October 6, 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
A Woman's Nation
“In presenting the commission's final reports in 1963, President Kennedy said ‘[W]e have an obligation to the skilled, the trained, the unusual women ... [the] thousands of women getting out of college ... to make full use of their powers.’ The nation had a long way to go. A few years after the president's report, a Gallup poll reporter that 55% of those polled approved of a married woman earning money in business or industry if she has a husband capable of supporting her, but 40% still disapproved. A sea change in attitudes and in the preparations young women would make for the new world was in the offing.”
Small Businesses Prepare for a Hit from the H1N1 Flu
“’The question I'm hearing a lot is, Can employers send workers home involuntarily?’ says Daniel P. O'Meara, a labor lawyer at Montgomery, McCracken, in Berwyn, Pa. The Occupational Safety and Health Act contains a general duties clause that specifies that employers must keep a safe workplace, which can be used to justify sending a sick employee home, he says. In this sluggish economy, however, resistance is to be expected. ‘Some employers are worried that people will come to work sick because of fear of being laid off,’ says O'Meara. He suggests that owners assuage those concerns by adapting flexible policies, such as letting staffers who have used up all their paid days off borrow from next year's allotment, telecommute or make up the lost time in other ways. The important thing, he says, is to follow government guidelines, send your employee home, and worry later how and if to pay them.”
The Gray Ceiling
“One out of every four U.S. workers will be 55 or older by 2016, as many of the 80 million baby boomers — persons born between 1946 and 1964 — need or want to hold on to their jobs. That’s good news to companies that want to retain their seasoned talent, but not so good for the 46 million members of Generation X. Those 28- to 44-year-olds face what’s being called a gray ceiling, as employers will have to find ways to keep them moving up a company ladder where the higher rungs are already occupied. But it could also be bad for companies that are depending on older employees to share their wisdom with younger co-workers, especially if those older workers feel their jobs are threatened.”
Today's stay-at-home moms
“The stay-at-home moms filling the aisles at a consignment sale of children's things have long been in the minority nationally — especially in Nebraska and Iowa, which have more mothers in the work force than most other states. [. . .] The moms were like shopper Billie True of Council Bluffs, who left a nursing job she loved after having the third of her five kids, because life was too hectic and time with her children too short. And sale volunteer Gina Urbanski of Papillion, who quit her graphic design job after her third child. She said she realized what remained of her wages after paying for day care — and, after long workdays, fast-food suppers — was less than $10 at payday. They are mothers living almost exclusively in single-income households at a time when the majority of American mothers of children under 18 — 68 percent — work outside the home.”
Two Workers, Wearing One Hat
“FROM the moment I learned about job-sharing, I knew I wanted this type of work arrangement someday. It’s perfect for women who want a flexible work schedule after having children, and it’s not uncommon in the publishing industry. A few of my colleagues were sharing jobs when I was working at a New York publishing company in the mid-1990s. I left that job and joined Condé Nast more than eight years ago, when my first child was almost 2. I’ve been sharing an advertising sales job at Glamour magazine ever since. I was supposed to share a job from the start, but at the last minute my job partner decided to stay home full time with her children. I told the manager who interviewed me that I still wanted to work at Glamour, and that if she hired me, I’d be responsible for all the accounts myself until I could find another partner. I was determined to do everything possible to make job-sharing a success.”
The New Gender Gap
“At first blush, the history of women in the workplace seems a trajectory of success. From the assumption that they would be secretaries to the expectation that they can be C.E.O.’s, they have crashed through ceilings (though not enough of them), made workplaces more flexible (not completely, but significantly) and transformed the face of work. They have gone from holding 34.9 percent of all jobs 40 years ago to 49.8 percent today. They are on track to hold more than half of them any moment now; it might have happened while you were reading this.”
Blogs
Working the Double Shift
“So here’s a modest proposal: maybe we should stop arguing so much about whether women are staying home in greater numbers and focus instead on the policy questions. How can companies be persuaded, or pushed, to make part-time work a more serious options for both mothers and fathers? How can part-time work — or, for that matter, years spent outside the labor force — become less of a career killer? What can be done to encourage more fathers to take paternity leave? How can we create better, more comprehensive pre-school programs, so that middle-class and poor parents of 3- and 4-year-olds can feel more comfortable working full time?”
