February 10, 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. The News Roundup will return on February 17, 2009.
Articles
Job loss hits seniors especially hard
“At 68, Aurelia Dillon gives no thought to retirement. She needs to work and wants to work, she says, if only she could find a job. Laid off from a Carney flower shop Thanksgiving week, she has been looking for employment ever since. Dillon, a widow, has pension and other income, lately boosted by unemployment benefits. But she cares for two grown children: a mentally disabled son and a brain-injured daughter. [. . .] After attending a mandatory two-day class at a Baltimore County career center, she's willing to learn new skills with the clock ticking on her 46 weeks of jobless benefits. As the economy has worsened, more and more retirement-age workers have joined Dillon on the unemployment rolls. Last month the national jobless rate for those 65 or older hit 5.7 percent. That's still below the overall U.S. rate but the highest level for that age group since 1977.”
Why Your Job Could Be Making You Old
“Cell biologists believe that aging occurs deep within our cells and that the affects of stress can be seen even there. Telomeres, protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, gradually shorten over time as cells divide. Much like the plastic coating on the ends of shoe laces, teleomeres can wear down and fray. Evidence is mounting that chronic stress can speed up this cellular aging process. Elissa Epel, an associate professor of psychiatry at University of California at San Francisco, found that women with the high-stakes job of caring for a child with a chronic illness generally have shorter white blood cell telomeres than women of the same age with healthy children. Still, even the women with healthy children who reported high amounts of stress had shorter telomeres. “Caregiving is particularly stressful, but many other jobs are stressful as well,” says Epel. “It depends on how one copes with it.” So, make sure you find at least a small way to relax each day.”
To minimize layoffs, employers cut worker hours
“Faced with a downturn in orders, Hardinge Inc. is laying off workers, cutting executive salaries, and freezing hiring. But the machine toolmaker in Elmira, N.Y., is also doing something else – something that hasn’t happened much in other downturns: Most of its workforce is now only getting paid for four workdays a week. [. . .] From coffee shops to machine shops, employers are trying to mitigate the effects of the downturn by reducing employees’ hours or overtime. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for one, has ordered some 200,000 state workers to take a two-day furlough every month in an effort to close a $42 billion budget gap. Even some of the legislation in the economic stimulus package would reward states that use “innovative benefits” – such as giving unemployment insurance to workers who have had their hours reduced.”
Working moms look to Michelle Obama for change
“Maternity leave. Affordable child-care. Flexible work arrangements. When first lady Michelle Obama said she wanted to help working women balance career and family, American moms applauded -- and immediately came up with a wish-list of policy changes. "I'm so psyched she is bringing this issue to the forefront," said Geniene Pernotto, 43, a marketing director and single mother of one in Youngstown, Ohio. Pernotto quit her demanding corporate job in New York City in exchange for a pay cut and shorter hours at a nonprofit in northeastern Ohio. But she laments that she had to choose.”
Utah's Four-Day Workweek
“This past August, Utah became the first state to mandate a four-day workweek for many of state employees. All state offices are closed on Fridays. Scott Simon speaks with Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman about what this means for the state, its citizens and its government workers.”
Securing a Telecommuting Agreement with Your Employer
“Mothers with small children returning to full-time work is an old story, but the logistics of pulling it off remain an ever-present problem. Just how do you balance the demands of small children with the very real expectations from bosses at work? But before you get to that point, how do you let a would-be employer know as you apply that while you have talents to contribute to their operation you also need an accommodation to see that your children's needs are met?”
Not Everyone Is Cheering as Wi-Fi Takes to the Air
“Wireless Internet service is starting to spread among airlines in the United States — Delta and American have installed it on more than a dozen planes each, and several other carriers are planning to test it. For the airlines, always desperate for new sources of revenue, offering the service — about $10 for three hours and more for longer flights — was an easy call. And many passengers will cheer the development as an end to Web withdrawal. But this new frill is hardly as benign as a bag of pretzels. It may be a new source of tension between passengers on packed planes. A flight attendants’ union has even expressed concern that terrorists could use it to plot attacks. And there is the inescapable fact that one of the last places on earth to get away from it all can now be turned into a mobile office.”
Married to the Job
“Having watched the mommy wars rage last fall around Sarah Palin's approach to work-family balance, I've been intrigued by the French premiere of this movie, starring the country's glamorous, embattled Justice Minister, Rachida Dati. Five days after giving birth by C-section to her daughter Zohra, Dati left the hospital and headed to the Elysée Palace for a Cabinet meeting. Cue the controversy, let fly the judgments: What about bonding and breast-feeding and savoring the glory of a social system that allows women 16 weeks of paid maternity leave?”
Blogs
Work-Life Balance Issues At Risk in the New Economy?
“Work-life issues have taken center stage in the first month of the country’s new administration. [. . .] Many advocacy groups have high hopes that the protections of FMLA and/or Pregnancy Discrimination Act are eventually broadened. In the meantime, however, legal protection in the work-life balance area is limited. Unlike most other industrialized nations, pregnant workers in the United States are afforded no special protections, employers are required only to treat pregnant workers no worse than other temporarily disabled employees. Pregnancy is not (absent unusual complicating conditions) a disability that must be “accommodated.” Federal law provides little in the way of benefits to pregnant employees to make it easier for them to have a baby and then go through a bonding period.”
Pet-ernity Leave
“Virgin Mobile in Australia has announced that it will now be offering ‘peternity leave.’ If you have a new puppy or kitten (sorry to all of you snake and hamster owners out there!) that is less than 10 weeks old, you are allowed 5 unpaid days off of work to care for your new pet, so long as you have been employed by Virgin Mobile for more than 2 years. While this was the first time I had ever heard of peternity leave, I subsequently learned that other companies have offered this leave before. Apparently, The Courier Service in London and the Bank of Scotland offer similar pet-ernity leave policies, even offering time off if your pet is sick.”
Baby-Friendly America? Close the Milk Gap
“We've heard of the trade gap, wage gap, and gender gap. Now comes the "milk gap." It is the gap between the time a mother is able to feed her newborn baby breast milk and the twelve months that pediatricians recommend. Why twelve months? Because the health benefits of breastfeeding abound: babies have reduced chances of suffering from diabetes, leukemia, meningitis, obesity and a host of other illnesses. Yet 84 percent of mothers stop breastfeeding before their babies reach age one, in large part, because they have no choice: they need to return to paycheck jobs, many of which are incompatible with breastfeeding. To become a more family-friendly country, we need to become more baby-friendly and help mothers close the milk gap.”
Less Leave, Longer Hours = Better Work Life Balance?
“However, I can’t help but hope that having many of these smart and talented working mothers return to the workforce will propel government and corporations to more seriously support the needs of working parents. There are fewer women at the highest levels of corporate governance partly because women on this track often have the option to stay home. It strikes me that if there were more working mothers in top jobs, there might be more drive to improve access to quality childcare, make lactation spaces available, and generally place higher value on work-life balance. In fact, I was heartened to learn that President Obama has formed a task force for working families that especially seeks to tackle work-life balance issues.”
Global News
Balancing act ... it's all in a day's work for mothers
“It was a childcare decision that got women everywhere talking. French Justice Minister Rachida Dati returned to work just five days after giving birth to a baby girl because she was determined to hold on to her shaky job. It was a gamble that didn't pay off, as she has now been politically sidelined. But the impact of her decision continues to resonate, prompting debates ranging from 'when should mothers return to work?', to 'should mothers return to work?'; and from 'what damage has she done to our hard-fought maternity rights', to 'is it really any of our business'? Having given birth to my third child in October, I find my own return-to-work date fast approaching, so I have taken a keen interest in the story.”
If you only do one thing this week ... take a break
“Headache? Tired eyes? Difficulty concentrating? Surely a break is in order. But before you get up from your desk for a cup of tea or trip to the sandwich shop, take a look around. Everybody else is rooted to their desk. Next to you is Sheila, who was in at 6am and hasn't stopped all day. And judging by the bags under his eyes, Dave sitting opposite you didn't go home last night. To get on here, you clearly need to put in the hours. You want to be seen as a worker rather than a slacker. And what about the next round of redundancies? Aren't the people who wander off for 10 minutes to read the paper and have a cup of coffee the first to get canned? [. . .] Yet there are very good health and productivity reasons to take a break, and your right to a breather is enshrined fair and square in law.”