May 29, 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
Connecticut House backs mandatory paid sick days
“A bill that would make Connecticut the only state requiring large employers to offer paid sick days to their workers has been endorsed by the state House of Representatives. The House voted 88-58 after nine hours of debate Thursday on the measure, which is similar to measures that lawmakers considered in past years but did not adopt. The bill would require companies with 50 workers or more to give employees at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours they work. It now goes to the state Senate. It would not apply to companies that already offer at least that much time for vacations, compensatory time, personal days or other forms of paid time off.”
Alain de Botton's The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
“Alain de Botton is the Swiss-born heir to a massive fortune; his father, Gilbert, co-founded Global Asset Management alongside Jacob Rothschild. But de Botton boldly swore off his trust fund, dropped out of the philosophy PhD program at Harvard, and vowed to live solely off his writing. It doesn't appear he'll have to recant. The 39-year-old's widely read books build philosophical tone poems out of the granular stuff of everyday life. His new work, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, is an examination of the thing most of us spend the bulk of our lives doing. And also the thing, alongside love and perhaps children, from which we derive our identities. All societies have had work at their center, de Botton says, but modern Western culture is the first to assume that a ‘meaningful existence must invariably pass through the gate of remunerative employment.’”
Still Working, but Making Do With Less
“For millions of families, this is the recession: not a layoff, or a drastic reduction in income, but a pay cut that has forced them to thrash through daily calculations similar to the Ferrells’. Even if workers have managed to avoid being laid off, many employers have cut back in other ways, reducing employees’ hours, imposing furloughs and even sometimes trimming salaries. About 6.7 million people were working fewer than 35 hours a week in April because of “slack work or business conditions,” nearly double the number a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
Envisioning a More Muscular OPM
“John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, has ambitious plans to improve conditions for federal employees and those who want to work for the government. In a wide-ranging meeting with a small group of reporters in his office yesterday, Berry, who has been in office six weeks, listed three short-term and three long-term goals, some of which may require a magician's skill to achieve. His short-term goals are reforming the government's recruiting and hiring practices, improving work life and workplace conditions, and pushing increased federal employment opportunities for veterans.”
Financial Careers Come at a Cost to Families
“The big influx of highly educated workers into finance in the last two decades has been the subject of some national hand-wringing lately. President Obama, college presidents and economists have all worried aloud that Wall Street has hoarded human resources that might otherwise have gone to science, education, medicine or other fields. Now, new research is suggesting that the shift also brought another cost — a cost that fell mainly on the people, especially women, who took jobs in finance. Among elite white-collar fields, finance appears to be uniquely difficult for anyone trying to combine work and family.”
Blogs
Creative Ways to Combine Work & Family
“Sharon Reed Abboud, author of All Moms Work: Short-Term Career Strategies for Long-Range Success, writes about what US News calls "the new mommy track," or the trend towards mothers finding creative ways of combining work and family after their children are born. Abboud says telecommuting, freelancing, and owning your own business are all ways to make it possible.”
Will You Be Leaving the Office Early on June 2nd?
“Apparently June 2nd is the 5th annual “Leave the Office Earlier” day. Leave it to me to learn about this “holiday” when I own my own business, instead of the 4 previous years when I worked in an office for someone else. I understand the premise and I know that Americans have struggled with working long hours for years…but I really think making work be about watching the clock is very counter productive. Don’t we want to get away from watching the clock? Don’t we want to be appreciated for doing a good job regardless of the amount of time it takes us (hopefully less…but sometimes deservedly, more.)”
Work/Life
“But what really struck me is the result for PhDs, who suffered a 29 percent average financial penalty for taking time off. This was tied for second with lawyers and nearly double the penalty faced by medical doctors. This stands in contrast to the more popular perception of the inquisitive, free-flowing academic career. But like lawyers, consulting partners and others in so-called "up-or-out" professions, young academics must put in especially long hours early-on to conduct their research, publish their papers, and achieve tenure. Taking time off is a huge risk at this stage of the game (at an age that coincides with child-bearing)- one that extends far beyond the immediate loss of salary.”
The Daddy Identity Crisis
“Jeremy Adam Smith is a most purposeful father, a periodic Stay-at-Home Dad who sees his role as not just a choice that’s best for his family but as a sign of a rapidly changing societal landscape. The Web site he founded, Daddy Dialectic, has become a place for men to discuss the practical parts of parenting, as well as the philosophical, economic and political pieces. And his new book, The Daddy Shift, is a chronicle of a time that he predicts we will look back upon as the start of permanent change. We talked by email recently, and I will run the conversation in two parts today (so come back this afternoon for more.) We began with the current norm — the reality that most parenting is done by women — and talked about how society got here in the first place and why equality in the workplace has come much more quickly than equality at home.”
Nine to Thrive turns one: How do you like your work/life balance?
“Before we slide into June I thought it worth noting that May marked the one-year anniversary of this blog. And I wanted to take a quick trip down memory lane to revisit some of the ground Nine to Thrive has covered in the past year. When this blog made its May 15, 2008 debut, my editors and I were focused on addressing career satisfaction (who has it? and how can the rest of us get it?) and the juggling act of balancing professional life with personal life. Early topics ranged from dream jobs and flexible work to coworking and babies in the workplace.”
Paid Sick Days are Good for Moms And Kids
“The Connecticut Paid Sick Days proposal has been a controversial and highly discussed proposal. It truly is a difficult time to place additional burdens on our business community, and the proponents of the legislation have worked very hard to address most of the concerns raised. The legislation will only include those companies with more then 50 employees and only employees who have worked more than 1040 hours on the job. Any company that currently offers paid time off for holiday, vacation or personal leave can convert that already-granted leave for purposes of sick time and not face any penalty under this legislation.”
Global News
Unions want parental leave extended to 26 weeks
“The ACTU Congress will also push companies to support paid parental leave of 26 weeks, a significant broadening of the Rudd Government's scheme to be introduced from 2011. A resolution says the ACTU will work with unions to develop and prosecute a work and family safety net adjustment test case. The objective will be to provide workers with improved paid leave for "pregnancy, childbirth, bonding and breastfeeding". The new benefits, if secured, would be included in the award safety net and national employment standards.”
Enter retirement one step at a time
“Falling pension values are now forcing more people to defer, or ‘phase’, their retirement by staying on in work for a few extra years – sometimes on a part-time basis. Research published this week by MetLife revealed that 54 per cent of people now think their pensions will fall short of expectations, and are worried about their retirement income. As a result, Rachel Vahey, head of pensions development at Aegon, has forecast an increase in phased retirements, as people work longer to make up for stock market falls that have wiped up to a third off the value of many pension funds.”