June 16, 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
Their Parents' Keepers
“Yet how long could we be this fortunate? He was 83 then. Sooner or later, my sister and I knew, he'd need more help. Nobody wants to have to face such questions. Yet we want to do the best we can for the people who did the best they could for us. Maybe this assisted-living place was where Dad would want to be, when the time came. It might be several years before he needed assisted living, but he also might have a health crisis and need a nursing home next week. Uncertainty was built into the process. We prepare for other major changes in life (marriage, parenting, retirement), but this one, caring for our aging parents, seems to take us by surprise. It shouldn't: Two-thirds of seniors will need some form of long-term care. I hoped I could be at least semi-prepared.”
To cut costs, Aetna sends its Dover workers home
“At a time of rampaging layoffs, Aetna U.S. Healthcare has found a different approach to cost-cutting at its Dover service center. Instead of letting the workers go, they're getting rid of the building. The company is about to begin schooling its customer-service workers in the fine points of ‘teleworking,’ with the aim of having most of its 169 staffers work from home by the end of the year, when Aetna's lease on its office space ends. [. . .] The number of Americans who work from home (or from another work-remote location) at least one day a month rose 39 percent to 17.2 million from 2006 to 2008, according to a report by WorldAtWork, a human-resources association. Technology has helped foster the growth, with a boost provided by high gasoline prices.”
More Women Forced to Reduce Maternity Leave Under Stress of the Economy
“Michelle Papachristou of Brooklyn, N.Y., originally planned to take nine months of mostly unpaid maternity leave with her daughter Nina, just as she did with her son. But a few months in, she's now planning to pick up her flight attendant duties after four months. ‘In January, my husband's company announced that everyone was getting a 10 percent pay cut across the board,’ Papachristou, 37, said. ‘And, then, about three weeks before Nina was born, he got a call, “Oh, we're doing another 5 percent for April.” So we've really had to rethink how long I can stay out of work.’”
A better work/life balance
“In 2006, 53 percent of employees believed they had a good work/life balance. Only 30 percent thought so by the first quarter of 2009, according to research by the Corporate Executive Board. One reason might be that in today’s workplace companies and shareholders are expecting greater productivity with fewer employees, said Bourke. ‘With more than 13.7 million people unemployed and a whole lot more scared that they are going to be next, most employees are working harder than ever—-more than half of those are self-professed miserable about their careers,’ he said.”
How the recession is reshaping the American Family
“The changes taking place in the Benavides-Golder household are being echoed in different ways across the country, as millions of families restructure their lives amid the worst recession since the 1930s. Although economic shifts always affect the American family, this downturn, both because of its depth and the disproportionate number of men being laid off, is adjusting roles and relationships at home perhaps more than at anytime since the Great Depression. It is recalibrating who earns the income, who picks up the kids at school, and who makes the weekly trip to the dump. Not all the changes are good: As family budgets have tightened and roles changed, tensions have risen, and some advocates worry domestic violence is increasing. But in other cases, families have forged new bonds and balanced duties in ways unseen even at the height of the feminist movement.”
On a Furlough, but Never Leaving the Cubicle
“Wendy Roberson, a state employee in California, founded the Fun Furlough Fridays Club partly as a joke, but also because she honestly believed that she would be having long-weekend-type fun on her forced time off. Not quite. The Fun Furlough Fridays Club? It never met. Instead, Ms. Roberson has found herself working as hard as ever on most Fridays, and every other day of the week. Further, she has come to resent the very idea of a furlough more and more with each paycheck, every one 10 percent less than it used to be, as mandated by California’s budget cutters.”
All Eyes Are on Tiger Woods, The Father
Judge strikes down sick pay ordinance in Milwaukee
“A Milwaukee County judge struck down an ordinance Friday requiring private employers to pay sick days for all employees in the city of Milwaukee. Circuit Judge Thomas Cooper issued a 38-page decision finding the ordinance ‘invalidly enacted and unconstitutional.’ But the group that spearheaded the effort, 9to5, National Association of Working Women, vowed to appeal. ‘Judge Thomas Cooper's verdict today will not stop paid sick days from becoming the law of the land,’ state Director Amy Stear said in a statement. San Francisco and Washington D.C. are the only other cities with similar measures.”
Blogs
Master the Art of Working Remotely
“Over the past five years I've worked off-site and online for employers across the country using email, chat, and web-based collaboration apps. My work life has been the envy of my traditional nine-to-five friends. While they suit up in an office-appropriate outfit, grab the briefcase, and brave a commute every weekday, I get to work from home (and my employers get to save money on office space). But working with people in different cities and time zones with minimal face time presents a whole new set of challenges. While the tools available for working remotely are better than ever, it's how you use them that really counts. Constant and clear communication is the key to a good remote working relationship. Here are some best practices I've found for working remotely online.”
Working Mothers Navigate the Minefield of Maternity Leave
“When Lisa Powers joined Phillips Lytle LLP, a Rochester-based law firm, in 1999, she didn’t think to ask about the firm’s maternity leave policy. She was thinking about her career, not starting a family. However, in 2002 she got pregnant and discovered the firm had ‘one of most generous maternity policies.’ Phillips Lytle offered a six- month leave that Powers says, ‘was almost fully paid.’ The long leave meant that even though Powers experienced some complications late in her pregnancy, she was able to stop working a month before her baby was due and still take off five months after the child’s birth.”
Millennials Poised to Take Over the Workplace
“There are 85 million baby boomers and 50 million Generation X'ers in the U.S. For baby boomers, it's the juggling act between job and family. For Generation X (1965-1980), it means moving in and out of the workforce to accommodate kids and outside interests. Now there's 76 million members of Generation Y (1981-1999) or Millennials as they're called, are coming into the workforce. A yawning generation gap among American workers--particularly in their ideas of work-life balance-- has arrived.”
Tim Ferriss: How to Work the Four-Hour Week
“Tim Ferriss, 31, sprang to fame when he published The 4-Hour Workweek, which has become the go-to guide for entrepreneurs and business leaders looking to improve efficiency -- and their lifestyles. Ferriss says most of us think about our careers the wrong way. Instead of working hard for 40 years and then retiring, we should consider a series of mini-retirements interspersed throughout our working lives. He argues that by outsourcing, disconnecting from E-mail more, and setting our own schedules instead of responding to others' "crises," we can be more successful while also living more fully. I spoke with Ferriss about how his philosophy can apply to younger workers.”
Global News
Mums await full pay leave
“THE Employment Relations Advisory Board will wait for Cabinet's approval on the proposed tax scheme for full maternity leave pay. Ministry of Labour permanent secretary Taito Waqa said the maternity tax scheme was supported by the Education Ministry. Mr Waqa said a meeting of the board in May to advise them of the maternity leave provisions under the Employment Relations Promulgation (2007) and invite the board to note the requests from the Fiji Employers Federation to give maternity leave pay.”
Bureaucrats double-dip parental leave
“THOUSANDS of federal public servants will receive 30 or more weeks' parental leave paid by the taxpayer when the Commonwealth's universal parental leave scheme is added to their entitlements. Liberal Senator Sue Boyce has questioned why public servants should get paid parental leave twice by the Government, when other eligible workers would receive only one government payment.”