Is Workplace Flexibility Only About Mommies?
April 29th, 2009 | by Leanne
I am very excited to be speaking on a teleseminar in May on Workplace Flexibility. My specific topic revolves around how I do not believe that Workplace flex is a mommie issue; instead it is an important issue for all generations and both genders. However, I get the feeling that not everyone in business feels the same way. I also happen to be a little uncomfortable with title “expert” and I know I’m not alone on that. So I’m asking you, the community to weigh in on the topic.
Of course I will have facts and figures to tell my story, but I also don’t think I’m always the smartest one in the room or the only one in the room with a good idea…please let me know what you think. There will be “guest” speakers during my part of the teleseminar and I want to use real life examples and would love my community to add to the discussion. Who knows you may even be asked to be one of my guest speakers…
Once again free coffee is on the line for answering this question here, or replying @leanneclc on twitter or posting on the Career Life Connection facebook fan page. Thank you to all who answered last week’s question…Pam Kassner was our lucky winner.
12 Comments
Definitely not a Mommy issue! As someone who speaks on work-life balance and runs a company around it, I can speak with authority when I say that there are many dads looking for that flexibility. Several dads work out of Cubes&Crayons (www.cubesandcrayons.com). Additionally, the flexible work issue is definitely cross generational. You just have to look at all the coworking spaces popping up globally and at the changing corporate structure to realize that flexibility is the future of the work force. More thoughts at Cake: http://bit.ly/amxYR
This is a topic that gets me fired up! Because WLB has evolved from Family Support (which was a response to more women in the workplace), the assumption still is that women (especially parents) need balance, but others don’t. But, everybody has “non-work demands” that have to be managed, so work-life balance is really about managing the way you allocate personal resources among different life domains. At OHI, we talk about work flexibility issues as one way of providing autonomy in the workplace.
Flexible “commercial hours” – whether it’s the time your enterprise is open or the time you have to be on site to deliver whatever drives your personal commercial engine – did arise out of the Mommy contingent’s arrival in the marketplace.
However, I have been the loser in a number of battles over who gets stuck with the hours that Mommy can’t cover – the reason has always been baldly stated as, “well, you don’t have kids, so you can be here [insert inconvenient-to-mom time frame].” Dads pull this too, but not as frequently.
Everyone in the workplace, and business in general, should have the ability to manage their own time, with the only criteria being that they deliver the goods/services/whatever that are expected of them.
Bottom line: admit you’re an adult, and act accordingly.
From twitter earlier today:
executivemoms: @leanneclc Is work flex only about moms? Of course not. But in reality, the responsibilites + emotional tugs impact women more than men.
I’m a founding member of betahouse in Cambridge, MA, where we’re now celebrating 2 years of coworking with the local web startup community. Of our current resident population of 20, 5 of us are fathers of young children, with one more due to join the ranks of fatherhood imminently. We all work flexible hours because we are either self-employed or work remotely in a flexible situation. All of us take advantage of our flexibility to be active parents.
As my betahouse brother Giuseppe says, “working for yourself is the new stable job.”
Work Life Flex is an everyone issue for three reasons: The need to navigate the enormous amount of sensory stimulation, the challenging job market, and the way our working and living experiences have merged in what I refer to as our WorkLife Nation.
Whether you have children, step children, are single parenting, or are just starting a family the lines have blurred to the extent that to be successful in business or career – one has to juggle. It’s just the way of the world. I think implicit in that is the questioning that comes up about balance.
For most of the mommies I know, some days it’s ok to keep the bult amount of attention on work – other days the seat of balance moves in another direction when a child is ill. But the same can be said of the eb and flow in the workplace. Some days a particular project requires more attention and other things go the wayside for a bit.
I think awareness of what needs to be the priority on any given day is crucial. But even more important is the ability to do that without guilt about the other items that have to take the back burner.
Agree with post and Mighty Casey. Less to do with Moms and more to do with balancing work and life. Given that we all work 24/7 via technology and accessibility, it seems that a. work is where it happens and b. work is when it happens. Flex has more to do with helping us or allowing us to be more efficient in all aspects of our life. I often leave office in time to have dinner with my kids, but then work until 11. Real issue, for a manager or business owner, is making sure that people do not take advantage. Hard to imagine in this economy. But I know that in my company, while we might allow and embrace Flex time, because it can be good and motivating for, it’s also a privilege that should be earned by dependability.
Edward Boches
Work Flex is for anyone these days. I currently “share” a job that would require more than most employees are willing to give – and the woman that I share the job with is as content with the balance that we need, since we both have small home-businesses of our own as well.
My daughter works at SmartPak (in Mass), and I understand that each employee there gets at least one weekday morning off to do errands, take care of doctor appts or whatever. This allows SmartPak to remain open until the end of business on the West Coast without requiring anyone to work late more than a day or two per week. That flexibility (along with some other worker-friendly policies) makes for a very happy workforce.
Traditional corporations may be slow to catch on, but these kinds of policies result in increased efficiency and less unexpected absenteeism.
[...] This post was Twitted by leanneclc – Real-url.org [...]
Sure it is, for families with two mommies! Workplace flexibility is about balancing professional and personal lives, and personal life often includes family and/or kids (but not always – thanks to Mighty Casey for the reminder). In the same way that the modern family is no longer one mother, one father, and 2.5 kids, the issue of flexibility is no longer just a mommy issue, even if that is how it was originally defined.
Tonight’s responses on Twitter:
@chrysula: @leanneclc That we’re stilll having this conversation shows how far we have to go. ALL. We go nowhere if this is just a Mommy issue
Agree with others that “Definitely not a Mommy issue!” I liked the response you had on Twitter about the fact that we are still having this conversation says a lot. So true! and check out the title of this article by J. Pleck written in 1993 – Are “family supportive” employer policies relevant to men?
16 years later and still a question on our minds…
Pleck, J. H. (1993). Are “family supportive” employer policies relevant to men? In J. C. Hood (Ed.), Men, work, and family (pp. 217-237). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.