October 13, 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
Out of work, out of options, into retirement
“Until now, much of the attention in this recession has been focused on the group of older workers who will toil for more years than they expected because stock market losses have put a severe dent in their retirement nest egg. Now, new research suggests that a larger group of workers ages 62 to 69 could find themselves with a thornier problem: No job, no prospect for finding another, and forced to retire earlier than they, or their finances, were prepared for. [. . .] Being forced to retire earlier than you want to can have serious economic repercussions. In addition to losing your full income and benefits earlier, a person who must start collecting Social Security at age 62 instead of age 65 could see around a 20 percent drop in their monthly benefit, Levine said.”
Where The Jobs Are: Home Call-Center Workers
“In the early 1990s, American corporations discovered they could outsource their expensive call centers to low-wage outposts like Bangalore and Manila. It seemed like a great idea. But customers didn't agree: Static-ridden phone lines and thick-accented agents befuddled by questions that veered from their pre-approved scripts, showed the model had problems. In response, companies like Carnival ( CCL - news - people ) Cruise Lines, Hilton Hotels ( HLT - news - people ) and JetBlue ( JBLU - news - people ) are moving customer service, tech support and phone sales operations back to the U.S. But instead of hiring full-time workers to take calls, they are making deals with a burgeoning group of middle-man outfits like 12-year-old Arise Virtual Solutions in Miramar, Fla. These companies contract with workers, who staff customer service phones from home.”
Working sick a fact of life for many
“Advising people to stay home from work if they come down with flu is, in many cases, like advising them to take a pay cut. That's because 34 percent of U.S. workers don't get paid sick leave, according to the Labor Department. Among part-time workers, it's 72 percent. Candace McKnight, a cook at an Asheville branch of a chain restaurant, knows all about this problem. When she’s sick, McKnight usually has to soldier on because she has no paid sick leave.”
Commentary: Hiring, retaining quality employees key to success
“I’ve never won an Oscar, Grammy or Tony — and probably never will — but I know what it is like to be singled out for excellence. Not just me, of course, but my entire agency, the Surface Transportation Board, which was named best small agency in the annual ‘Best Places to Work in the Federal Government’ for 2009. The study was based on survey data from the Office of Personnel Management. More information can be found at www.bestplacestowork.org. The board has 150 employees and is charged primarily with regulating the freight railroad industry. Many employees came from the board’s predecessor agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, when it was abolished in 1996. My secrets of success? The truth is there are no fancy gimmicks or practices. It comes down to hiring great job candidates and keeping them happy and productive. And we have a pretty good record of that.”
Misleading Indicator
“Since the downturn, the labor-force participation rate for working-age men has fallen significantly. But the participation rate of women has actually ticked up. [. . .] Some feminists might rejoice, but to an economist, or a social conservative, this development is almost certainly a bad thing. Assuming that she and her family both wanted her to stay home, each woman who leaves for the office out of economic necessity represents a loss to the country, a loss of what economists call utility and what we may think of as net national happiness. As she heads back to the workplace, that mother will be boosting GDP. If her husband has lost not his job but merely some income from sales commissions or a business, she will probably have to pay for child care. She may need to buy new work clothes. Money will be spent on commuting, and the family will probably shift away from homemade meals to costlier prepared foods that save time. All of these transactions further swell the national income accounts. Yet all of them also represent a decrease in life satisfaction.”
Blogs
The Growing Burden of Workloads in the Workplace
"Workplace Flexibility in the United States: The Current State of Play"
“In the United States this October, we’re recognizing National Work and Family Month – a time to raise awareness around the work/life conflicts experienced by millions of Americans across professions and income levels. And we at Workplace Flexibility 2010 (WF2010) are using that designation to further amplify our message to policymakers, advocates, business groups, employee representatives, labor unions and other crucial stakeholders – that now is the time to develop a comprehensive workplace flexibility policy that works for both business and families.”
