In the News

Creative Management Practices for Making Work Work (Business Week)

The 2009 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work, just published by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), reveals that even in the midst of a turbulent economy, employers across the country are creating imaginative workplace approaches for improving the work environment and for helping employees navigate the shifting demands of their work and personal lives. They are offering assistance, for example, on how to manage job stress and overwork, welcome a new baby, or cope when a spouse loses a job. What is key (and perhaps surprising) is that these strategies help these companies achieve business results and respond to fluctuations in the economy. They help companies create effective and flexible workplaces, where work “works” for both the employer and employees.

Mr. Welch, you are out of touch (Financial Post)

His tired and irrelevant pronouncements about women’s career trajectories are given wide circulation in the business media, which in turn are read by the men who, for the most part, continue to run North American industry.  What they learned from Mr. Welch’s latest sortie is working women cannot have a family and also expect to get the top jobs in their company. Add his influence to the list of impediments to women’s advancement in the workplace.

Flexibility could be helpful in weathering a stormy economy. (ESB Journal)

That’s the news from a new study by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), The Impact of the Recession on Employers, showing that 81 percent of U.S. employers are maintaining and 13 percent are increasing the flexibility they offer during the recession.

Study: Blackberry-using workers put in 15 extra hours per week (NECN)

Call it the Blackberry bridle. The iPhone leash. The smartphone shackle. A study from a British employment law firm finds that workers who have smartphones from their workplace spend as much as 15 extra hours per week checking email and responding to calls outside of work.

“Employees should be encouraged to take appropriate rest breaks if they do choose to continue working out of hours. Having a well rested employee with a good work/life balance is a lot more useful than a tired employee that put one too many hours in the night before.”

Comparisons to Madden inevitable for incoming analyst Collinsworth (SI.com)

In the Blogs

Remote workers aren”t going anywhere (Alanet news)

According to WorldatWork, a global human resources association, the number of full-time employees performing their jobs remotely at least part of the time rose 39 per cent from 2006 through 2008, tracking in at 17.2 million people.  A practice that is both loved and despised, telecommuting continues to take root, as high-speed Internet connections and sophisticated hand-held PDA devices become increasingly pervasive and affordable, and twenty somethings comfortable in the virtual world break down traditional nine-to-five work patterns.

Creative work life balance ideas from award winning employers (examiner.com)

Families and Work Institute published the 2009 Guide to Making Work Work: New Ideas from the 2008 Winners of the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility.  This guide is filled with creative ideas for the small organization to organizations with 1000+ employees.

Australians Work Super Hard Despite Laid-back Reputation: Report (Huffington Post)

Recent studies have shown that Australia is a nation of strivers, not skivers (that’s Aussie slang for “lazy”). They are among the most overworked people in the world, more at home behind a desk than catching a wave. In a 23-country study, Australia ranked among the worst — alongside the U.S. and U.K. — in terms of long working hours, occupational stress and poor work-life balance.

Guest Post:  Should we change the way we work? (Larvatus Prodeo)

A recent Climate Progress post reported that “closing Utah state offices on Fridays has resulted in a 13 percent reduction in energy use as well as collectively saving employees between $5 million and $6 million annually in commuting costs.” (A 5×8 hr week was replaced by a 4×10 hr week) In addition, “employee surveys have shown that most state workers like the new schedule — absenteeism and overtime are down and customer complaints have steadily dropped. Even wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles have decreased…”

Mothers Want Part-Time Work – Study (Your Balance)

The study, which sought to find out what women want in childcare, discovered instead that part-time work seemed to be desired by many mothers. The report suggests that improving the quality of childcare (a Rudd Government priority) might not be enough to convince parents to use it, since part-time work or flexibility of work is a common goal.

Work-life balance day 2009 (examiner.com)

The purpose of CBLT’s Work-Life Balance Day is to raise awareness about work-life balance as a business issue. The desired outcome of raising awareness is for companies to demonstrate their commitment to improving work-life balance for their employees by designing an initiative to be launched on work-life balance day.

Achieving a work-life balance: An endless quest? (examiner.com)

What is this elusive thing called a work-life balance and has anyone actually attained it? Research suggests that Generation Y-ers are, for the most part, quite an over-achieving group. If we are indeed such power workers, how are we making time for R & R? If you’re struggling to find that middle ground, consider these ideas to help guide you…

Bring a positive role model for work and life balance. (examiner.com)

But, that’s the point here, isn’t it? We can’t recapture lost moments. We must live those moments as they present themselves and appreciate them at the time. This applies to our personal life and our professional life, and we should teach others, through our role modeling, that balance between work and family life is one of the most important things we have the ability to create.

Press Releases

Career Life Connection News and Events

Career Life Connection is excited to announce that IWearYourShirt.com’s September 10th show will be streamed live from their booth at the ERE Expo on Sept. 10th.  Stop by booth #205 to meet Jason Sadler and talk with him about how he achieved social media ROI success.

Career Life Connection at ERE Expo Sept. 10-11, Hollywood, Florida

Career Life Connection will be in booth #205 at the ERE Expo.  We will be talking about workplace flexibility and video taping interviews with companies and workers who flex.

Small Business Expo and Career Fair, May 21, Quincy, MA

Leanne Chase of Career Life Connection to speak on Social Networking:  Linked In, Facebook and Twitter

Career Life Connection Founder featured on Workplace Flexibility teleseminar

Flexibility Isn’t All About Mommies: Why Flex is a Cross-Generational and Gender-Neutral Issue; summary of teleseminar discussion on Workplace Flex.

Advice Isn’t Always Good For You (MSNBC)

Leanne Chase, president of Career Life Connection, was excited about attending a SCORE meeting in Boston, but didn’t end up with much help. Despite that, she plans on attending again next week.

