March 3, 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
University of Chicago announces new effort to strengthen work-life integration
“From the tenure clock to travel grants, the University is making changes to help faculty and staff balance work and life outside of work, efforts that will bolster the retention and continued recruitment of outstanding employees. "It is our goal to ensure that this institution is providing an environment that continuously fosters excellence," said Mary Harvey, Associate Provost of Program Development at the University of Chicago. "We seek to remove obstacles to productivity, improve the integration of life and work, and continue to monitor job satisfaction. By acting on these responsibilities, we are enhancing our ability to attract and retain the best faculty in the world." University Provost Thomas Rosenbaum in January 2008 convened a Work-Life Task Force, which thoroughly examined current University practices and programs, issuing recommendations to improve the environment for the University community.”
Work-life balance is a career goal for newest group of employees
“They surf. They text. They Google. They Facebook. And now, they Twitter. The constant-communication mindset that members of Generation Y see as central to their lifestyle can seem nearly impossible for the average baby boomer to understand. Gen Yers are sometimes stereotyped as spoiled, demanding and distracted by their 24/7 technology. Workplace baby boomers may perceive Gen Y workers as less than interested in overcommitting to their jobs while often distracted by the activities that await them when the workday ends. It's easy to make assumptions but much more challenging to ask: What can we learn from the newest wave of Gen Y employees to hit the workforce?”
A Slowdown That May Slow Us Down
“Recessions have a way of upending the established order of things. For decades, Americans have worked longer hours, with fewer vacations, than people in most other industrialized countries. Now, suddenly, those who have managed to avoid unemployment are being asked to work less. Among employers trying to stave off layoffs, “furlough” is the buzzword. State and local governments, universities, architectural firms and concrete factories are begging workers, or in many cases forcing them, to take unpaid time off. President Obama has praised “the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job.” In California, 235,000 state workers are taking off two days a month. In Atlanta, City Hall is now closed on Fridays. In January, 6.9 million Americans were working part time “because of slack work or business conditions,” more than double the number two years before, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
Rehiring, phased retirement on the rise
“Roughly 25 percent of the U.S. workforce is nearing retirement age, according to a recent survey by Hewitt Associates. This has important ramifications for the retirement many Americans will have in the future. The consulting firm reported that out of 140 mid-size and large employers, 55 percent already had evaluated the impact that potential retirements could have on their organization, and 61 percent have developed or will develop special programs to retain targeted, near-retirement employees. Only one in five said that phased retirement is critical to their company’s human resources strategy today, that number more than triples to 61 percent when employers look ahead 5 years.”
Why Is Her Paycheck Smaller?
“The polarization of the labor market, where women choose careers that already have high percentages of women while men choose careers dominated by men, is thought to account for a large part of the overall gap. More women work in the service sector, where wages are low. Higher percentages of men are in management and business. Even within some of the most lucrative occupations, like medicine and law, women have migrated to specialties that earn less than others. A female doctor, for example, may choose family practice over surgery. ‘Desire for a certain flexibility or a certain lifestyle drives career choices,’ said Stephanie Boraas, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ‘Women often choose jobs that have more flexible hours, which can work well with child care.’”
Cornell announces early-retirement offers
“Cornell University today announced a voluntary early-retirement incentive program for an estimated 1,300 employees as it seeks to reduce its spending in the face of declining endowment income. Employees age 55 or older with 10 years or more at Cornell are eligible for lump-sum payment and an enhanced contribution to their university retirement plan account. Applications are being taken from March 1-31 and employees would have to retire by June 30. The other option is a phased retirement program that would allow employees in the same eligibility category to reduce their hours to 20 hours per week for up to three years and receive an enhanced retirement contribution through the phased-retirement period.”
Green jobs are a way to aid the middle class
“Today, in Philadelphia, the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families is holding its inaugural meeting. Our charge is to assess current polices and develop new ones aimed at helping the middle class, the economic engine of this country. The economic-recovery package that President Obama signed into law last week contains more than $20 billion for investment in a cleaner, greener economy, including $500 million for green job training. The task force's first order of business is to evaluate how investing in green jobs will help build a strong middle class.”