Flu Season Shows the Need for Workplace Flexibility
“The month of October is National Work Family Month. Families and workers are trying to succeed and survive in this challenging economy. Going into the Fall, the country is focused on health care. Everywhere we go we hear about it. The primary policy debates in Washington focus around health care reform. Throughout the country health care dominates town hall meetings. Layered on top of this health care debate are the national preparations this month for a possible swine flu pandemic. Schools are setting up quarantine rooms. The government is preparing for the largest inoculation campaign in a generation. Public health officials are engaging in a public education campaign designed to minimize the potential impact of swine flu. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been issuing advice for how we all can reduce the likelihood of contracting swine flu. However, the Centers for Disease Control estimate that up to 40% of the U.S. workforce could be directly affected.”
Bridging the Work-Family Divide: What the Best U.S. Employers Are Doing to Help Working Families
“We need to move beyond the old debates about whether the solutions lie in either employer initiative or in public policy. Innovative employer practices are necessary in today’s economy, but they aren’t sufficient: they can’t substitute for the public policies that other countries have and that we desperately need here. Paid sick days to care for oneself or for a sick family member. Paid family leave to care for a new baby or for a critically ill dependent. Affordable health insurance for everyone. Policy measures to support more flexibility at work. As a parent, I sure do want these things so I can take care of my own family. But we need these basic rights for all our fellow citizens, and not just the ones who are lucky enough to work for an enlightened employer.”
In Hard Times, Re-Commit to Flex Time
“A major milestone is within reach: By October or November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women will outnumber men in the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. While I'm naturally delighted to see something approaching employment parity, I'm much more concerned about the reason for this historic reversal — and its ramifications. Women are gaining the vast majority of jobs in the few sectors of the economy that are growing. That's the good news. Although 80 percent of the 5.1 million people who have lost their jobs in this recession are men, women have not been taking their places so much as expanding their own spaces. The not-so-good news is that many working wives and mothers are now the sole breadwinner. Since women shoulder a disproportionate load of family responsibility and earn 20 percent less than men, this puts extra pressure on an already strained work-life balance.”
For Millions, Unemployment Crisis is a Life Crisis
“We don't just have an unemployment crisis. We have a livelihood crisis too. As Washington begins to take on unemployment it needs to realize that the larger economic problem is that the demand for labor is too low. This lack of demand is not manifest in unemployment alone, but also in fewer hours worked, stagnant or falling wages, and the lack of job mobility. These are important economic problems, but they're also psychological troubles because work is a defining aspect of life. When we hear that the unemployment rate is 9.8 percent and destined for 10 percent it can be hard to know just how bad this is.”
How much money could working from home save you?
“A lot, says Kate Lister, co-author with Tom Harnish of Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home and principal researcher at the Telework Research Network. Aggregating the latest U.S. Census American Community Survey figures and data from more than a dozen studies, Lister developed something called the Telework Savings Calculator. This free online tool lets you calculate what you, your employer, city, county, congressional district, or state could save through telecommuting.”
Global News
'The smartest commute is no commute'
“Confronted with the largest, prolonged event in the city's history, much of it centred right downtown, traffic planners for the 2010 Winter Olympics have some advice for Vancouver's work force: stay home. [. . .] The only hope to avoid mass congestion is to get work-a-day residents out of their cars. It's why VANOC, public transit and traffic officials have been working for months to pound home the message to city businesses to plan now for what their slick brochures call ‘a cool commute in 2010.’”
UK quality of life poor, study says
“People in the UK have a worse quality of life than many of their European counterparts despite earning more money, according to a study published today. Familiar bugbears such as longer working hours and the high cost of living contributed to Britain's bottom place in a survey of 10 European countries. Relatively low holiday entitlement was another reason the UK came last in the uSwitch.com European quality of life index.”
Learning from Germany's job strategy
“The German government has put up hundreds of millions of dollars -- for workers who are working less, or not at all. The largest plan is called "Short Work." Short Work lets struggling businesses reduce their workers’ hours, and pay. The state then steps in and makes up the workers’ wage shortfall. The government says it’s preserved more than a million jobs this way. And there’s more. At an unemployment office in downtown Hamburg, an out-of-work salesman named Osar says he has a wife and baby to take care of. They can’t afford child care, so his wife took a leave from her job. But they’re only surviving, he says, because of what’s called ‘parent pay.’ Beginning last winter, the government began subsidizing maternity or paternity leave at 70 percent of salary, for up to a year.”