September 18, 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
Companies preparing for H1N1 outbreak
“Some of the biggest corporations in the Twin Cities are taking major steps to prepare for round two of the H1N1 virus, also called the swine flu. Companies such as Ecolab Inc., Medtronic Inc., Target Corp., 3M Co., Best Buy Co. Inc. and U.S. Bancorp. are stocking up on hand sanitizer, creating informational intranet sites for their workers and engaging in contingency planning. They’re letting workers know that it’s OK to stay home if they feel sick. In some cases, they’re even changing their sick-leave policies. Some experts question whether companies are really doing enough to get ready. The companies themselves say it’s all about smart planning, whether or not the flu hits as hard as some think it will.”
Incomes of young in 8-year nose dive
“The incomes of the young and middle-aged — especially men — have fallen off a cliff since 2000, leaving many age groups poorer than they were even in the 1970s, a USA TODAY analysis of new Census data found. People 54 or younger are losing ground financially at an unprecedented rate in this recession, widening a gap between young and old that had been expanding for years. [. . .] One bright sign: Women have boosted income by holding half the USA's jobs, working longer hours and narrowing the gender pay gap from 2000, when women made 25% less than men, to 2008, when they made 23% less. Older, college-educated career women have had the biggest gains.”
Take this Job and Love It
“Frustrated with your job? You might consider working for yourself. Self-employed adults are significantly more satisfied with their jobs than other workers. They're also more likely to work because they want to and not because they need a paycheck. But don't count on becoming financially secure if you become your own boss. Self-employed men and women have virtually identical family incomes as other workers but they feel more financial stress, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center Social & Demographics Trends project.”
Telework increasing steadily but slowly, OPM says
“Participation in telework rose in 2008, but the percentage of eligible federal employees who took advantage of the alternative work arrangement on a regular basis remained small, according to a report released Wednesday by the Office of Personnel Management. Last year, 102,900 federal employees worked off-site at least once a month, the report stated. That's an increase of 8,257 employees, or 9 percent, from 2007, when 94,643 employees teleworked regularly. But it is only 8.6 percent of eligible workers and 5.2 percent of all federal employees. ‘The report indicates steady albeit very slow progress in telework,’ OPM Director John Berry wrote in an accompanying message. ‘We have significant work ahead to develop a strong telework culture.’”
Business Owners Richer in Well-Being Than Other Job Types
“Business owners have the highest overall well-being of any occupational group according to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data collected in the first eight months of 2009, followed closely by professionals and managers. Transportation and manufacturing workers have the lowest overall well-being. The high well-being of self-employed business owners is particularly interesting in light of recent findings that business owners work longer hours than do people in any other occupational category. Their high well-being, despite working longer hours, supports Gallup research showing that working long hours is only highly detrimental to well-being for those who are less engaged in their work. In terms of income, business owners, on average, make slightly less than professionals and managers/executives, but still eclipse these groups in well-being. The three occupations highest in well-being are, in fact, those with the highest household income.”
Blogs
Seven Ways You Can Win the Battle to Control Your Own Life
“Recent surveys have confirmed what we already knew to be true: the recession has contributed to heavier workloads, higher stress levels and lower morale among American workers. This October is National Work & Family Month, unanimously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. Everyone who works - employers and employees - should use this annual opportunity to re-commit to winning the battle of balance. Workers should use this time to take steps to strengthen their physical, mental and financial health. Companies, meanwhile, should take stock of their management strategies in order to maintain productivity and alleviate the burden on their employees.”
Gap To Employees: Work Wherever, Whenever You Want
“Three years ago, I wrote a cover story about Best Buy’s radical experiment to reshape the workforce. The story told the tale of two HR subversives who started a stealth movement among Best Buy’s headquarters employees to work wherever and whenever they wanted. Our cover story on this smashing the clock phenom said it all: ‘No schedules. No meetings. No joke.’ The idea was that work should be measured in output, not hours. Performance should be based on results, not face time. [. . .] There’s news this week from the Society of Human Resource Managers that a second major retailer is going the way of ROWE. The Gap Outlet is migrating its headquarters staff to a ROWE environment. The company is already seeing huge positive results.”
What's Happening to Women's Happiness?
“Imagine it is 1969 and we're in a thriving American city. Let's choose Detroit. The '60s were good to the Motor City, and the future would have looked bright as new chrome. Now, imagine stopping a working woman on Detroit's Woodward Avenue, perhaps a young bank clerk, and asking if she would cast her mind forward, decades into the future. Not to picture the flying cars and space-themed restaurants that always seem to pop up in visions of the future, but to think about the role of women at work, in business, in government, in life. What do you think she would have said?”
Bad Economy: A Boon for Women Lawyers?
‘We visited the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan Tuesday for an event marking the 2009 edition of Working Mother magazine's "50 Best Law Firms for Women.’ [. . .] It was a celebratory affair, affirming the progress that's been made on the work/life balance front, while looking at the road ahead. It's a valuable initiative, for sure, but the event left us feeling a bit deflated.”
Stiglitz, Sarkozy push for new measures of country performance
“Conventional metrics of national accounting, like GDP, essentially measure economic output alone. Economic output equals a country’s performance. Case closed. The new measures proposed by the International Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, would offer a more comprehensive method for measuring a country’s performance by taking into consideration people’s well-being and the sustainability of a country’s economy and natural resources.”
Will Work for Charity
“You see, the L.A.-based firm that offered me a job a month ago has retracted its offer. An expected contract that was to have funded my position is held up and God knows when it will come through, if at all. So I have lost an albeit slow summer month in my search for a new job and suffered an unwelcome blow to my professional self-esteem. As I spend down my severance buying coffee for gracious colleagues at informational interviews at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and prance around the Web with my virtual sandwich board reading ‘Hire Me,’ I have become the victim of a confluence of unfortunate events, not the least of which is the Great Recession.”
Global News
Flexible work 'key' for mothers
“Some 79% of the 1,677 women from across the UK who responded to a poll on the WorkingMums website said it was a top priority for their careers. A full-time job with flexible hours was the ideal situation for 85%, ahead of some home working (54%). Just under a third considered extended maternity pay a sign of a family-friendly employer. Some 54% of survey respondents said they would accept a less well paid job in return for flexibility.”
High Jobless Rates Could Last Years, O.E.C.D. Says
“The current downturn may keep jobless rates in developed economies elevated for longer than was the case after previous recessions, in part because conditions got so bad so quickly, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported Wednesday. In such an event, disaffected workers, particularly in the white-collar sector and among the young, will find themselves excluded from the market, damaging economic dynamism, experts and unions warned. [. . .] The O.E.C.D. forecast that unemployment among its 30 member countries would rise to nearly 10 percent by the end of 2010, from 5.6 percent in 2007, and above its previous post-1970 peak of 7.5 percent in 1993.”
Dads - welcome to paternity leave
“As a Danish man, of course I support the plan to offer extended paternity leave to my British fellow daddies. Welcome to the 21st century, guys, complete with nappy changes, feeding routines, and endless pram walks. Parental leave is central to the Inter-Scandinavian Most-Modern-and-Equal-Nation-in-the-World Contest. The new British plan – up to 12 months' leave, with the first six months exclusively for the mother and the remainder available to either parent - is similar to the Danish system. In Sweden and Norway, by contrast, dads are forced to carry their share of the baby burden: if men decline the paid leave reserved for them, the family loses its entitlement to those weeks altogether. Is the Danish system working? Yes and no.”