August 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
Employers Advised on Swine Flu; Local Colleges Making Plans
“Bracing for a second wave of the swine flu pandemic, the federal government urged employers Wednesday to offer flexible sick-leave policies [. . .] The secretaries of commerce, education and homeland security offered guidance to businesses on how to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus and how to prepare for a major outbreak. They stressed the importance of allowing employees who exhibit flu symptoms to go home and stay home until at least 24 hours after their fevers subside. They also said that businesses should consider eliminating policies requiring a doctor's note to justify a sick day and that employers should be prepared to operate with fewer people. [. . .] To minimize H1N1's spread, the Cabinet secretaries told employers Wednesday to consider limiting face-to-face meetings and travel, to encourage telecommuting and to make alternate work arrangements for employees such as pregnant women who are at high risk for complications from the virus.”
BART strike threat boosts telecommuting cause
“When the specter of a traffic-paralyzing BART strike was looming, thousands of Bay Area workers prepared for alternatives such as telecommuting. But telecommuting experts say there's still resistance among employers to allowing their employees to work away from their cubicles, even though technologies such as laptops, smart phones, Skype, Webcams and high-speed Internet access make workers of today more able than ever to work remotely. While the Bay Area apparently has dodged a BART strike for now, those experts say that the threat still provides a perfect opportunity for companies to look at their telecommuter policy - if they even have one - to prepare for future disruptions, whether they be caused by nature or humans.”
Workers seek time for school involvement
“With more than 70 percent of American children raised by working parents, flexibility is one of the most important benefits employers can give workers who are moms and dads. Unfortunately, many parents, particularly lower-wage workers, don't have jobs with flexibility or leave policies they can use to attend school functions. As the school year starts, recent government actions bear some good news: Legislators are creating policies to address this issue. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now require that employers give school-involvement leave to allow parents to attend conferences or other school-related events. Florida is not among the states. The policies vary in whether the leave is just for state employees or all working parents. Some states require paid leave and even provide employers income tax deductions for giving workers time off.”
Choosing a Program to Improve Your Future
“To help workers figure out which positions and skill sets are most in demand and best for them, the Department of Labor maintains the O*Net Web site, which has a vast database of information about jobs within each industry. It shows which are in highest demand, what kind of training, work experience and education are typical for each position, the expected salary and other information. There is even a way to search for jobs by the skills they require (for example, skills of persuasion, knowledge of systems analysis, fluency in Microsoft Excel and so on).”
Blogs
Obama's Vacation Challenge
“Now comes the greatest challenge yet for President Obama: vacation. Gifted in so many ways, Obama has yet to prove that he has any affinity for sloth, for torpor, for nodding off in the middle of the day. One senses that he is a man for whom being lazy requires extreme discipline. As a product of the meritocracy he has limited experience with the aristocratic concept of ‘summering.’ He's a grinder, a wonk, a careerist -- the kind of person who, on the rare occasions when he takes a vacation, will write ‘Have A Beer’ on his To Do list. Obama in recent weeks has outed himself as a workaholic.”
Paid Sick Leave Draws Closer for City Workers
“New York City could soon join San Francisco and Washington in requiring paid sick days for employees — a move that could affect as many as one million workers in the city. On Thursday, the City Council introduced legislation mandating that large employers give workers the ability to earn least nine paid sick days to workers per year, while small businesses who have fewer than 10 employees would earn five sick days. The two tiers were created to address concerns voiced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg when he gave a qualified endorsement of the idea. Workers would gain one hour of sick leave per 30 hours worked starting on the 90th day of their employment. Policies to roll over the days from year to year would be up to the individual employer.”
The eternal juggling act: work and family
“At a journalism conference last week, one session caught my eye: ‘Balancing Act: Working Parents.’ As someone who's worked all through motherhood except for two maternity leaves, I had to attend. The speakers were Shannon Akimi Troetel, assignment manager at New York's NY1 News, and Maggie Jackson, an author and columnist. Their audience was a small but passionate group of journalist-parents. Here are some notes from the discussion.”
More Employers Use Social Networks to Check Out Applicants
“According to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com, 45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates — more than double from a year earlier, when a similar survey found that just 22 percent of supervisors were researching potential hires on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. The study, which questioned 2,667 managers and human resource workers, found that 35 percent of employers decided not to offer a job to a candidate based on the content uncovered on a social networking site.”
You're working too hard!
“It’s hard to believe this is August. Because I’m working way too hard. You too? Unless you’re one of the growing multitude out of work–with no job at all–no doubt you are. Here’s evidence of the working-too-hard trend in a new McKinsey study called ‘Leaders in the Crisis’: Executives are working harder than ever–55 hours per week, vs. 45, on average, before the global economic crisis began.”
Duh, employers. Let sick workers stay home
“Without a law in place that sets a standard for earning paid sick days, we will never achieve the kind of economic and public health safety net that we need to combat outbreaks like the H1N1 virus. We’ve encountered flu pandemics before, and we certainly will again, but businesses have not, on their own, adopted paid sick days policies despite the clear case for their benefit to businesses and the public alike. It’s not rocket science. The simple standard proposed by the Healthy Families Act is necessary for addressing this, and future, public health and economic needs. It’s time for our leaders to speak out, and help bring our laws up to speed with common-sense public health practices.”
Still Working Nine to Five? Why?
“Entrepreneurs, senior executives and serious career employees have known for a long time that the ‘work day’ is all day -- and all night. (And if you're doing what you love, it isn't work at all.) Meanwhile, the tools that we have been afforded have allowed the boundaries between work and play to become effortlessly intertwined. We bring our personal lives into the workplace and our work into our personal lives thanks to smart phones, internet everywhere and teams spread across time zones. At our agency, we openly encourage employees to spend time on Facebook, Twitter and other personal social networks while at work, and they're answering emails from home at night. This is the workplace of 2009.”
Global News
A New Deal
“Labor deregulation in the late 1990s allowed firms to cut costs and become more competitive by hiring temporary, part-time and irregular workers. This change has been, if anything, too successful. Part-timers and temps today make up a third of the labor force, and most of them are young. This group should be a wellspring of domestic demand. Young people starting out in life are usually prodigious consumers as they purchase cars, buy homes and raise children. But part-timers and temps are not eligible for company benefits and certainly not lifetime employment — and because they frequently earn too little to contribute to public welfare funds, they are also ineligible for government benefits. Result? Without job security and financial resources, many Japanese of reproductive age can ill afford to start a family.”
Sick leave is a problem for managers
“British organisations need to be better managed to tackle staff sickness levels head on. The latest NHS report simply emphasises that this perennial problem, which is in no way unique to the health service but affects all sectors, isn't going to just go away. Sick leave costs money, an estimated £17.3bn last year alone. Given current economic conditions, it's baffling to think that most businesses still haven't come up with a way to minimise the impact. More needs to be done. Sickness levels appear to be on the rise. Chartered Management Institute research shows that 42% of managers say they have witnessed an increase.”
Mandatory retirement fades in Canada
“Why should that six per cent, opponents of mandatory retirement ask, be forced out of their jobs merely because they have turned 65? It has been shown that those with the most education tend to enjoy their work and are reluctant to be turfed out. And many people want to keep working for a variety of other reasons, including because they enjoy the office camaraderie, sense of purpose or routine. Sometimes it's a case of economic survival. Geography comes into play. If public pensions total, say, $15,000 — the amount can vary widely, depending on extra benefits — it makes considerable difference whether these pensioners live in Vancouver or Portage la Prairie, Man. Compulsory retirement can also be especially hard on single women, who were (and often still are) paid significantly less than men and may have spent years out of the workforce to raise children.”