New Nanny Math (Forbes)

Leanne Chase, 40, mother of a 3-year-old and owner of a business, Career Life Connection,

Twitters Work-Life Balance Tips (BusinessWeek.com)

It takes many villages – 1 at home to help with family life, 1 at work to fill in as needed, 1 full of friends to keep you sane #worklife

Career Life Connection on You Tube

I have been struggling this week with a topic for this blog.  Not because there’s not a lot to talk about, but because I’m busy and distracted.  Busy getting ready for the ERE Expo trade show in a week and a half, distracted with family time as my husband has an unscheduled week free, busy and distracted with my little one…as always.

So I decided to let the blog entry go for a bit.  But this morning we are all taking a break from running around.  We even need a little break from each other.  The little one is playing nicely in our room, the husband is reading a contract and I am thrilled that almost all I need for the upcoming conference is in process.  And I realized the week I just experienced is exactly what this blog is all about:

It’s been great to spend days with my husband

• kayaking on the Charles River
• catching a movie
• heading to NYC to play

days with the little one

• catching a play with her in NYC
• playing at a great splash park
• riding the Ferris Wheel at ToysRUs in Times Square

and time for friends

• fun wedding
• Bruce Springsteen concert

while spending mornings/evenings still getting my work done

• creating a trade show banner
• ordering tradeshow goods/services
• tweaking the website
• writing collateral material
• setting up interviews
• arranging travel for myself and others
• learning video software (Vlog entries on the horizon!)

There’s still more to be done, but I feel like I’m in good shape professionally and great shape personally.  It’s been a wonderful week for my workplace flexibility…and while I was otherwise engaged there was more good news for those who like to flex:

From Cheezhead: “The American Staffing Association found that demand for temporary and contract employees increased “markedly” this month, a potential sign of improvement in the overall job market.”

Enjoy the last week of summer!  I sure am.

In the News

Survey to gauge parents, students’ work/life balance (Tri-City News)

A consortium of Canadian and U.S. universities is collaborating on an international survey to find out how parents of middle school-aged children are handling the work/life balance.  The goal is to provide information to governments, agencies and even middle schools to assist them in planning and policies for families.

Louisville-area employers recognized for ‘flexibility’ (Triangle Business Journal)

Twenty-one Louisville-area businesses have received the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility…According to a news release, examples of workplace flexibility included giving employees four Fridays off in the summer in lieu of raises, providing employees with information that helps them better manage finances and allows employees to work at home one or two days a week to save on commuting costs.

How can agencies get the most from their investments in telework programs? (Federal News Radio)

Radio show discussing how agencies can lower costs and increase employee productivity through virtual work options.

Work/Life Programs Thrive During the Recession (Diversity Inc)

“Being a flexible employer tends to pay off for the business.” Employer-based survey results, actual practices and several new bills support this notion advocated by Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute.

The Sunday night e-mail check (Seattle Times)

On Sunday, a source I hadn’t been able to reach during the workweek for an article I’m writing about labor laws and work/life balance called. She’d just picked up my voice message and was calling from her vacation in the San Juans.  Amused by the irony, I posted as much on Twitter: “Just interviewed a work/life balance advocate. On a Sunday. She called me from her vacation.”

Working with Gen Y (The Star – Malaysia)

We want to live for more than work. We like to feel that we are living for more than just ourselves. Corporate social responsibility initiatives make a company more attractive to us, creating the perception that by not just living selfishly, employers are somehow better people.

In the Blogs

Making the Workplace Work for You (Napsnet)

Flexibility could be helpful in weathering a stormy economy. That’s the news from a new study by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), The Impact of the Recession on Employers, showing that 81 percent of U.S. employers are maintaining and 13 percent are increasing the flexibility they offer during the recession.

Is There a Future for Work/Life Balance? (ERE.net)

The concept of work and life being somehow distinct from each other is a recent construct. There was no work/life balance in the 17th, 18th, 19th, or for most of the 20th centuries. Work and life were integrated and no one would have even thought to separate out what portion of farm life, for example, was “life” and what portion was “work.” Wives and husbands and children worked together as family units, producing food, clothing, or operating a small family business. Roles were assumed and cast off as needed and whoever had the ability or skill needed at a particular time did what was needed to be done.

The Balancing Act (Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog)

I don’t have any advice in this regard, just the observation that achieving true balance does not seem realistic for someone in this position, particularly on a daily or even weekly basis.  That is not to say a law student with a family can’t have a productive career, do well in school, and have a happy home life.  Rather, I just suggest the term “balance” doesn’t seem to accurately capture my reality in managing these dynamic priorities.

Striking the Work-Life Balance Pays Off (Current Mom)

Having personally benefited from such a supportive environment, I’ve often asked myself –- somewhat guiltily –- whether it is fair to allow some employees flexibility that it seems others may not have.  But I always come back to the same answer: I would give this flexibility to any employee who needed it for whatever personal reason. That’s who I am, and the policies of the company, not to mention federal law in some cases, call for it. But also, it turns out it makes good business sense.

Momentum for telework and work life balance: balancing act of 2009 (Examiner.com)

The findings listed in the bill provide a snapshot into the new norm for families in America. In the segment of married families with children, in 2/3 of the families, both parents work full-time.  The number of mothers with children under the age of 18 that work full-time is 71%.  Further, the bill reports that 70% of employed parents say that they don’t have enough time with their children.  Parents reported that the primary obstacle preventing them from spending more physical activity time with their children is their work schedules.

