October 9, 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
Not So Fast
“At one point, Brandeis hushed the room by making an astonishing claim: with scientific management, the railroads could save a million dollars a day. A million dollars a day! Suddenly, those theretofore obscure I.C.C. hearings seized the nation’s attention. Brandeis won the case, and Taylor became a household name. [. . .] Taylor always said that scientific management would usher in a ‘mental revolution,’ and it has. Modern life is Taylorized life, the Taylor biographer Robert Kanigel observed, a dozen years back. Above your desk, the clock is ticking; on the shop floor, the camera is rolling. Manage your time, waste no motion, multitask: your iPhone comes with a calendar, your car with a memo pad.”
Same old, same old for women on the verge
“ANY DAY now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are expected to overtake men in the American workforce. In August, women held 49.9 percent of the nation’s 132 million nonfarm jobs, and the trend is toward a majority female workforce sometime this month or next, for the first time in US history. Coming a little more than 40 years after women were routinely - and legally - banned from whole professions or fired for getting married, this would seem a milestone worth celebrating. Surely now the nation is on the cusp of the brave new workplace we believed would come when working women achieved critical mass: parity in raises and promotions, universal onsite child care, flextime, paid family leave. Not to mention million-dollar business deals cut over white-wine spritzers at book club. Sad to say, the increasing prominence of women at work is less feminist fantasy than reality bites. Armies of women on the job haven’t remotely translated into family-friendly workplaces.”
The Lost Generation
“Bright, eager—and unwanted. While unemployment is ravaging just about every part of the global workforce, the most enduring harm is being done to young people who can't grab onto the first rung of the career ladder. Affected are a range of young people, from high school dropouts, to college grads, to newly minted lawyers and MBAs across the developed world from Britain to Japan. One indication: In the U.S., the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds has climbed to more than 18%, from 13% a year ago. For people just starting their careers, the damage may be deep and long-lasting, potentially creating a kind of ‘lost generation.’ Studies suggest that an extended period of youthful joblessness can significantly depress lifetime income as people get stuck in jobs that are beneath their capabilities, or come to be seen by employers as damaged goods.”
Department of Forestry to Start Four-Day Work Week
“So the Department of Forestry is going to try a four-day work week running Monday through Thursday. Staff will work ten-hour days. Being out of the office on Fridays is projected to save the department $30,000 in gas, heat and air-conditioning bills by June. [. . .] Nylander says some employees, such as herself, will have the option to keep a five-day work week. The only difference would be that those employees would telecommute from home on Fridays.”
The Changing Pathways of Hispanic Youths into Adulthood
“The most notable development is in the increase in labor force participation -- share of young adults at work or looking for work -- among women. In 1970, 40% of young Latino women were at work or looking for work (whether or not they were also enrolled in school or college). That share rose to 54% by 2007. Among young Latino men the labor force participation rate increased from 65% in 1970 to 68% in 2007. Male Latino youth are active in the labor force at the same rate as male white youth and the share of either exceeds the share of male black youth. However, in spite of the increase in labor force participation by young Hispanic women, they continue to have the lowest rate of labor force participation of all the race/gender groups examined.”
Blogs
The Choice Myth
“Last week, The Washington Post ran a front-page story that said most stay-at-home moms aren’t S.U.V.-driving, daily yoga-doing, latte-drinking white, upper-middle-class women who choose to leave their high-powered careers to answer the call to motherhood. Instead, they are disproportionately low-income, non-college educated, young and Hispanic or foreign-born; in other words, they are women whose horizons are greatly limited and for whom the cost of child care, very often, makes work not a workable choice at all. These findings, drawn from a new report by the Census Bureau, really ought to lead us to reframe our public conversations about who mothers are and why they do what they do. It should lead us away from all the moralistic bombast about mothers’ “choices” and “priorities.” It should get us thinking less about choice, in fact, and make us focus more on contingencies — the objective conditions that drive women’s lives. And they should propel us to think about the choices that we as a society must make to guarantee that the best possible opportunities are available for all families.”
Work+Life "Fit" Tipping Point
“With ‘fit’ there is less judgment and more creative problem solving because there is no right way to do it. Everyone’s individual work+life fit changes daily along with personal and business circumstances. It also resets at key milestones like finding a partner, having a child, caring for a sick parent, starting a business, getting laid off, accepting a promotion and/or retiring. I have never heard the same work+life fit reality twice. The focus becomes how do we flexibly adjust work, life and business to find a ‘fit’ that is mutually-beneficial to the individual and the employer. Not who’s right, and who’s wrong. But what works.”
Healthier Employees and Cost Savings: Expanding our Definition of Wellness at Work
“In her recent piece celebrating National Work & Family month, Donna Klein of Corporate Voices notes that ‘progressive personnel policies and a work culture supportive of occasional flexibility’ offers companies ‘enhanced recruitment, retention, engagement, cost control, productivity and financial performance.’ Here's another reason to support an effective and flexible work culture for all employees: It could actually help your employees stay healthy.”
Remodeling Parenthood To Get The Lives We Want
“What are the things your friends and family never told you about life as a Working Parent? Kristin Maschka, the past president and national spokesperson for Mothers & More, answers that question while addressing the myths and traditions associated with motherhood, parenting, and work in her new book, This Is Not How I Thought It Would Be: Remodeling Motherhood To Get The Lives We Want Today (Berkley Trade). She spoke to me about her revelations as a working mom.”
Where Are the Work-Life Studies on Men?
“I'm going to say something I've never said in my life: I think we need to pay more attention to men. Just today, I opened my browser and found the following items directed, presumably, at me. First, there was study examining what kind of mothers opt-out of the workforce. Next, I was told women are apparently less happy than ever. Then, I found a piece about why closing the gender gap at work means more firings for us. If I didn't know how concerned I should be, stock art images of grim-faced weepers would have done the trick.”
Global News
Focus on women's work needs urged
“A survey for the Centre for Policy Studies suggested a third of mothers would not work if they had the choice. Author Cristina Odone said many ‘real women’ rejected work-centred culture and "realised themselves" as mothers. But the minister for women, Harriet Harman, said that working ‘doesn't mean that you're not a real woman’. Labour's deputy leader insisted: ‘Many women work because of their family, not despite them.’ The YouGov poll for the centre for Policy Studies interviewed 4,690 men and women and found just 12% of the mothers wanted to work full-time.”
An outdated vision of women's work
“The government still behaves too much (but ever less) as if all caring is done by women, a self-fulfilling description of the world. That means too many workplaces are still run along macho lines to the disadvantage of women, and men who might like to do more at home. Yet we are muddling, slowly and painfully, towards an accommodation between what we want and what's possible. Demanding that we turn the clock back to some imagined golden age of domestic bliss is no help at all.”
Baby Bundle: Japan's Cash Incentive for Parenthood
“The government's proposals are meant to counter a variety of Japanese policies and cultural issues believed to discourage parenthood. On the policy front, Japanese tax laws encourage single-income families with a tax deduction that keeps many mothers at home. That slows the development of family-friendly corporate policies and social acceptance of working mothers. [. . .] Among Group of 10 nations, Japan has the lowest percentage of working mothers with children under the age of two -- around 30%, compared with 54% for the U.S. and 73% for the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the weak economy has led to increased job insecurity and intensified Japan's already gung-ho work culture. That discourages professional women from motherhood. It also gives professional men less time to spend at home, burdening women with more domestic tasks.”