Life Meets Work Blog

Work life conflict is not just a woman’s issue. That’s according to new findings from The 2009 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW), which polls 3,500 U.S workers at all professional levels.

The NCSW shows that 45% of men report some level of work life conflict, compared to 39% of women.  What’s more, when you examine just those parents in dual-income households, the conflict-factor for men goes up to 59% (45% for the moms).

Men, the study shows, are taking on more of the household responsibilities than their predecessors—including childcare, cooking, and cleaning.

Those trends are particularly prominent in Millennial men when it comes to childcare. Today’s Millennial fathers spend an average of 4.3 hours per workday with their children under 13, significantly more than their age counterparts in 1977 who spent an average of 2.4 hours per workday with their children—a dramatic increase of almost two hours.

Attitudes about gender roles are changing, and Millennials are a driving force behind the shift.

For the first time, young women and young men don’t differ in their desire for jobs with more responsibility. Among Millennials (under 29 years old), women are just as likely as men to want jobs with greater responsibility.

Likewise, the NCSW found no difference between young women with and without children in their desire for more responsibility at work: 69% with kids, 66% without.

Implications are manifold:

• It’s no longer logical (never mind legal) to discriminate against women or mothers, assuming they’ll be more distracted or less committed than men
• Work/life initiatives (on ramping, flex scheduling, off ramping) should be designed with both men and women in mind.
• Family leave policies should provide equal treatment of both fathers and mother (i.e. get beyond ‘maternity’ leave)

Highlights of the study and the full report available from the Families and Work Institute.

Posted by Jaime

A recent feature in the Chicago Tribune suggested the Obama administration was making efforts to establish a family-friendly workplace. While White House staffers clearly have some of the most demanding jobs in the country, top brass are making it clear that family must not be ignored.

Among the family-friendly initiatives was the provision of official laptops for many White House staffers—delivered first to those with families, with instructions to work from home when reasonable.

Among the other activities mentioned in the article was a family movie night for staffers and their kids and an invitation to use the newly installed swing set. The latter don’t do anything to reduce the workload, but they do send something of a signal to staffers that children are welcome in the White House work space.

Posted by Jaime

Results from a Nov-Dec 2008 survey suggests just as many employed Americans will be looking to change jobs as last year.

The survey, conducted by Ipsos PR for SnagAJob.com found that 26% of employed Americans said they will look for a new job in 2009—the same as in 2008.

Of those workers who said they’d be sending resumes, 37% cited higher pay and 19% pointed to impending layoffs as the impetus for their job search.

As the survey highlights, retention is still critical during a recession, particularly since it’s your star players who have the greatest mobility.

If your company doesn’t already offer flex work opportunities, consider using this time to trial a new way of working. Flexible scheduling costs little to nothing but has a significant impact in retention and productivity.

Posted by Jaime

About this time last year, some school districts across the country were looking to 4-day school weeks as a money saving response to high gas prices.  More than 100 school districts in 17 states had already made the move when Time reported the story last year.

Today, school districts and states are again considering compressed school weeks—not only to save money on gas but on food and utilities too.

Among the criticisms:

• 4 day weeks will put an added childcare burden on parents when money is already tight
• younger children might not have the stamina for longer days
• older students may engage in more risk behaviors given additional free time

How would you manage if your school moved to a 4-day/week schedule?

Posted by Jaime

On March 11, President Obama signed an Executive Order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls.

The council will be led by Valerie Jarrett, assistant to the president and senior advisor, and Tina Tchen, deputy assistant to the president and director of the office of public liaison at the White House.

Council goals include the following:

• Ensure each federal agency is working to improve the economic status of women
• Help the administration develop policies that ‘establish balance between work and family’
• Find new ways to prevent violence against women
• Build healthy families and improve women’s health care

While applauded by many, including the American Association of University Women, other critics claim the council isn’t nearly enough. Not a cabinet-level office or a presidential commission, the Council on Women and Girls is an inter-agency office.

