October 20, 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
Examining Today's Working Women
“With more women in the workforce than ever before, the report states that men now agree with women that government and businesses need to provide flexible work schedules, better child care, and paid family and medical leave in order to adjust to changing times. In fact, the study found that over 80% of men and women agree that businesses that fail to adapt to the needs of modern working families risk losing good workers, and that businesses that support and retain women have healthier bottom lines. [. . .] he research of this report will be presented to the president and members of Congress, and a discussion of the findings will include the project leaders testifying before Congress. Shriver will also appear at the upcoming The Women's Conference 2009 with Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.”
Special Report: Balancing Act
“The innovations of modern life have provided unprecedented flexibility to the 21st century workforce. But progress brings its own set of challenges. Sophisticated technology has allowed more employees to work remotely, but its ubiquity also makes it tougher to draw a distinct line between work and life outside of work. More two-income households have increased job opportunities for women and men and provided a greater sense of financial stability. At the same time, working families face thorny and expensive decisions when it comes to obtaining care for their children or aging parents. The federal government, now more than ever, wants healthy and happy employees. As a result, agencies are offering an array of benefits ranging from yoga classes to financial counseling to help federal workers juggle their busy and increasingly complicated lives.”
Women In The Workplace Still Face Inequality
“By the end of 2010, women will likely make up the majority of the workplace. And though they've made many gains, they still deal with inequality. ”
Sick, on the job
“As the national health care debate heats up, a timely report from the nonprofit Families and Work Institute details the worrying effect of a stressed-out, time-strapped, overworked era. Too many of us are fat, sick, sleepless, and inactive. Just 28 percent of US workers say their health is excellent, down from 34 percent six years ago. And businesses are suffering as a result, not simply from rising costs for health care. Workers in poor health are less likely to be loyal, engaged, and satisfied with their jobs, the findings show. As we might suspect, health insurance makes a difference. Those with coverage are more likely to report sleeping well, being less stressed, and feeling in excellent health than those without it, according to the report. But insurance isn’t the whole story. So holistic is the issue of health that even a respectful boss is linked to worker wellness, the researchers say.”
Two Hillsborough teachers, one job, plenty of benefits
“Sixteen kids. Two teachers. One job. Lauren Piper and Heather Velez envisioned the scenario more than a year ago when both were pregnant. They knew they wanted to spend as much time as possible with their newborns after returning to work. But the elementary school teachers also knew they couldn't afford to lose their entire incomes. The answer to their proverbial wanting your cake and eating it, too?”
A Woman's Nation
This is the homepage for NBC’s special coverage of the release of the Shriver Report. On the page, find links to articles and television clips, including a recently aired episode of Meet the Press that featured David Gregory in conversation with White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Maria Shriver and John Podesta about the conclusions of the report.
Blogs
"A Woman's Nation" Demands Workplace Flexibility
“This week, Maria Shriver released a report on the status of women in America - and on the radical transformations that have taken place in our society as a result of women's entrance into the workforce. ‘The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything’ examines the tremendous impact women have in the 21st century economy. But it also reveals the implications of women's changing economic status on the social and cultural institutions that define us - from government, business, and faith-based organizations to our individual communities and families.”
New perspectives on the work/(life) conundrum
“’You are what you do,’ German philosopher Immanuel Kant contended long before we started talking about Work/Life balance. Having always been an idealistic concoction most fervently promoted by those biased towards Life, this balance wouldn’t even need to be promoted if it were indeed a battle of equal powers. It isn’t. Work has invaded every single aspect of our lives, and it has infiltrated our society Mafia-style: controlling and demanding every hour of our lives without appearing to do so. Increasingly, Work is no longer visible as such and is instead embedded into Life, which makes its power even more frightening: If you do things that are work but don’t feel like work, then Work has ultimately prevailed.”
The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation
“As part of the report, I was pleased to be the lead author, along with Professor Jamie Ladge of Northeastern University, of the chapter on women in business. We titled our piece ‘Got Talent? It isn’t Hard to Find’ for a very simple reason. Present recession aside, we have heard for so long about the war for talent and the tremendous emphasis leading HR departments put on talent management. I often find these discussions ironic in light of the fact that there are so many talented individuals right under our noses (i.e., women) who are either lost to an organization (i.e., they leave their present employer or opt out altogether) or underutilized due to outmoded management thinking.”
Nearly Half of Workers in City Lack Paid Sick Days, Report Finds
“About half of New York City workers reported having no paid sick days, an increase over last year, according to survey of more than 1,200 New Yorkers by the Community Service Society of New York and A Better Balance, a legal center that works on family and work issues. According to the annual survey, released on Thursday, 48 percent of working New Yorkers — 1.65 million to 1.85 million — now do not have paid sick days, up from 42 percent in 2008. [. . .] About two-thirds of low-income New York workers don’t have sick days, compared with a third of higher-income workers. (Low-income workers were defined in the report as those earning less than twice the income in the federal poverty guideline, or about $44,000 for a family of four. High incomes were defined as four times the earnings in the federal poverty guideline.) Over 70 percent of low-income Latinos reported not having paid sick days, the survey said.”
Global News
Working fathers want more time with their children too, says report
“Working fathers are struggling to juggle the competing demands of family and career, according to a report that shows that they are just as uneasy with their work-life balance as mothers. The report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) suggests that the long-running debate over the pressures experienced by working mothers, who strive to ‘have it all’ – children and careers – is just as relevant to working fathers. Studies on work-life balance have usually focused on women, helping to create a stereotype of the guilt-ridden mother, who professes to be cutting corners in every segment of her life. The Fathers, Family and Work report published tomorrow attempts to redress this emphasis on women, looking at men's attitudes to work and family life, and finding fathers equally under pressure.”
Work in home leaves women worse off - report
“THE NOTION that work in the home is becoming evenly distributed among the sexes is a myth, the National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) has said, with women responsible for 86 per cent of child supervision, 82 per cent of care of adults and 80 per cent of cooking. The disproportionate burden of care work has left women economically dependent and under-represented in decision-making, according to the organisation. A new NWCI publication launched yesterday, Who Cares? Challenging the Myths about Gender and Care in Ireland, collates statistics from national and EU official sources which demonstrate the unfair burden of domestic work on women.”
Women outpacing men as small business owners
“Who's the boss? If we're talking about small and medium-sized companies, those with 500 employees or less, chances are it's a woman. Female entrepreneurs are driving some of Canada's most successful small ventures, according to Profit magazine in its recently released annual ranking of the top 100 women entrepreneurs. They're now also far outpacing their male counterparts. From 1976 to 2008, the number of self-employed men in Canada roughly doubled, from 873,400 to 1,719,700, according to Statistics Canada. The number of self-employed women nearly tripled over the same period, going from 311,600 to 909,900.”