Press Releases

Local Businesses Recognized for Workplace Flexibility and Effectiveness (Spokane, WA)

Littler Mendelson Recognized as a Leader in Female-Friendly Workplace Initiatives (San Francisco, CA)

Heritage Bank Named the Silver Award Winner of Washington’s Best Workplaces by Puget Sound Business Journal (Olympia, WA)

Career Life Connection News and Events

Career Life Connection is excited to announce that IWearYourShirt.com’s September 10th show will be streamed live from their booth at the ERE Expo on Sept. 10th.  Stop by booth #205 to meet Jason Sadler and talk with him about how he achieved social media ROI success.

Career Life Connection at ERE Expo Sept. 10-11, Hollywood, Florida

Career Life Connection will be in booth #205 at the ERE Expo.  We will be talking about workplace flexibility and video taping interviews with companies and workers who flex.

Small Business Expo and Career Fair, May 21, Quincy, MA

Leanne Chase of Career Life Connection to speak on Social Networking:  Linked In, Facebook and Twitter

Career Life Connection Founder featured on Workplace Flexibility teleseminar

Flexibility Isn’t All About Mommies: Why Flex is a Cross-Generational and Gender-Neutral Issue; summary of teleseminar discussion on Workplace Flex.

Advice Isn’t Always Good For You (MSNBC)

Leanne Chase, president of Career Life Connection, was excited about attending a SCORE meeting in Boston, but didn’t end up with much help. Despite that, she plans on attending again next week.

New Nanny Math (Forbes)

Leanne Chase, 40, mother of a 3-year-old and owner of a business, Career Life Connection,

Twitters Work-Life Balance Tips (BusinessWeek.com)

It takes many villages – 1 at home to help with family life, 1 at work to fill in as needed, 1 full of friends to keep you sane #worklife

Career Life Connection on You Tube

We often don’t take time to celebrate the little things in life.  What we are truly thankful for and what makes us smile.  So I’m starting the never ending blog entry…it is a list of why I (and hopefully you) are thankful for being in a workplace that allows some flex.  Please feel free to add to it in the comments section or by @leanneclc on twitter or on CLC’s facebook fan page.  I will update it regularly (not sure what that means yet…maybe not weekly but definitely more than monthly)

What gave me the idea was my little one’s baby book.  She is certainly not a baby anymore, but we still update it regularly with little everyday memories I want to be able to remember.  If we don’t write them down I know they will escape me as we all grow and change.  And she likes to help me with the phrasing of them and then read all of them from the first to the last as we update it.

So, too, with this blog post.   If we don’t take a moment to tell why we’re thankful for workplace flexibility how will our employers know what’s important and who workplace flex is important for.  And it will give us something to look at and smile about on those grumpy days.

I’m excited about this list…I hope it helps you to take a moment in your day and maybe start your own list (and not necessarily for flex) about what made you smile today.

August 20, 2009 – Little one asked me to read her a book at pre-school drop off & I could!  (Nemo seek & find book)

August 21, 2009 – Ability to nap during the day.  I’m taking one today along with fellow twits @CravingBalance, @kelly_carlin @njggirl @reepre and @copywritermaven.  Did you know Charlie Rose takes a nap many work days and that @zappos has a room for employees to nap as needed?

August 27, 2009 – Caught really great play “Click, Clack, Moo” with little one in middle of the day.

September 30, 2009 – Monitoring day 3 of fever/flu for little one as I work from home.  I’m concerned but not overly…I would be much more concerned if I wasn’t working from home.

September 30, 2009 via Twitter: @chrysula tweeted: Grateful for #flexwork because baby just crawled under my chair and kissed my toes.

October 8th – Hubby surprised me with fun overnight trip to hotel/casino/restaurants/shops.  He’s been traveling a lot and this was our R&R together…told me on Tuesday…able to get away on Thursday/Friday.

October 8th – Had Radio Show to do on #worklife during the evening of fun getaway with hubby.  No worries…hubby had dinner and playtime with little one keeping her at bay and keeping me on track at work.

October 12 – One of those odd holidays – Columbus Day – no school for little one – so lots of fun playing board games in the am – some work in the afternoon – followed by shopping with a friend…feeling very balanced today!

November 5 – Off to a conference which usually stresses me out…but not today.  My consulting hubby is between clients and his firm is all about recharging during that time.  So he’s home playing with the little one…I’m flying away.  Nice role reversal for both of us.

November 16 – Daddy’s home with little one which is good because I’m not and it’s her birthday.  I’m sending video along that includes Elmo saying “hi” – I’m thinking she won’t miss me a bit.  I’m missing her a bit but I’m at a great conference and am loving being here, too.

December 2 – Dance break in the morning with little one and Michael Jackson.  Just got off a great business call so why not celebrate with a little dancing!

Last week I went on vacation with my family.  And not just immediate family…each year my mom and aunt rent houses near the beach so all the kids and grandkids can be in one place at one time.  It is a wonderful tradition for all of us.

Before I left I posted my out of office message.  As I was doing so, I decided some refreshing honesty was called for.  I have always done the usual “out of office” message. “I will be out from blah to blah please contact soandso if you need help.” But now I don’t work in any sort of an office (I am a digital nomad), this website/blog/business is mostly me and there really is no one to contact (yet) and most importantly I cannot shut work off fully for a week (and to be honest I don’t want to.)  Here is the message I wrote:

I will be on vacation the week of 8/10.  I will be checking email just not at my usual responsive pace. If I am missing a deadline of some sort…do please call and remind me…  Otherwise…I’ll get back to you when my vacation needs a “work break.”

