbacks as the recession bites. Last month British employees were clocking in at an average time of 8.56am, over 15 minutes earlier than they had been in November last year. German workers are equally eager to be seen at their desks and have moved their start-time from 8.50 in November to 8.35 in March. Americans seem to have shrugged off the fears of their contemporaries on the other side of the Atlantic and are still getting in at 8.30, but the French have said non to working longer and are actually coming in later.”