The council has no full-time staff and, at least for now, no set meeting schedule. One leader for the National Council of Women’s Organizations suggested that Jarrett and Tchen will be stretched too far by other duties to give the council the attention it deserves.

The council is similar to entities created during the Clinton administration, including the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach and the President’s InterAgency Council on Women, that were later disbanded by President George W. Bush.

In a speech before signing the order, President Obama suggested that council activities will benefit everyone—men and boys alike:

“And I want to be very clear: These issues are not just women’s issues. When women make less than men for the same work, it hurts families who find themselves with less income, and have to work harder just to get by. When a job doesn’t offer family leave, that also hurts men who want to help care for a new baby or an ailing parent. When there’s no affordable child care, that hurts children who wind up in second-rate care, or spending afternoons alone in front of the television set. And when any of our citizens cannot fulfill their potential because of factors that have nothing to do with their talent, their character, their work ethic, that says something about the state of our democracy.”

Posted by Jaime

As promised First Lady Michelle Obama is raising awareness of the struggles faced by military families.  She mentioned that issue several times throughout the campaign, and she and the President continue to reference to military family life in public speeches—including during a March 3 speech at the Arlington National Cemetery’s memorial for military women.

“As the president said last week during his address at Camp Lejeune, service doesn’t end with the person wearing the uniform. You all know that,” Mrs. Obama said.

While it’s still unclear what those improvements might be, military families are glad to see the issue is still top-of-mind, in spite of pressing economic issues.

That said, we’re hearing less right now of the First Lady’s other anticipated priority—that of improving work/life issues for all Americans.

Yet, the argument goes: “Why should we?” The Obamas have yet to reach that ‘made-much-of’ 100 day milestone, and reports suggest that Michelle is focused on getting her family well settled into new routines (and new school) before she jumps into public committee work.

As Christi Parsons wrote for the Chicago Tribune:

“She’s going to put the right emphasis on job and accomplishment, plus raising children,” said Baldridge. “That’s where she can inspire women of today, who are frantically trying to work their way up in the world and be compensated properly. Michelle is always going back to her kids. . . She will help women realize that a woman can juggle the two, that she can find that division between family and job, and experience joy in both places.”

Posted by Jaime

Reading the results of Crain’s 2009 Best Places to Work in Chicago, you’d think employee satisfaction was as simple as buying a Nintendo Wii and stocking the fridge with free drinks. But that’s just window dressing unless you’re committed to changing the way your business thinks about people and performance.

They’re more on target with the accompanying video which identifies five steps to a “Best Workplace”:

• sense of purpose
• transparency
• opportunities for autonomy
• customized benefits
• hope and optimism

But we’d add a few more:

• communication and collaboration across departments and teams
• focus on performance and results instead of the mechanics of how work gets done
• CEO’s committed to culture (people)

It’s great to see companies committing to their people, especially in a down economy.  It’s even better to see companies committed to performance-driven workplaces.  The latter goes far beyond the latest ‘en vogue’ perks and requires employers to trust and empower their teams.

In the end, it’s performance focused workplaces that will gain the most in employee loyalty and productivity.
Posted by Kyra

Members of a newly formed White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families held their first meeting on February 27.

The task force, chaired by Vice President Joel Biden, is charged with no small task—that of improving quality of life for America’s middle class. Specifically that goal includes the following:

•    Expanding education and lifelong training opportunities
•    Improving work and family balance
•    Restoring labor standards, including workplace safety
•    Helping to protect middle-class and working-family incomes
•    Protecting retirement security

In its first session, the task force focused on “green jobs” as a pathway to a stronger middle class. A White House blog for the task force suggests that these green jobs will be created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In the abstract, green jobs are positions that “provide products and services that use renewable energy resources, reduce pollution, and conserve energy and natural resources.” Specific examples include energy auditors, weatherization experts, green builders, all sorts of electrical and solar and fuel engineers, as well as admin and sales staff to support green product manufactures.

Reportedly, green jobs pay 10 to 20 percent more than other like-positions.

For more on the White House task force, including the “green jobs” meeting, visit www.AStrongMiddleClass.gov.

Posted by Jaime