That is the most honest I have ever been.   Yes, I was checking email on my phone, yes I do miss deadlines occasionally after all I am human, and yes being on vacation for me requires a work break.  One of the things that keeps me “balanced” is that work and life are not seperate.  On the same day I will:

Take little one  to school
Head home and work for a few hours
Go to see my pilates instructor – which includes a 3-mile round trip walk
Stop at a store or two for errands
Head to the playground to play with little one and check in with our nanny
Go home and work more
Cook dinner
Play with little one
Put little one to bed
Work more as needed
Watch TV or hang out on Twitter and Facebook
Sleep

And that is just my Monday schedule…Tuesday through Sunday works pretty much the same with different reasons for me to be “out of the office.”

So I figured I would definitely write this post while on vacation.  It would give me the work break I’m used to and the alone time I crave when in a group setting.  But it didn’t happen.  Yes, there was limited connectivity so I couldn’t write directly on my blog and I couldn’t check out the links I wanted to link to.  But I have word…I easily could have written it there and there aren’t many links for this one.  Yes, I was childcare-less but I was surrounded by family who surely would have given me a break for an hour or so, and my husband was around being Daddy part of the week.

The truth is I was enjoying downtime and alone time with the little one.  I did work…I took a conference call, I emailed about a potential upcoming radio interview, I did some follow ups…but truly it was a very light week.  I didn’t expect that and I can see how traffic on the site dipped a bit because of it…but that’s okay…because I choose to flex…at work, on vacation, in life.

In the News

Salt Lake City Employers Featured in New Guide to Work-Life Balance (KCPW)

“The 2009 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work” highlights several Salt Lake City employers among the 260 featured in the guide. Two-thirds of the employees in these businesses voted for their workplace for embracing policies that help them balance work with their personal lives. KCPW’s Elizabeth Ziegler spoke with Ellen Galinsky. President and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute, a New York City-based think tank that has authored the guide since 2005.

Indy law firm named 1 of most “women-friendly” (Indianaopolis Star)

The Indianapolis law firm Ice Miller has been named one of 50 most “women-friendly” firms in the country by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers.The organizations said that work-life balance has become a key recruiting and retention tool as law firms position themselves to survive the recession.

Andrews Kurth, Vinson & Elkins among best law firms for women (Houston Business Journal)

Perks include 18 weeks of paid maternity leave as well as the ability to work reduced hours….In addition, Working Mother liked that women hold four of five seats on the firm’s compensation committee.

My work-life balance problems (The Guardian – UK)

I have always been a proselytiser for working mothers. How could I not be? For four years in the 90s, I edited the Guardian’s women’s pages and launched the parents pages in G2. My mother ran several of her own businesses, and her mother, too, for a while. Work to me denoted independence, adventure, glamour and, of course, money. As long as I could afford to employ reliable childcare, why would I want to walk away from all of that?  It is only recently that I have been able to acknowledge that mixing work and children comes with its downsides.

National Work-Life Balance Awards (Australian Labor Party)

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, today launched the 2009-10 National Work-Life Balance awards.  This national initiative is part of the Rudd Government’s election commitment to help working families better balance their work and family responsibilities.  The National Work-Life Balance awards will recognise those businesses that have a demonstrated commitment to innovative family-friendly workplace practices.  The awards will also encourage businesses, large and small, to think about how they can better support parents in their workplace.

The secret to work-life balance (Armidale Express – Australia)

IT’S NOT selfish to put yourself first, insists nationally renowned expert on health and wellbeing, Petrea King.  “The greatest gift you can give to your family and your community is the gift of your own physical, emotional and spiritual health. Then you might be useful for something,” she said during a visit to Armidale…She noted that the only place you see this idea actively promoted is on aeroplanes.  “They say first put the mask on you, then on the children. They don’t say run around and put a mask on everyone else until you collapse.”

In the Blogs

Free Guide Available on Making Work Work (Acronym)

Aside from a steady expansion of telecommuting-telework programs to help employees reduce commuting costs, other recession-friendly practices are

- Giving employees four Fridays off in the summer in lieu of raises the organization cannot afford
- Creating funds to support their own employees or others in the community who are suffering during the recession
- Giving employees the option to take unlimited, unpaid personal time off during the downturn, while keeping full medical benefits and the right to return to their jobs
- Allowing employees greater scheduling flexibility if their spouse has lost a job or seen their hours reduced and the family needs to make changes
- Creating flex year and flex career programs
- Creating workflow coordinators to monitor overwork and developing wellness scorecards to promote wellness

Finding the Right Balance (PWC Connect)

Developing and maintaining a healthy work-life balancecan be tricky. On the other hand, one of the first things that I quickly discovered during my first interview with PwC is that a healthy work-life balance is a top priority. As part of this balance, I took advantage of the STOP/Flexible Time Away Program which allows employees to take time off. As a result, I just got back from a 3 week vacation in Greece!  Although achieving work-life balance is increasingly difficult, especially during busy season, PwC encourages both personal and professional development. Whether you choose not to do much business travel because of family commitments or you are looking for more ways to discover, like myself, and get the chance to travel across country as well as beyond the border, PwC provides access to flexible work arrangement that fits all needs.

How do smart employers make work “work” in a down economy? (MomsRising)

Smart employers are using flexible work options to manage through the recession—and help their employees manage. The organization I head, the Families and Work Institute, highlights 260 award-winning employers across the US using innovative approaches and practices including:

• Giving employees four Fridays off in the summer in lieu of raises the organization cannot afford
• Allowing employees to work at home 1-2 days a week to save on commuting costs
• Giving employees the option to take unlimited, unpaid personal time off during the downturn, while keeping full medical benefits and the right to return to their jobs
• Allowing employees greater scheduling flexibility if their spouse has lost a job or seen their hours reduced and the family needs to make changes
• Reassigning responsibilities when no hiring is possible
• Offering employees reduced hours or additional unpaid days off to avoid layoffs

Balancing life alongside deadlines (AAJA Voices)

Increasingly, the idea of taking care of oneself, of striking a balance between the professional and the personal life, is finding the way into programs at journalism conferences, including those of AAJA.  This year, sessions like “Eating on Deadline” and “Balancing Act: Working Parents” underscore the continued emphasis on “enriching the whole person,” said Frank Witsil, a copy editor for the Detroit Free Press and a co-chair for programming for this year’s convention.  Witsil can relate. He is still healing from a debilitating car accident a few years ago — one that occurred, he said, when he was “trying to work, pick up my son and drive at the same time.”

