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flexibility in the workplace

did you know?

Workers of all ages and ranks - even executives in Fortune 500 Companies - say they want more flexibility and would prefer it to a pay increase.

wise words we heard

The juiciest carrot to dangle for prospective employees is not cash; it's flexibility.

The building blocks of the custom-fit workplace are flexible work arrangements that allow employees to create a work-life fit while successfully meeting the needs of their employers. Alternative scheduling, flexible hours, compressed work weeks, reduced workload, part-time, job-sharing, and working virtually are some of the best known options.

You probably already know someone who takes advantage of such an option: a nurse who works four ten-hour shifts each week, an administrator who negotiated a 32-hour reduced schedule, or a salesperson who telecommutes. These common flexible work arrangements affect when, how, and where we work and are critical pieces of the custom-fit workplace.

Advice for Employers

Even small changes in an employee's schedule add up to large improvements in people's lives, such as letting a dad start work at 9 am instead of 8:30 so he can drop his child off at daycare.

Examine any rigid scheduling traditions. Don't let tradition block you from making changes that will make your workforce more able to manage the dual demands of job and life.

Work with your employees to determine schedules that work for them and the company. Seek win-win solutions.

Advice for Workers

When making a case for a flexible work arrangement, cite the business benefits of worker loyalty, decreased absenteeism, even improved health. (See Studies and Research)

Work with your employer to determine a flexibility strategy that works for both you and the company.

Honor your commitment. If your employer allows you to start work at 9am instead of 8:30, don't push your time out to 9:05 or 9:15 without making prior arrangements. If you work from home one day each week, make sure that day is productive.

blogging on flexibility in the workplace

How can I manage them if I can’t see them?

flexibility in the workplace

Submitted by James P. Ware on Wed, 2012-02-15 05:00

I am frankly getting tired of hearing it: “How can I manage them if I can’t see them?”

That’s clearly the most common expression of resistance from managers who oppose letting their employees work from home (or from anywhere other than the corporate office).

In fact, I am convinced the fundamental reason that many organizations have not embraced flexible work programs is that middle managers fundamentally mistrust their employees. I continue to see evidence of a pervasive and deep-seated belief that if an employee is “out of sight” his or her work will be out of mind.

For me, there is only one way to overcome that kind of basic mistrust: measure what employees produce, not how much time they spend on the job.

Working remotely and “on the go” is a fact of life in corporate America today, yet most managers simply do not know how to measure and manage the performance of remote workers.

Heavy Lifting: Pregnant Women are Forced to Carry an Extra Load in the Workforce

flexibility in the workplace

Submitted by Joan C. Williams on Tue, 2012-02-21 05:00

In the 1970s, after it became illegal to discriminate based on race, some employers responded by imposing high school education requirements for blue-collar jobs. Today, employers who want to keep women out of “men’s jobs” do something similar: they wait until workers get pregnant, and then deny them “light duty,” like desk work for a police officer, for example, or a transfer from the warehouse to the phone bank, making them unable to perform their jobs.

A Day in the Life of a Working Mom

Submitted by Michelle Noehren on Wed, 2012-02-15 05:00

Hello CustomFitWorkplace followers! So many of you enjoyed the CT Working Moms recent series about toxins that I want to share our latest series with you, A Day in the Life of a Working Mom (the brain child of our blogger Christa). Each day for the next 2 weeks one of our bloggers will take you through her typical day. Today we are on day three! My day was yesterday so I posted it below for you. What’s your typical day as a working mom like? Let us know and follow along!

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Good morning all! I’m happy to share what a typical day in my life is like although I admit that towards the end of the day, I was too tired to take lots of photos! So, I’ll have to walk you through it mostly with words

Advice You Will Never Hear From a Career Counselor

Submitted by Katrina Alcorn on Wed, 2012-02-01 05:00

Almost two years ago, I wrote my first blog post. As soon as it went live, I thought, I have quite possibly just ruined my entire life.

This was about a year after I went home sick from my job and then never went back. The whole experience still felt painfully raw. I was filled with shame for letting people down, for abandoning the career I’d worked so hard at. I didn’t know how to explain the fact that I was so completely burned out that it wasn’t a choice to stop working, it was a physical necessity. Like most professional women, I had always taken great pains to appear confident, together, in control, and I didn’t know where to begin with the truth. Instead I told people that I was “just really exhausted,” as if I needed a lot of sleep, not a year of medication and intense therapy.

