Yesterday morning, a couple of hours before I was planning to head to the White House for the president's first-ever workplace flexibility forum, I got the call every working parent dreads. You know the one: "Your daughter just threw up all over the bathroom." I hung up the phone to call my husband to pick her up from daycare so I could continue work. When I tried to thank him, there was a puzzled silence and he said simply, "I'm her dad."
It was an appropriate beginning to a day that included First Lady Michelle Obama's casual mention of breastfeeding and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis's remembered distaste for changing her younger siblings' cloth diapers. Truly, work-life flexibility is important to anyone who has children, aging parents, close friends, volunteer interests, a passionate hobby or simply the bad fortune to get sick.
The discussions among over 100 business leaders, labor activists, academics and policy wonks touched on so many important and worthwhile issues, but the ones that stood out to me were:
- Paid sick leave. The Healthy Families Act pending in Congress, which President Barack Obama supports, would provide up to seven days of paid sick leave each year for doctor's appointments and to care for ill family members. Several advocates for low-wage workers urged corporate executives in the room to support the effort.
- The business case for flexibility. To me, it's an old story, but many who are just learning about workplace flexibility are stunned to learn of the breathtaking improvements in productivity, morale, retention and, most importantly, profits at companies that empower their workers to lead full, satisfying personal lives while also delivering high-quality performance. The Council of Economic Advisers released a report at the forum yesterday highlighting the economic benefits of work-life balance.
- The challenge of hourly workers and daily flexibility. The companies gathered at the White House touted telecommuting and flexible schedules for professional employees, but acknowledged that flexibility can be harder to implement for low-wage shift workers and manufacturing lines that need every person present to operate. And while employers find it feasible to approve a reduced hour work week or to shift starting and ending hours, they often become stymied by the daily changes due to a sick child, household emergency or other last-minute need for flexibility. One exception may be Jet Blue, whose executive David Clark said the hourly reservation center workers have the highest level of engagement and productivity at the company, with 97 percent of them telecommuting and all receiving full health care benefits even if they work part time.
- The need for managerial buy-in.I've often said that the much-publicized lists of best companies for women only tell half the story: about official company policies. The second half is passed among employees in whispers: which manager truly supports part-time schedules, which one will put you on the mommy track for even suggesting flex-work -- that is, if you don't get fired. As Campbell's Soup CEO Doug Conant said at the forum, "People join a company. They leave a manager. They leave a specific situation." Several speakers noted the importance of leaders taking flexibility themselves -- not simply granting it to their team.
- The need for training. At the breakout session I attended, the first hour was awfully polite and self-congratulatory, with participants from Fortune 500 companies and small businesses eagerly sharing their flex-work success stories. Then, people stopped being polite, and it got interesting. Bea Fitzpatrick of BOLD told of call center workers being docked pay for bathroom breaks. General Services Administrator Martha Johnson warned that the same technology that facilitates telecommuting can also turn into a Big Brother always watching what employees are doing. There are thorny issues to consider when shifting from a culture of clock-punching to one that focuses on results.
- The universality of flex-work. At the beginning of the forum, I winced every time speakers framed workplace flexibility as a women's issue. In my breakout session, Michelle Clements of REI hit the nail on the head by noting that because mothers and fathers have been the early adopters of flexible work, it created resentment among the child-free. Now that the U.S. population is aging, more employees need flexibility to care for parents -- a trend that could potentially bring everyone on-board the flex-work train.
"Workplace flexibility isn't just a women's issue," said President Obama in closing the forum. "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 -- whether we'll create the workplaces and jobs of the future we need to compete in today's global economy. And ultimately, it reflects our priorities as a society -- our belief that no matter what each of us does for a living, caring for our loved ones and raising the next generation is the single most important job that we have."
What's your experience in your workplace? Do you think we're well on the road to employers prioritizing employees' family needs, or do we still have miles to go?
Follow me on Twitter | Connect with me on Facebook | Join my LinkedIn Group
More: