Life Meets Work Blog

The Pew Research Center launched this sweet new tool to measure how Millennial you are.  (Does using  ’sweet’ make me more or less so? Dunno.)

We’re gonna give away one question, but not the answer: How important is being successful in a high-paying career or profession to you personally?

You’ll have to click over and take the quiz to find out whether Millennials say a power-career is a priority. After you’re done, you can see how your answers compare to other generations and even see how changing an answer would affect your score.

This 33-year-old scored 67 out of a possible 100, but 73 is the starting point for Millennial-ism. How’d you do?

Posted by Jaime

Lack of media attention have you feeling safe?  Well keep washing those hands.  The H1N1 virus is alive and well.  The World Health Organization reports today that it hasn’t yet peaked.

The CDC offers a H1N1 toolkit for employers.  Resources include posters telling employees to go home if they feel sick, interoffice emails and letters, and fact sheets for staying well.

Remember paid sick leave and telecommuting are two bigger tools you can use to encourage employees to stay home and prevent spreading the virus to others.

On Nov. 4 2008, 69% of Milwaukee voters gave thumbs up to a city referendum requiring businesses to provide some paid sick leave.  By Nov. 17, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce had voted (unanimously) to challenge the result in court.  And on Feb. 9, 2009 a Milwaukee circuit court judge granted the MMAC’s requested injunction.

Which brings us to today.

On Feb. 18, 2010 Milwaukee’s Court of Appeals asked to defer the case directly to the state supreme court.

Proponents believe that a rising tide of support for paid sick leave will sway the court in their favor.  Issues of H1N1 and public contagion have given the issue greater national traction, as low-wage workers continued to report for work, sick or not.

The risk of a pandemic has given paid sick leave legitimacy, if you will, as a public health issue.  Opponents can no longer claim it’s just another socialist benefit designed to pick our business pockets and cripple our economy by proxy.

The federal government, meanwhile, must still address the Healthy Families Act which would, among other things, guarantee seven paid sick days to workers in companies with 15 or more employees.

Interestingly (as noted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), because the Milwaukee ordinance was brought through a referendum, bypassing the city council, it only remains in effect for two years.  More than a year has already passed in legal battles.

Thanks to Found Value for including us in their stellar list of 50 Must Reads for Job Hunters, Telecommuters and Freelancers.  But we have resources for just about everything on the list, so…you could consider us your one stop shop!

Update added Feb. 17:  Federal offices closed a total of four days (and operated on a late start two subsequent days) during the ‘Snowmageddon’ that hit the D.C. metro area between Feb. 6 and Feb. 16.  Midway through, OPM Director John Berry issued a statement indicating the $100M/day cost estimate was no longer accurate as emergency personnel were still on duty and some employees were telecommuting.

Original Feb. 9 post:

Taxpayers lost $200,000,000 over the last two days because of the blizzard in Washington DC.

According to news reports, when the government shuts down for a day, it cost tax payers $100,000,000 in lost productivity.

And it looks like this winter’s been costly since federal agencies were closed in December 2009 for a day as well.

$300 million in lost productivity that could have been saved with a telecommuting program.

Last April, the same Office of Personnel Management that closed federal agencies this week due to snow, announced a new telework plan for federal employees in response to swine flu.

“It calls for a council of program managers to develop standards for telework, and requires agencies to submit telework policies to that council for review. It also asks agencies to designate a telework managing officer and create an appeals process for employees who are denied permission to use the work arrangement. Additionally, it would establish training programs to prepare employees to telework and curb managerial opposition. OPM would be in charge of providing technical assistance.”

And to support the telework plan two bills were introduced in Congress: HR1722 and S707. HR1722 is stuck in subcommittee. And S707 has made it out of subcommittee and needs to be voted on by the Senate

They already offer training programs for managers and employees on their website www.telework.gov

So what went wrong (or what do they need to do instead?)

First, the telework plan announced last year involved standards and policies and an appeals process. All good first steps, but not enough. Even if they completed those steps by now (which seems unlikely given the massive federal shut-down), they’re not enough. There needs to be clear direction from the top, a mandate if you will, that this is a new way of working, not an accommodation.

Consider this. In answer to an FAQ (on their website) about how to apply for telework:

In general, you should be prepared to make a business-based proposal for your arrangement, rather than one based on personal considerations.. At the very least, in addition to describing logistics like location and frequency, you should be able to discuss how you will accomplish your work without adverse effect on your organization and/or co-workers.

With $100,000,000 in daily lost productivity on the line, it’s time for the Federal government to further their steps toward true implementation of their telecommuting program.

OPM Director John Berry needs to determine which jobs are eligible for telecommuting based on the nature and confidentiality of the work.

• Someone (President Obama?) needs to send a memo to the heads of all Federal Agencies mandating that telecommuting be made available to those employees.
• Purchase laptops for everyone that’s eligible.According to my rough math, if there were 300,000 eligible workers in the Washington DC, VA and MD area and the government spent $3000/employee on a laptop, VPN connection, etc., it would cost taxpayers $10million to enable them to telecommute.
• Have their telework coordinators track the numbers and report them back to the Heads of each agency and have OPM consolidate a report that goes to the White House. Track the number of workers who worked from home each month and set goals to increase the numbers.

