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Getting Flexible

4/2/2010

- Getting Flexible

One of the biggest events inside the Beltway this week would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.  This week, the White House convened a Forum on Workplace Flexibility.  We didn't attend (because, well, we were WORKing), but through the extensive coverage and streamed content, we thought we can excerpt for you some of the best nuggets we've heard, on the topic that you yourselves told us years ago was most pressing for you as an Executive Mom.  (It turns out women, people under 40, and those classified as "high-performers" all put issues with work flexibility as the #1 reason they would leave a company).

Soundbites and Highlights from the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility

Hosted by President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and the White House Council on Women and Girls, this first-time forum was focused on the importance of "creating workplace practices that allow America’s working men and women to meet the demands of their jobs without sacrificing the needs of their families."  President Obama in fact described most American families today as "juggler families," where life is a series of "high wire acts" (sound familiar)?

Importantly, one of the key themes was that this is everyone's issue.  In the words of President Obama: "Workplace flexibility isn’t just a women’s issue.  It’s an issue that affects the well-being of our families and the success of our businesses.  It affects the strength of our economy." 

As an aside, why are paid family and medical leave, flexible work options, and paid sick days so important?  According to MomsRising.org, right now 80% of low wage workers, and nearly half of all private sector workers, don’t have access to a single paid sick day.  And, in the U.S., only 49% of new mothers are able to cobble together paid leave following childbirth by using sick days, vacation days, disability leave, and maternity leave.  The rest must either quit needed jobs, take unpaid leave, or go back to work only days or weeks after delivering a baby or adopting a child.

Does this surprise you?  It will surprise many.  And then this finding may or may not surprise, in a positive way:  Michelle Obama: “Flexible policies actually make employees more – not less – productive.  Instead of spending time worrying about what’s happening at home, employees have the support and the peace of mind they need to concentrate at work which is good for their families – and the bottom line.”   (A companion report released by the President's Council of Economic Advisors on The Economics of Workplace Flexibility cited a study of one major public utility that saw more than a 20% drop in absenteeism among the group of employees that GOT a flexible work schedule. Projected out, the report concludes that "wholesale adoption of flexible workplace schedules could save about $15 billion a year."

Our favorite quips may have come from John Barry, Director of the Office of Personnel Management: "Flexibility is the new email. There are companies that use it, and there are companies that WILL!"   He also called Obama the White House's "Teleworker in Chief!"

At the close of the day, this Forum was called a first step.  Won't it be nice when this long-awaited baby really learns to walk?

Share your comments in the Executive Lounge on this important issue

Reader Comments

Name: Nicola Ries Taggart   Location: nicola@executivemomscoach.com

I think this is so exciting--for women, for families and for forward-thinking companies. Something to keep in mind: high-achieving, high-level executive women and business owners can be some of the toughest in accepting the idea of flexibility in the workplace. I have seen and heard this over and over that women in executive positions who feel they did not have or do not have the flexibility they would really like are reluctant to provide it to their employees. Of course, this isn't the case for everyone, but I challenge women executives to think about their own desires for themselves and to check in about their openness for supporting the other women who work for them. It saddens me when I hear women say that they'd prefer to work for a man with kids rather then a woman with kids because they are more open and accepting of workplace flexibility.

Name:   Location:

Name: Beth Sabik   Location: esabik@parcusassociates.com

I agree that this is so exciting and also agree with Nicola's comment about women in executive positions. Interestingly, we run into a lot of companies that are throwbacks that manage time to the minute and, not intentionally, pressure employees to be at work foresaking familial responsibilities and opportunities. Why should mothers and fathers feel guilty about catching a game or driving their kids to an appointment? It's part of life. Long gone are the 9 to 5 days, comfortable pace and moms raising kids full-time (for those who have that...please share!). I have to say it's fun and exciting to do it all simply because I can but I would love to see more executives pull their heads up and see the low hanging opportunities to improve their business by embracing a little flexibility.

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