February 17, 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
The Cost of Not Paying For Sick Days
“Two years after he opened Pond House Cafe in Elizabeth Park, Louis Lista realized that it made good business sense to provide benefits for his workers. That included health insurance, 401(k)s and paid vacation, personal and sick days in an industry notorious for its paucity of employee benefits. The economy was chugging along (this was eight years ago), and though Lista says it's a little tougher now, he is firm on providing benefits, and he wonders why other restaurants don't follow his lead. [. . .] By some estimates, 630,000 Connecticut workers don't have paid sick days, and a good number work in the food-service industry. A bill before the state legislature grants paid sick days to employees in businesses with 50 or more workers. For every 40 hours worked, employees would earn one hour of sick time — or 6.5 days a year. A similar bill made it through the Senate last year but never reached a vote in the House.”
County may go to 4-day work week
“Winona County leaders say taxpayers could benefit if county employees are allowed to work more flexible hours, though state legislators first would have to sign off on the move. County commissioners are renewing a discussion about shortening the work week for county employees to four days instead of five — a step that appears to be supported by employees and would save the county about $20,000 annually. But state law requires offices for all 87 Minnesota counties to be open Monday through Friday. So county commissioners will vote this morning on whether to ask the Legislature to allow counties to adopt more flexible work hours, such as a four-day week. [. . .] But Ward suggested the measure could bring other benefits. She said it would help the county lure talented young employees who want to work flexible hours.”
Study Shows New Economy Puts Dual-Income Couples in Double Jeopardy
“‘In the old economy we largely depended on the male bread winner. The wife was a homemaker and the men were much more likely to have jobs that were secure; this is especially true for white middle-class families where job security increased with seniority. And, in the old economy if the husband lost a job the wife was reserve labor and she could go out into the labor force and make ends meet. Whereas to maintain a middle-class lifestyle in today’s economy, dual-income couples are the norm to make ends meet.’ In the study published in “Research in the Sociology of Work,” Sweet examines the changes in structures and protections in the new economy, illustrating how the new economy dismantles the systems that made workers more confident they would hold their jobs as they aged and their family investments increased. The loss of protections under the old economy has created a dramatic increase in two-income families.”
Starbucks spars over union
“Gross, 29, began working for Starbucks in 2003 and had been involved with the IWW before. He said that he did not choose to work at Starbucks just so he could organize it. Variable work hours are one of the union's major points of contention, Gross said. An employee must work 20 or more hours per week to be eligible for health coverage at Starbucks. Seventy-one percent of Starbucks employees are eligible, and 65 percent of those in the U.S. take advantage, the company said Thursday. Starbucks uses an automated scheduling system, where employees indicate which hours they are available. Someone who wants full-time work of more than 32 hours weekly must be open to work at least 70 percent of a store's operating hours. ‘Starbucks can schedule you on any day, at any time within those hours," Gross said. "How are you supposed to get a second job or plan for child care if you have to be available 80.5 hours?’”
Women Have Come a Long Way. The Family Picture Is Less Bright.
“During the 1950s "Leave it to Beaver" yesteryear, only 17 percent of mothers with children 18 or younger worked outside the home [. . .] By 2000, however, about 70 percent of women with children held jobs. In other words, until recently, the norm in America was that mothers did not work. Now the situation is completely reversed. [. . .] What to do about this situation? [. . .] We need to help fathers work less outside the home (and more inside it) and reduce wage inequality. Of course, we don't want to accomplish either of these through economic catastrophe but rather through thoughtful social policies around parental leave, marginal tax rates and so on. These are tall tasks, but if we don't do something to cushion the effects of the social sorting taking place across households, families will continue to face more and more stress. We must come to terms with the fact that the workplace and family life are not what they were in the 1950s (or 1979 for that matter), so our social policy shouldn't be stuck in the days of Eisenhower either.”
Living "One Day at a Time" in the Economic Crisis: The New Face of America's Middle Class
“As a single mother and a pediatrician with her own practice, life for Pierrette was already challenging. Then everything got harder. Her son, Joshua, was only nine when he was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. [. . .] Over 27% of parents who have children with disabilities lose their jobs according to research by Dr. Julie Rosenzweig, a professor in the School of Social Work at Portland State University. ‘Nearly half (48%) of these parents had to quit their jobs in order to take care of their children. There are exceptional care responsibilities for children with mental disabilities,’ she explains, ‘and very few childcare resources.””