It’s critical to our public safety and our pocketbooks that the Federal Government get this right before there’s another blizzard, or H1N1 outbreak, or terrorist attack on Washington DC.

Thanks to Kay Corry Aubrey for including us in her Virtual Teams Success blog–a resource for small businesses operating with virtual teams.

Sometimes the pieces I publish on Life Meets Work get re-run in a print publication. And sometimes those print pieces generate an email or two.

Like when this article on Finances for Stay At Home Parents ran, I got this email:

Your article “Stay at home parents lose out on retirement” sure did blast the wonderful tradition of raising one’s own children.  My daughter is a stay-at-home Mom and wouldn’t trade the companionship, the joy, the smiles of her children for all the 401K money in the world.

Why not just decide not to have children if money is so important.  Babies at 6 weeks old are left in the care of strangers who cannot humanly love and care for the child as well as a parent.  Would you hire a substitute to meet your husband’s needs?   Could she do so as well as you?

While the numbers in your article are correct the humanity is absent.

I wrote back:

I certainly don’t debate your perspective. I was merely trying to point out a little discussed reality of becoming a stay at home parent.  Especially considering our high divorce rate, I think it’s important that women understand the financial disadvantages. Better to make the decision well informed than to be surprised later on.

To which she replied:

The “reality” is what is good for the child, who doesn’t care what kind of house you live in or what car you drive.  He just wants Mommy or Daddy.

To which I think to myself….Arggh! Sanctimonious ever? Why do parents do this to each other? Sometimes it seems that criticizing how other people raise their kids is the great national past-time (see Jon & Kate, Toddlers in Tiaras, Nanny 911, Worlds Strictest Parents, etc.).

Today’s Juggle talks about working with kids, the financial break evens, and fulfillment.

It seems concerns over evening work hours is trending.  We’ve been talking about it, and clearly so have the folks at The Juggle: How Much Does Work Encroach On Your Off Hours?

Ironic. This writer must admit that she is missing an extended family dinner this evening for a client meeting.  She offered several available times, told them she had a family dinner tonight, but caved when they called back and asked if she couldn’t do it tonight anyway.

So off she’ll go, popping the promised chicken in the rotisserie before heading out the door.

What goes through our minds as we make these decisions? I imagine as freelancers and those with client-type employers, we feel the need to be accommodating for risk of losing the work.  As salaried staffers, we have a sense of obligation to our peers, to hold up our end of the bargain.  Yes?

Here’s a psychology question: What is the internal compulsion that makes us work nights and weekends? What would it take to get over it?  And do we even want to?

And here’s a work life question:  Are we taking back enough of our days to make the evenings and the weekends worth it?

Remember when you thought it was a badge of honor to pull an all nighter? Man, I stayed up all night and rocked that paper out!

Some office cultures are trending that way. Well maybe not all nighters, exactly, but logging in at night has become the way you prove yourself. They way you show your dedication. The way you say, ‘I’m a superstar and I’ll do whatever it takes to help this company succeed.’

Technology has added an second layer of work during the evening hours—a layer that’s becoming expected.

The advantages of occasional evening hours cannot be denied. It offers uninterrupted time to crank out a project. And it gives people the opportunity to leave work at a reasonable hour and take care of kids (or just de-stress) before returning to a high-priority issue.

But the problems are also obvious—largest among them staff burnout and family stress.

People need one-on-one time with their spouse, and you can’t get that when you’re logging in as soon as the kids go to bed.

Plus, our brains require mental rest. Just because you’re not actively working through a problem doesn’t mean your brain isn’t firing away it. Putting space between you and your responsibilities often leads to better focus and clarity.

Is evening work expected at your office?

Are you able to turn off your work brain? Do you even want to?

About 3/4 of today’s workers expect to work for pay even after they retire. But, historically, fewer than 35% of retirees actually report working for pay after retirement.

The disparity between retirees who want to continuing working and those that find jobs could get even greater in the coming decade.

The challenge, according to a new MetLife report, is that aging boomers will make up most of the increased labor force. But companies and boomers aren’t well prepared to connect.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that between 2006 and 2016, the U.S. labor force ages 55+ will increase 47% from 25 million to 37 million, while the labor force ages 16 to 54 will increase less than 1%. The 55+ population will account for almost 93% of the net increase in the U.S. civilian labor force. (p.8)

The report outlines common misconceptions held by older job seekers and actions mid-life career professionals should be taking now to improve their future employability.

Unrealistic expectations are central to many of the study’s findings. Older workers will face hurdles if they try to recreate the same work they’ve always done, overestimate their technology skills, underestimate retirement finances, or expect that experience will trump the age barrier.

Values are changing. Unless you have a niche skill—like stainless steel welding—experience just isn’t as coveted as it once was. Again we cite Dr. John Medina of Brain Rules, who points out that younger generations are less compelled to actually learn information, because it’s so accessible online.  (You’ve seen it on a dozen sitcoms and commercials already…the young, upstart careerist shows up an older colleague, sourcing information with a few taps on their iPhone.)

As for today’s mid-career workers, the report provided only general (and rather common sense) notions of what workers can do now to prepare for future career success. Among the suggestions….self-evaluation, market evaluation, planning, continuing education, and networking.

Exactly what a motivated job seeker would do…at any age.