How We Have Failed Working Families, And What We Can Do About It
“When Michelle Obama attended the Corporate Voices for Working Families Annual Meeting in early May, she talked about the importance of work-life programs to working families and to the competitiveness of American business. As we celebrate Work & Family Month during October, one of the points that Mrs. Obama made remains all too evident: There is an imbalance that exists for working families that allows people to fulfill their roles as employees, but not as parents.”
Facing Up to the Consequences of Paying Lip Service to the "Work/Life" Agenda
“I recently experienced the visceral alienation of those who fall outside the ‘work/family’ paradigm and it brought me up short. [. . .] My wake-up call came about this way: Last month, I was commissioned to write an on-line opinion (for a national news service) about the recently introduced “right to request flexibility” (‘r2r’) laws in Australia. Under this law, from January 1, 2010, eligible employees will have the right to request of their employers access to a flexible work arrangement. The legislation also provides that an employer must respond in writing in 21 days and that a request can only be refused on ‘reasonable business grounds.’”
Are Your Best Female Employees a Flight Risk?
“In the 21st century, talented people of both sexes often feel stymied by a traditional vertical career path that follows a straight line up a narrow ladder. Rather, they're interested in and open to lateral moves and a variety of ‘work style’ options, such as flex schedules and telecommuting, as long as these options are intellectually and professionally challenging and/or satisfy personal obligations. Unfortunately, if they don't know how to articulate those desires or think they won't be satisfied by their current employer, they'll look elsewhere.”
Freaky Fortnight - "I'll Do My Husband's Job at Slate. He'll Take Care of the Kids."
“For the next two weeks, Mike and I are trading places. Each day I will get on the subway and go to his office at Slate. He will hang out in Brooklyn with our two sons: Nick, the 4-year-old, and Will, who's 1. I will do Mike's exact job—edit his writers, banter with his co-workers. Mike will do my exact job—take care of our kids, try to squeeze in work time. It's a Ward-and-June switch, with a contemporary update. In our regular lives, Mike's Ward wears Vans and is home in time to help with bed and bath; my June owns a single apron, pilfered from an organic grocery store, and has a part-time baby sitter so that she can write. What we are doing is more like switching the balance. Mike will become the parent who's mostly at home, and I will become the parent who's mostly at work.”
Returnships for Soccer Moms
“Kathy Bayert, a Mom in the greater Chicago area, stayed home with her 2 kids for 6 years until her oldest started kindergarten. In her previous life, she was a Kellogg MBA, working 70 hour-weeks as an organizational change strategy consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers (now a division of IBM). After marrying and having children, she quickly found out that the consulting lifestyle, with extensive travel and impossible hours, did not fit well with her family responsibilities. In an attempt to balance her life, she quit her job as a high-powered consultant and tried working part-time from home as an independent coach to individuals and small businesses, but quickly realized this was not the best way to engage her talents.”
Global News
Unemployment looms large on the horizon
“One of the most striking characteristics of this recession has been the relatively slow increase in unemployment. The rise has still been very grim, but much less than would have been expected when comparing the present downturn with those of the 1980s and 1990s. But the fact that unemployment has been sticky on the way up prompts many economists and business leaders to fear that it will be sticky on the way down, too. The purchasing managers’ survey yesterday added to those concerns, with services companies reporting that they planned to axe staff at a faster rate despite the increase in activity. Job losses have been minimised partly because of the efforts by companies and unions to cut pay or hours instead. This means that when demand turns up there will be plenty of slack in the system to be used up before new hiring takes place.”
Working Better project: An equal future
“There are other fundamental changes we need to make to working life. We must think radically about how to remove the barriers that keep whole swathes of the population out of work, or in jobs far below their skill level. Girls outperform boys at every level of education yet women remain under-represented at the top levels of companies, in parliament, and in the judiciary. We need to understand why our economy is deprived of their talents. The Women and Work Commission estimates Britain is losing between £15bn and £23bn per year due to the under-use of women's skills. The same applies to other groups who remain below the glass ceiling. Disabled people, older people and those from ethnic minorities are often under-represented in senior roles. Failing to exploit their talent not only undermines our aspirations towards a socially mobile society, it is economically unsustainable.”