Change & Opportunity

flexibility in the workplace

Submitted by Valerie Young on Sat, 2012-01-21 05:00

Mothers have a genius for on-the-spot problem solving. Sizing up a looming crisis in a nanosecond, we flip through our mental list of optional responses, then implement, discard, and substitute possible solutions until the crisis is resolved and order restored. Every single day mothers meet multiple opportunities for this kind of “rapid response” engagement head on. As the days multiply and the children get older, our maternal management skills get honed and polished. Soon we can anticipate trouble and head it off at the pass with such skill that our “below the radar” scrambling goes all but undetected. If everyone is happy, productively engaged, and more or less quiet, it’s because we are terrific at what we do. Mothers have that ability to see just over the horizon, identify threats, and turn the situation around to best advantage.

And Now, About Those Mega-Rich Alleged Job Creators…

flexibility in the workplace

Submitted by Lily Eskelsen on Wed, 2011-12-07 05:00

I’m sorry. I’m not normally a violent person. But how can you not want to slap the next clown that routinely and without an pinky fingernail-size of evidence continues to characterize the mega-wealthiest amongst us as “Job Creators”?

A bona-fide mega-wealthy rich guy is Nick Hanauer. He’s got millions and millions and says he wants politicians and pundits bent on protecting his millions and millions to cease and desist calling him a Job Creator. He’s had great ideas. He’s taken big risks. He’s made smart business bets. And God bless him for it. But he says, “I’ve never been a job creator.”

He says if any jobs were created by his ideas and risks and bets, it’s because there were customers for what he was selling. Without customers, there’s no one to buy your product or service. And if customers don’t have jobs and decent pay to go along with those jobs, they can’t buy what you’re selling.

Gotta love The Good Wife

Submitted by Ruth Martin on Tue, 2011-12-06 05:00

I’m a mom of a two-and-a-half year old and a three month old and I have a full time job. If I have any extra “me” time that isn’t spent shirking the gym and the growing piles of laundry, I’ll probably spend it sleeping. So a TV show has to be super appealing to make it on my very small “must see” list.

Enter The Good Wife. Oh how I love thee. It’s probably second only to my love of AMC’s Mad Men. I love them both, in large part, because of their strong female characters who are dealing with realistic life pressures for the times in which the shows take place.

Sunday’s episode of The Good Wife (Parenting Made Easy) was particularly appealing to me. Although the primary plot was focused on Alicia’s worry about whether her daughter had been abducted, I was mostly drawn to watching Alicia’s legal nemesis, Louis Canning (the incomparable Michael J. Fox) attempt to woo her away to his firm by touting the family-friendly workplace flexibility that he provides and himself values as a father. He tells Alicia she’ll be able to telecommute and spend more time with her kids. We may be cutthroat, he says, but we’re always home by 5pm.

Mothers of the Century (21st)

flexibility in the workplace

Submitted by Valerie Young on Mon, 2011-11-21 05:00

From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog
MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org

Prepare to be impressed with yourselves, girls. The US Census Bureau just put out new numbers on maternity leave and employment which show we’ve spent the past 40 years investing wisely in ourselves. First time mothers are more likely to have at least an undergrad degree by the time they give birth, now at an average age of 25. In fact, if a woman delays her first birth until age 30, she’ll probably join the 43% of mothers with a college degree. Teen pregnancy has dropped from 36% in 1970 to 21% in 2007. Births to women over age 35 have gone up by a factor of eight. Delaying pregnancy and gaining education are two of the best things women can do for themselves and their children, and we’re doing it.

Boys “In Crisis” and Biological Imperatives

flexibility in the workplace

Submitted by Valerie Young on Tue, 2011-11-08 05:00

From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog
MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org

Kelly Coyle DiNorcia uses her degrees in neuroscience and education to out-maneuver two small children, care for an astonishing variety of animals, and run an ice hockey organization with her husband. She thinks “work life balance” is a lie and spends her time careening from one extreme to the other.

“Snowtober” Highlights the Importance of Family-Friendly Workplace Policies

Submitted by Michelle Noehren on Mon, 2011-11-07 05:00

Not that I needed another reason to be grateful for many of the workplace benefits my current employer provides but I can’t help but be incredibly thankful that during Connecticut’s “snowtober” as it’s being called, my employer has allowed several of her employees the ability to work from home, be flexible with our work hours and has even said we can bring our children into the office if need be.

If you haven’t heard, Connecticut (and surrounding states), got hit hard by a snow storm right before Halloween. Most of the state has been without power for 7 days now, and our neighborhoods look like a tornado blew through and knocked all the trees (and power lines) down. Considering it’s hovering around 20-30 degrees at night, the fact that we have no heat in our home means I’m camped out at my parents’ house, who fortunately do have power and heat. I’m even more fortunate that I’m allowed to work remotely until power is restored in my area.