Blogs
My Juggle: How I Really Do It
“About a year ago, I volunteered to mentor a young journalist. At one point right after she got her dream job, the job she needed a mentor to help her push for, she emailed me and asked me how I did it. She was about to marry and wanted to know how I balanced everything–how I managed to be an editor, mom, wife and human being, and seem to handle all of it. My first impulse was to say, “I have no idea, I just do.” And to be honest, that’s the way I feel most of the time. Quite frankly, thinking about how I do it made my head spin! Here’s what I do know: It’s a complicated dance where missteps can be a really big deal, so before you get it right, you practice a lot and get it wrong (or, well, not perfect) more times than you want to remember. But then some days you just realize that your dance is fluid and lovely and it’s working out pretty darn close to the way you choreographed it in your head.”
Bumps on the On Ramp
“Stay at home mothers (SAHMs) are looking for work and facing some good news/bad news. A combination of factors is sending these SAHMs back to work. Some need to replace the income of spouses who have been laid off. Others need the additional money to combat increased living costs. And still others are merely ready to return after taking time to care for their families. As we have been reporting on The Glass Hammer, the good news is that it is no longer considered impossible to re-enter the work world. Several years ago, the mainstream media was full of stories that said women who had taken time off to raise families had very slim chances of being rehired. Employers just didn’t value the skills women cultivated as heads of households and PTO volunteers, the stories said.”
First Lady at Howard University: "There Is No One Right Answer"
“First Lady Michelle Obama told a gathering at Howard University's School of Business today that working mothers must choose their own paths, balancing work with family. ‘The one thing--the one message that I have is for all of you struggling with this issue is just remember there is no right answer. It took me a long time to figure that out. There is no one right way to do any of this. And the choices and the decisions will change, given your circumstances,’ she told an audience at a panel discussion at the school. [. . .] She said that she had dealt with the issue her whole life, ‘trying to figure out how to juggle work-family balance in the process of getting an education. There isn't a day that goes by, particularly after having kids, that I don't wonder or worry about whether I'm doing the right thing for myself, for my family, for my girls.’”
Sun-Times Column by BDO CEO and WLF - Work Life Flex Reduces Costs & Keeps Jobs
“It’s not often we read about CEOs discussing the benefits of work life flexibility, so the Work+Life Fit team was quite excited when the CEO of BDO Seidman LLP, one of our clients, agreed to co-author a column with us on the topic. The Chicago Sun-Times recently published the following commentary in their Other Views column. The column (below) makes the point that work life flexibility is a way to manage that can control costs in many areas and limit layoffs. We hope more CEOs and other top executives will soon learn that work life flexibility is not just an employee perk or a band-aid to avoid layoffs, but a broader business model that can reduce costs multiple areas while helping businesses grow.”
Global News
Private sector eyes flexible work arrangements
“As a measure against the adverse effects of the global economic crisis, employers and workers in the private sector may mutually adopt the implementation of flexible work schedule subject to the guidelines issued by the Department of Labor and Employment. Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito D. Roque recently issued the DOLE Department Advisory No. 2. Series of 2009 which provides for the guidelines on the adoption of various flexible work arrangements for labor and management wanting to implement such arrangements as a coping mechanism and remedial measure in mitigating the impact of the financial crisis on their business operations and the entire economy.“
A new 'ism'
“As this recession threatens to tumble into depression and more businesses go to the wall - company liquidations have increased by 50% since this time last year, according to the Office for National Statistics - you could be forgiven for thinking the phrase "work-life balance" is quaint at best, indulgent at worst. Surely the thing to do now is just focus on keeping a job, any job, at any price rather than worrying about the niceties of actually enjoying your job? It's a fair enough argument at one level. I have run my own small businesses for 15 years and when times have been tough I have had to put all hands - including my own - to the pump, even if that has meant missing umpteen bedtimes, school runs or generally running myself ragged. If it's either that or not paying the mortgage and the wages, there's no choice. But permanent crisis mode is not sustainable. These days there is open talk of a return to the three-day week as a cost-cutting measure. Employers such as Honda are already temporarily mothballing production and employees. Who knows, we might even see Britain emulate President Hoover's commission for work sharing from the 1930s - where a three-day week was encouraged across the board - as a means of keeping people employed in a collapsing marketplace.”