Santa Barbara’s Craving Balance Let’s You Set Your Own Rate (and Donate) (craving balance)

We’re talking about balance here, so we want to make it simple and turnkey,” said Gates. “The real reason we crave balance is that we want a life of purpose that benefits something bigger than ourselves. And as coaches, we want to walk the talk.”

Economy Driving More Work/Life Balance at Law Firms (Legal Blog Watch)

The article describes a bunch of changes at law firms, many of which are news to even someone like me who’s been tracking this issue since the start of my beat here at Legal Blog Watch. According to the article, of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women, nearly all offer reduced schedules to lawyers, while 62 percent offer full-time telecommuting, and 42 percent have written flexible-schedule policies. Still, I’m a little bit skeptical — and I wonder how many women are actually taking advantage of those full-time telecommuting options. The article doesn’t say.

Coaches – Manage Your Work Life Balance Effectively with Kirsten Beireis (ecademy.com)

What a great Stretch Your Mind And Body blog talk radio show today! We had the pleasure of hosting Kristen Beireis from Coaches Marketing Source and we discussed Work / Life balance – how it can easily get out of balance and some practical techniques for regaining the balance.  While I was listening to Kristen speak, I relived many of my experiences as a younger woman (and not so younger woman) when my life ‘got out of balance’. It happens so easily. Kristen gave some great pointers on what to look for as symptons of poor work / life balance:

Telecommuting News Summary 081009 (undress for success)

News and resources summary for those who telecommute, work from home, or are digital nomads.

BARRIERS TO ACHIEVING BALANCE (Finance, Business, Economy)

In Breaking Into the Boys’ Club 2009, we identify some traps women too often fall into when struggling to manage work, family and the rest of their lives. Whatever the particulars of your hectic life, here are some mistakes to avoid.

Relationships 101: How to maintain work, life balance (Examiner.com)

Consider a Merck Poll which asked participants to list three things that ‘will bring their lives more into balance.’ Here are the results.

1. Spending more time with family and friends.
2. Reducing stress.
3. Doing more to make a difference in their community.

Work Life Balance Tips (Travel Registered Nurse)

When you take away all of the ’shoulds’, you begin to see how effective your internal compass really is. You have to stop ’shoulding’ all over yourself if you hope to ever really find work life balance.

Work Life balance is still a myth for many people (Examiner.com)

Sixty percent of executives report working at least 50 hours per week, including the additional time they spend thinking about work, while 10% work more than 80 hours per week. This situation is even more intense for 92% of working women who go home after a full day of work and manage household and family responsibilities.

Press Releases

Sidley Austin LLP Named a Best Law Firm for Women by Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers for the Third Year in a Row

American InterContinental University Online Announces New Scholarship For Working Women

Smith Moore Leatherwood Selected as a Top Law Firm for Women

New Book Highlights 260 Ways Employers ‘Make Work Work’ in a Down Economy

Quarles & Brady: Named to Top 50 ‘Best Law Firms for Women’ List by Working Mother Magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers

Career Life Connection News and Events

Career Life Connection is excited to announce that IWearYourShirt.com’s September 10th show will be streamed live from their booth at the ERE Expo on Sept. 10th.  Stop by booth #205 to meet Jason Sadler and talk with him about how he achieved social media ROI success.

Career Life Connection at ERE Expo Sept. 10-11, Hollywood, Florida

Career Life Connection will be in booth #205 at the ERE Expo.  We will be talking about workplace flexibility and video taping interviews with companies and workers who flex.

Small Business Expo and Career Fair, May 21, Quincy, MA

Leanne Chase of Career Life Connection to speak on Social Networking:  Linked In, Facebook and Twitter

Career Life Connection Founder featured on Workplace Flexibility teleseminar

Flexibility Isn’t All About Mommies: Why Flex is a Cross-Generational and Gender-Neutral Issue; summary of teleseminar discussion on Workplace Flex.

Advice Isn’t Always Good For You (MSNBC)

Leanne Chase, president of Career Life Connection, was excited about attending a SCORE meeting in Boston, but didn’t end up with much help. Despite that, she plans on attending again next week.

New Nanny Math (Forbes)

Leanne Chase, 40, mother of a 3-year-old and owner of a business, Career Life Connection,

Twitters Work-Life Balance Tips (BusinessWeek.com)

It takes many villages – 1 at home to help with family life, 1 at work to fill in as needed, 1 full of friends to keep you sane #worklife

Career Life Connection on You Tube

In the News

You’ve come a long way, baby-sitting issues (Boston.com)

The Price of Incivility (Business Lexington)

Another study of workplace incivility conducted by Pearson found similar results, plus more. In this study of 775 U.S. employees who had been targets of co-workers’ or supervisors’ lack of respect, nearly one half of participants considered changing jobs to avoid the instigator, and one in eight actually did leave their job to escape the untenable situation. Considering that employer turnover costs are typically estimated to be 1.5 to 2.5 times the salary paid for the job (or $50,000 on average per departing employee across U.S. industries and occupational classifications), the financial impacts of incivility mount up fast.