Blogs
Flexibility Yields Loyalty
“The newscast during the morning school dropoff included, alongside the usual list of layoffs, word of yet another major company discontinuing its 401K matching program. With the array of employee benefits shrinking daily, it’s a good time to revisit the value of workplace flexibility as a driver of employee loyalty. [. . .] Juliet Bourke of Aequus Partners recently pointed to the most prominent employer benefit of flexible work practices in an economic downturn: reducing overhead and boosting productivity. While Bourke highlighted these arguments for their one-sided ring, flexible work need not be touted solely as an employer-serving approach even in the current climate. Effectively implemented flexibility can bear very few financial costs while yielding some of the most enduring returns, when framed as a benefit to both employer and employee.”
In Support of Academic Dads
“Despite academe’s supposedly progressive tendencies, when it comes to parental policies, mothers seem to get all the love while fathers get left out in the cold. In a recent Balancing Act column, Mary Ann Mason, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley and co-director of the Berkeley Law Center on Health, Economic & Family Security, describes that cultural bias and calls on colleges to extend paid parental leave (and other official and unofficial parental perks) to dads.”
Work-family balance goes to Washington: House hearing Tuesday
“We have a new president and a new Congress, which will tackle work-family balance by holding a hearing on the topic Tuesday. A House Education and Labor subcommittee will host a panel entitled "Encouraging Family-Friendly Workplace Policies. Work-life economist Heather Boushey is among the four witnesses slated to testify, who are all women. Beyond the fact that the economy is in free-fall, it is a timely topic, with more two-career families, and men losing jobs faster than women.”
Fast Company: "Downsizing Flexibility Champions" - Alternatives to Layoffs Honor Roll
“When I recently co-presented on the “Using Workplace Flexibility as Part of a Downsizing Strategy” Flex Options teleconference for the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau (transcript now available here), I announced that I was going to start a list honoring organizations that used workplace flexibility to manage costs and minimize layoffs. The goal is to inspire other leaders to work with their employees and create innovative strategies to flexibly manage through this crisis beyond the knee-jerk “cut” of mass layoffs.”
Who Does She Think She Is? How Far We Really Are From Equal Parenting
“No doubt about it: American society continues to view women as the "natural" caretakers. In the case of the female artists featured in Who Does She Think She Is?, the struggle to maintain a creative career while living up to the demands of being the family's primary caretaker is often agonizingly difficult. For instance, one of the women, performance artist Angela Williams, begins the film in a happy marriage and ends it as a divorcée. Her husband simply couldn't handle her growing desire to devote time and energy on her budding career. With its title and its female focus, Who Does She Think She Is? risks scaring off a great deal of viewers, simply because a lot of people have an instant negative reaction to anything smelling ever so faintly of "feminism." Even we began the film with a skeptical air. As we watched, however, we became increasingly engaged.”
Global News
Save jobs: minister urges unions to be flexible
“THE federal Industry Minister, Kim Carr, wants unions to help struggling manufacturers by accepting job-saving deals in which workers work shorter hours or accept other flexible arrangements to reduce labour costs as an alternative to outright sackings. In an interview with the Herald, Senator Carr said manufacturing still employed 1.1 million people, but few firms would be immune from the global downturn. He praised companies and unions seeking to minimise job losses through reduced hours deals in which workers were rostered on for three or four days a week and took the rest of the week as either paid or unpaid leave.”
Paid maternity leave is a win-win formula
“Two of Britain’s most senior ministers have had a spat about maternity leave. Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, reportedly wants to reconsider a plan to increase paid maternity leave from nine to 12 months because this is the last thing companies need at the moment. Harriet Harman, the equalities minister (who is also involved in a dispute about the pension of Sir Fred Goodwin, the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive), is said to be backing the increase. The Institute of Directors has, inevitably, supported Lord Mandelson, saying that an extension could load £600m ($847m, €672m) of additional costs on to companies. Maternity leave causes fights elsewhere, too. Last week, Elizabeth Broderick, Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, warned her government it faced trouble if it used the financial crisis as a reason not to introduce maternity leave.”