The
"Business Work Life" study has been released by the Families and Work Institute
(http://www.familiesandwork.org), drawing
attention to corporate work life policies and practice. The study focused on companies
that employee 100 or more workers.
- Ninety percent of the 1,000 companies surveyed allow workers to take time off to attend
school events
- Half let workers stay home with mildly ill children without using vacation or sick days
- Two thirds permit flex time (defined as allowing employees to adjust work hours on a
daily basis)
- Nine percent offer child care at or near the workplace
- Thirty-three percent offer maternity leaves more than 13 weeks
- Twenty-three percent offer elder care resource and referral services
- Half provide dependent care assistance plans
- Forty-four percent hold supervisors accountable for sensitivity to their employees
work/family needs
WALLY'S COMMENT ... I suppose that's as good an overview as any, though
some of the findings seem out of whack with what I've seen in some other surveys.
I confess, though, to having a problem with some of this stuff. The implication, when you
ask about whether you hold supervisors accountable for sensitivity to employee's
work/family needs, is that doing such a thing is good. It may be good, but is it
practical.
From a strictly practical standpoint, how do you go about measuring this kind of
sensitivity? That's important, because clear expectations are essential for people to feel
that they are fairly treated.
In addition to clear expectations, there have to be resources that are available to meet
those expectations. I wonder what those might be beyond corporate policies.
I guess I have some other questions too.
My questions don't revolve so much around whether it's good to support people in their
work at balancing work and family concerns, but rather how you bring that stuff off. This
seems to be an area where the great ship of principle is highly likely to founder on the
rocks of detail.
For example, it's probably a good thing to allow parents time off to attend school events
during the work day. But how do the people who don't have children feel about that when
they're picking up the slack? It's OK to allow people time to spend with mildly ill
children without docking them from sick or vacation days, but what about mildly ill
parents, or good friends? Where do you draw the line on stuff like that so that it's fair
and equitable?
I don't have any answers here. It's important to pay attention to the well being of the
people who work at our companies. Part of that is paying attention to work life balance
issues, but it's not a simple matter of putting policies in place or "holding
supervisors accountable." Instead, it's a matter of hard choices with very few bright
lines leading you to the right answer.
If you'd like to start looking for a bright line to the right answer, though, there's an
excellent web page devoted to abstracts of articles on work and family issues. This
awesome collection was created as a project of the University of Minnesota course Work
Family Relationships, FE 5408, Winter 1997.
It's at http://www.cyfc.umn.edu/Work/abstracts.html
This material originally appeared in Wally Bock’s Briefing Memo
Newsletter of 31 August 1998.
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