Flexible Hours for Nonexempt Workers May Be Next on Lobbyists’ Agenda (Workforce Management)

According to a recent study by WorldatWork and Work Design Collaborative, 45 percent of survey respondents report they include nonexempt employees in their flexible work arrangements. The researchers expected to find that only about 15 percent did so, according to the study, which surveyed 135 employers.

Employers turn to flexible workplace options to reduce need for lay-offs (Aspen Publishers)

According to survey results, a large majority of employers are either maintaining the workplace flexibility options they offer (81 percent) or increasing them (13 percent). Only 6 percent have reduced such options. And, 26 percent of employers have specifically used flexible workplace options to minimize the need for lay-offs.

Advantageous aspects other than strictly compensation attract good employees; something more than a number retains them. Today employees are looking for a career package, including a comfortable company culture, career path, diversity of responsibilities, and a work/life balance

VIRTUAL STAFFERS MAY PROMOTE ECONOMIC RECOVERY FOR COMPANIES, EMPLOYEES (Web Newswire)

In late July, the Families and Work Institute reported that about 81% of employers are maintaining workplace flexibility options, such as telecommuting, while another 13% of employers are actually increasing such options in the workplace to stave off layoffs as the economy recovers. According to the Telework Coalition, about half of the nation’s workforce telecommutes at least part-time, and The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the rate of self-employed workers have climbed from 6.2% in January to 6.6% in June.

Does This Recession Finally Herald the Flexible Job Age? (BNet, UK)

Just over a year ago, we hosted a working session presented by Professor Ellen Kossek to a large group of UK employers on the nature of flexible work today. It was clear then that flexible work practices and the issue of work-life balance were no longer marginal but had entered the mainstream.

Women battle with work/life balance (The Northern Star, Australia)

The third Australian Work and Life Index report found the pressures on rural woman are increasing, along with the difficulty of balancing work and family life.  Women living in rural and regional areas experience the extra burden that comes with commuting long distances to and from work, which increases worker stress and eats into family time.

Workplace flexibility key to childcare (Liberal Party of Australia News)

Australian parents, especially men, are taking advantage of flexible workplace arrangements and conditions in order to care for their children according to a new Report from the ABS, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare Sophie Mirabella said today.  “43% of all working fathers in 2008 reported utilising flexible workplace conditions in order to organise childcare – that’s up from just 27% in 1999. Of all working families, 64% reported using flexible work arrangements like working from home, part-time work, and shift work, in order to manage childcare – which is up from 56% in 1999.”

Balance ke to better workforce (Science Alert, Australia)

Prof Pocock said the 2009 Australian Work Life survey provides baseline data against which progress can be measured.  “We have an opportunity to create Australian work cultures that deliver economic prosperity and a workforce with high levels of well being,” she said.  “We need to be careful that we don’t go further down a path that puts pressure on individuals and their families, especially women and those working long hours, creating a constant strain between work and life.”

Family First in Balancing Work and Life (Adelaide Now, Australia)

With his part-time assistant coaching role at Port Adelaide turning full-time at the end of the year it was obvious something would have to suffer if he pursued the role.  He could see it would be his family – and in what was no doubt a difficult choice, he put his family first.  It is the sort of challenge increasing numbers of people are facing as they try to juggle busy lives.

In the Blogs

Tips From Successful Hewlett Packard Job Share Team (FlexWork Connection)

After these interviews we talked about what would work best for the two of us, as well as how to make it seamless to our partners and our manager.   We then documented a proposal, which we reviewed with our manager, before we started.  All this pre-work and planning we really think has helped us develop a structure that has been critical to our success. We wanted to share a few of the tools and tips that have worked especially well for us.

Generation gaps in the workplace: Declaration of War! (Examiner.com)

Workplace Flexibility Flies Under the Radar (World at Work)

One bill introduction of note was the introduction of the “Balancing Act of 2009.” Led by Rep. Lynne Woolsey (D-CA), the “Balancing Act” is an omnibus workplace flexibility bill that combines many of the bills WorldatWork has been watching recently, including bills impacting paid sick leave and FMLA. It has some pretty heavy hitters as co-sponsors as well including Rep. George Miller (D-CA) (Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)(Chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee and sponsor of many workplace flexibility bills herself).

For work-life balance, Small Necessities Act can make a big difference (Examiner.com)

Less well known is Massachusetts’ Small Necessities Law. Enacted in 1998, it permits eligible employees to take up to 24 hours of leave within a 12-month period to attend a child’s school activity or accompany a child or elderly relative to a doctor’s appointment.  The leave available under this benefit is in addition to the 12 weeks of leave provided for under the FMLA. And the 24 hours may be taken on an intermittent (i.e. 2 hours to attend a parent-teacher conference) or reduced-time schedule.

8/5/09: Midweek Look at the Independent Business Blogs (Three Star Leadership Blog)

This week, I’m pointing you to posts on dealing with a good person who’s a bad culture fit, advice for new managers, learning from experience, workplace flexibility programs, and ROWE.

Can You Find (or create) Balance at Work (Examiner.com)

While the American economy may be a bit stagnant, the movement among American workers doesn’t appear to be sluggish at the same rate. If balance and family time are important to you, you aren’t alone. Let the potential new employer know about your desire to have that balance in the workplace. If your present employer isn’t on board with balance, help him/her to understand the shift in attitude by many American workers.

Is Work-Life Balance Off Balance (SmartPlanet)

Harbeke points to 30 companies with active work-life balance programs that have seen decreased absenteeism, decreased turnover, greater employee satisfaction, improved customer service, longer average employee tenure, business continuity, and “strong, steady growth” that exceeds industry averages.

Work-Life Balance? Yeah, Right! (MomLogic)

What I don’t know is how much Mr. Welch’s comments impact women’s continuous struggle to prove they can be great contributors at the office and simultaneously provide an environment for their children to thrive. On the one hand, he is a management icon. On the other hand, things are changing rapidly and women (moms in particular) are quickly becoming the most powerful buying segment and wielding tremendous, newfound influence. I guess the best thing working moms can do is to keep working hard, working smart, and not pay too much attention to people who say they can’t be successful in both worlds

Work Life (Climbing) Balance (Mike Doyle’s Rants & Ravings)

Everyone has a different idea of what “Work Life Balance” means. To me it’s really “Work Climbing Balance”. I have been working an insane amount of hours the last two months but I have also been able to get to the climbing gym occasionally and put in a few days up at Mt Charleston. To me finding the “Work Climbing Balance” usually means skipping out on few hours of sleep here and there.

Control Your Destiny (Escape From Corporate America)

I chose entrepreneurship because I wanted freedom, flexibility, a creative outlet without restrictions and total control over my destiny. Part of the control is to select the stress level I am willing to handle (if I must) and balance it with the positives in my life … family, good health and a positive attitude.

Press Releases

Largest Global Survey of Women Finds That No Matter Where They Live, Women Are Over-Worked, Over-Extended, Over-Stressed and Under-Served by Businesses

According to the BCG research, women want more…

• Love and connection — lasting, romantic relationships; happy, healthy families; connections with friends, colleagues and neighbors.
• Fulfillment — freedom to pursue happiness and satisfaction.
• Time and work-life balance — the ability to “make it all happen” and make the right trade-offs and tough decisions.
• Money as a marker, not for its own sake, but for better control of inflow and outflow, and guidance on spending and saving wisely.

Career Life Connection News and Events

Career Life Connection at ERE Expo Sept. 10-11, Hollywood, Florida

Career Life Connection will be in booth #205 at the ERE Expo.  We will be talking about workplace flexibility and video taping interviews with companies and workers who flex.

Small Business Expo and Career Fair, May 21, Quincy, MA

Leanne Chase of Career Life Connection to speak on Social Networking:  Linked In, Facebook and Twitter

Career Life Connection Founder featured on Workplace Flexibility teleseminar

Flexibility Isn’t All About Mommies: Why Flex is a Cross-Generational and Gender-Neutral Issue; summary of teleseminar discussion on Workplace Flex.

Advice Isn’t Always Good For You (MSNBC)

Leanne Chase, president of Career Life Connection, was excited about attending a SCORE meeting in Boston, but didn’t end up with much help. Despite that, she plans on attending again next week.

New Nanny Math (Forbes)

Leanne Chase, 40, mother of a 3-year-old and owner of a business, Career Life Connection,

Twitters Work-Life Balance Tips (BusinessWeek.com)

It takes many villages – 1 at home to help with family life, 1 at work to fill in as needed, 1 full of friends to keep you sane #worklife

Career Life Connection on You Tube

In the News

Are We a Family Friendly Nation? (San Francisco Chronicle)

Here, the legislation, companies, and people dedicated to improving our days, plus a look at how far we still have to go, and how to get there together.

Jack Welch And The Work-Life Balance (CNBC)

I think it’s the first part of that much-quoted sentence that raised hackles: “no such thing as work-life balance.” Taken alone, those words ring false in most companies today. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 enforces a certain work-life balance in U.S. companies – and some, including GE, have gone beyond FMLA to provide opportunities and benefits to workers (including execs) to embrace life.

Careers: Balancing more than the books (PR Week, UK)

In some ways, the UK PR industry is ahead of the curve. In the PRWeek Best Places to Work Survey 2009, 85 per cent of respondents said they offered staff the option of flexible working. However, in many cases ‘flexible working’ is limited to allowing staff to work from home for a morning if they are expecting a delivery.  ‘It is fashionable to say we should all be able to flexi-work,’ says Sue Grant, founder of tech agency Grant Butler Coomber. ‘The realities are still being worked through at many agencies.’

It’s not work-life fears that hold back women (Times Higher Education, UK)

It is sometimes suggested that female academics do not go for the top jobs in higher education because of the price they would have to pay in terms of their work-life balance.  However, research from Glasgow Caledonian University suggests that this theory is wide of the mark, and that women in academia are just as willing as their male counterparts to sacrifice more of their time to further their careers.

Long hours ‘irritate’ Aussie workers (The Age, Australia)

While men’s dissatisfaction has remained steady since the first survey in 2007, two thirds of women working full-time felt they were constantly pressed for time, up from 59 per cent in 2007.

Work-life balance worse for women (Sydney Morning Herald)

Among the small number of people who asked for changed hours, two-thirds had requests met in full. However, a silent majority – 80 per cent – bit their tongues, fearing jobs were unsuited to flexible arrangements.

In the Blogs

Idea of the Day: Require Federal Contractors to Provide Work-Family Benefits (Center for American Progress)

In the interim, the government should follow the recent recommendation made by Workplace Flexibility 2010 to adopt a pilot project requiring federal contractors that have hourly workers working on federal contracts to provide at least two types of flexible, family-friendly work arrangements.

Overcoming the motherhood penalty (Examiner.com)

Six years later, this discovery was later confirmed in Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty?, where the authors say mothers are 79% less likely to be hired and 100% less likely to be promoted. They also found that mother are assumed to be less competent and committed than women without children (American Journal of Sociology, March 2007).

Flexible Schedules for Hourly Workers Becoming More Prevalent (Corporate Voices for Working Families)

A new study by WorldatWork and the Work Design Collaborative (WDC) indicates that the number of hourly workers in the U.S. using flexible scheduling benefits such as teleworking is larger than expected.

Look Before You Leap! Evaluate Your Work Life Balance & Career Goals Pre-Job Change… (Total Practice Management Assoc.)

We may be in a recession but attorneys and legal professionals are still changing firms, positions, and careers altogether. Which brings me to a topic that not many current job seekers take into consideration; their own work life balance goals.

Four Federal Government agencies launch a new work life balance pilot program (Examiner.com)

The Federal Government is continuously recognizing the importance of work life balance issues for Federal employees. Mr. John Berry, Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), announced that OPM, the Department of Interior, General Services Administration and the Federal Reserve will collaborate to improve the quality of work life for the employees that work at these agencies.  The new pilot program will create a work-life campus for the more than 6,000 employees of these agencies.

Work-life balance; we’re doing it wrong (In a Strange Land, Australia)

The most recent survey shows that part time work is no magic solution to the work-life balance struggle..My own experience, having worked both official part time hours, and as a casual, is that the juggle gets no better. If I am working part time, then the amount I do at home and in the community simply increases, and my overall commitments don’t decrease.

Work and Family Balance for Men? (Equal Couples Blog)

If we want to make real progress in the workplace we can’t afford to let work/family issues be only a woman’s problem!

Work/Life Balance? Yea…Right. (Get Radical at Work and Life)

Employers will tout alternative work schedules, telecommuting, flex time, and additional benefits like wellness programs. But what does that have to with an employee’s real “balance” needs?…All these examples highlight the problem with work/life balance: One size doesn’t fit all.

Modern technology = longer hours (but only for the happy few) (Fredzimny’s CCCCC Blog)

Indeed 87% of respondants believed that an official office remote working strategy would be attractive to them as employees, with the modern workforce apparently regarding such flexibility as a major factor in attaining good work/life balance.

Employers still embrace work life flex while on the edge (Examiner.com)

But there was one surprising finding in the report said Galisky,”81% of employers are maintaining the flexibility that they offer, 13% are increasing it during the recession and only 6% have reduced flexibility.

Career Life Connection News and Events

Career Life Connection at ERE Expo Sept. 10-11, Hollywood, Florida

Career Life Connection will be in booth #205 at the ERE Expo.  We will be talking about workplace flexibility and video taping interviews with companies and workers who flex.

Small Business Expo and Career Fair, May 21, Quincy, MA

Leanne Chase of Career Life Connection to speak on Social Networking:  Linked In, Facebook and Twitter

Career Life Connection Founder featured on Workplace Flexibility teleseminar

Flexibility Isn’t All About Mommies: Why Flex is a Cross-Generational and Gender-Neutral Issue; summary of teleseminar discussion on Workplace Flex.

Advice Isn’t Always Good For You (MSNBC)

Leanne Chase, president of Career Life Connection, was excited about attending a SCORE meeting in Boston, but didn’t end up with much help. Despite that, she plans on attending again next week.

New Nanny Math (Forbes)

Leanne Chase, 40, mother of a 3-year-old and owner of a business, Career Life Connection,

Twitters Work-Life Balance Tips (BusinessWeek.com)

It takes many villages – 1 at home to help with family life, 1 at work to fill in as needed, 1 full of friends to keep you sane #worklife

Career Life Connection on You Tube

And no one’s there to read it should you bother blogging anymore?

I had one of those days on Monday.  The ones where you feel like you’re running in quicksand…you know….the day when you’re working hard but to no avail.   And for me that led to a crisis of confidence.

I left my job over a year ago with an idea.  I took time to think it through, I’ve been careful not to rush things along so I get them to be pretty good before you see them, and I feel like I’m plugging away.   But does anyone care, but me?

Version 2 of the site was released last week and to the naked eye the only difference is the forums on the front page.  I think they are important as another way for people to interact and connect, but it appears I may be the only one to think they are important.

And connecting in cyberspace is great.  I have very vibrant conversations regarding this site and the resources it provides and the questions it asks on twitter.  They are quite satisfying.  But I do need more sometimes.  So I attended a business “connecting” event.  That was truly the purpose of the event…to get others to connect and to talk about what a great city Boston is.  The thought is that if there are enough people talking about how great Boston is to live and work in, then others will want to know more, and the city will have resources in place to tell more and more business will come.  It’s a pretty innovative way to use community as a private/public partnership to foster business growth in a city.  The fact that the event was “sold out” and the room full tells me people are intrigued.  I am intrigued. (And I truly do love living in the city of Boston!)

It was a nice end to my day of slogging in quicksand, even nicer after my conversation with Rachel Happe.  We have met before, she is big in the community building arena of Boston Twitterati (at least in my book) and I was lamenting how nobody cares about my forums.  She reminded me that quality not quantity is what needs to count.  One really great conversation is worth a lot more than 25 bad ones.  And I agree.  On twitter I don’t want a million followers, I want followers who want to “listen” to the things I have to say and want to engage in interesting conversations.  On this blog I try very hard not to write just because it is time to write again.  There are weeks when my blog entries are fewer and farther between because I want to be sure to have something to say…that I hope may help others.  And I am not willing to write a “controversial” blog post that I don’t necessarily believe in just to get people to subscribe to my RSS feed.  It was a good reminder…and one I sorely needed.

Also when I got home from the event and was processing what I learned (which will take even more time), I had a chance to get to some of the work I had not accomplished earlier in the day.  And I’m glad I did because I read this blog post from Lance Haun reminding me that yes, if a blog falls in the forest and no one is there to read it…maybe someone actually is reading it and you’re just not aware of them…quite yet.

(And for those of you who are already my regulars…no worries I will have the news of the week up on Tuesday – Monday was “one of those days.”)