Sloan Work and Family Research Network

Welcome to the

Sloan Work and Family Research Network Blog

We are excited to hear your perspective on work and family issues. With our diverse, multi-disciplinary user groups of academics, workplace practitioners and state policy makers, we anticipate some lively and interesting discussions. We encourage you to participate and join our work family community, and we hope that the blog can help you to stay up-to-date on the latest information available from the Network.

Team Work Can Impact Overwork

Judi Casey
July 23rd, 2008

 

A new report from WFD Consulting found that workers in their study spent an average of 52 hours per week at work, with more than 10 hours focused on low-value work. What is low value work? It is work that does not accomplish business goals and may include inefficient, repetitive processes. Study participants indicated several causes of overwork including insufficient staff, too much information, unexpected customer demands, unclear priorities and poor communication. Overwork results in negative outcomes for both employers (reduced productivity, lower work quality) and employees (stress and burnout).

However, the report goes on to say that a team based approach has been effective in reducing overwork and low value work. For example those who have utilized a team based approach report “65% improvement in team morale and 61% improvement in work process efficiency.” Do you think that your team could work together to reduce overwork and low-value work? How would you get started?

The Sloan Network has numerous resources on overwork including a Topic Page, Fact Sheet, Effective Workplace Series, a Network News interview on Team Resilience with Kay Campbell at GSK and others.

What’s New

Karen Corday
July 21st, 2008

 

New from the Network:

New in Work and Family:

Please let us know what you think about any or all of our new features!

Parental Incentive Program

Guest Blog
July 18th, 2008

 

Thank you to Tiffany Gabrielson, Boston College Law Student and Sloan Network Research Assistant, for today’s guest blog entry.

Over a year after it was established, the eyes of the world are still on a privately funded New York program that offers financial incentives to impoverished parents. The controversial program is aimed at families in the poorest New York neighborhoods and can only be used by families whose income falls well below the poverty line. Through privately collected funds, parents are offered yearly payments of up to $5,000 for assisting their children in receiving the educational and medical assistance that all children need. The money is earned in increments, depending upon what task is performed. Rewards are given for school performance, such as children who receive high scores on standardized tests or have exemplary school attendance records and for proper medical and dental attention.

The program is inevitably praised by some and condemned by others. Opponents argue that such incentives serve to reward parents for performing tasks that they are already morally obligated to do, tasks which many of the parents were doing anyway. However, these programs are not merely meant to spur parents into action. They are also designed to increase children’s access to the educational and medical help that they so desperately need. To even qualify for this program, a family must have a financial situation that falls so far below the poverty line that the cost of transportation alone to a school, dentist’s office, or hospital can sometimes be unmanageable. A parent should not have to choose between spending his last few dollars of the month on bus fare to attend a student-teacher conference and spending it on bread to feed his family. By providing this incentive program, perhaps New York has found a way to make both choices feasible.

Because this program is still in its infancy, it might be difficult to see just how effective it truly is, especially before the trial ends in September of 2009. While many already argue that the cost of the program will be more then recouped in the amount the government will save in costs associated with high poverty rates, it is not clear whether the program will have anything other then short term success on the participating children. Only time will tell if these programs will be successful in the long run. Cash incentive programs have been tried globally in places such as Mexico and Bangladesh, and have had varying success. If this program prospers, then it is certain that other states are not far behind in adopting their own versions. I would like to see if variations arise that extend to additional families who make a living wage but still do not have the financial freedom to miss work in order to attend a conference or to take care of an ailing child.

I truly hope that through this program New York has found a way to break the cycle of poverty that plagues so many families. By providing these incentives, children may very well become better educated and healthier in all stages of their lives. If so, then New York is undeniably giving these children the possibility of a much brighter future.

Thoughts?

Creating work-life culture change

Judi Casey
July 16th, 2008

 

We hear about it all the time in the work-life arena.  How can we achieve the oh-so desired engagement, retention and nail talent management?  Everyone says it’s not just about policies and programs.  In order to create workplaces that meet business needs and are more responsive to employees, we need to change culture.  But how to you do that?  It sounds so daunting!

 

Well, I found out about one success at a presentation that I attended at the 2008 WorldatWork conference called Making Flexibility a Strategic Lever for Corporate Growth.  Presented by Barbara Taylor of BDO Seidman and Cali Williams Yost, Joanne Spigner, and Donna Miller of Work+Life Fit, the presentation focused on how to move an organization – employees, leaders, managers – from a vision to culture change.  Using a strategically picked task force from all levels and business lines, they described their process of “building a shared vision,” and how to avoid “vision blockers.”   Their five “strategy innovation lessons” include:

  1. compelling business case
  2. early ownership up and across
  3. patient (sometimes messy) process
  4. key messages replayed relentlessly
  5. non-traditional teaming

Great stuff!  Has your organization worked to achieve cultural change?  If so, how have you done it?  Are you stuck?  What are the challenges?

Grandparental Leave

Sandee Tisdale
July 14th, 2008

 

Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Chief Minister has announced that grandmothers and grandfathers who work for public services in Australia will be able to take 52 weeks of unpaid grandparental leave over the course of three years.  The purpose of this legislation is twofold:

  1. The workforce will able to retain its older workers who might have otherwise retired
  2. Grandparents will be able to maintain a better balance between work and family, and will be able to play an important role in their grandchildren’s lives. 

There is no age requirement or cut-off for the grandparents, but the grandchild must be less than three years old. 

 

I see an additional, and unmentioned, benefit to this legislation.  Having grandparent care available will also enable working parents to better manage their work situation, as grandparent care can save parents gobs of money and energy in alternative child care arrangements.  In 2005, the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that grandparents were providing child care services to more than 660,000 Australian children.  Grandparents cared for more than half of the one-year-olds who depended on child care and almost 40% of five-year-olds.  In almost every case, this care was cost-free for the parents. 

 

One troubling facet of this legislation that I can imagine is the class divide that may occur in who can use the new policy.  Who can afford to take a year of unpaid leave?  What good is job security if one cannot afford to go unpaid?  Might it be better for these workers to collect their post-retirement benefits than to have an unpaid year with job security at the end? 

 

We’re not sure.  Either way, it’s a well-researched piece of legislation with the well-intentioned goal of benefiting both the workforce and families of Australia.    

What’s New

Karen Corday
July 11th, 2008

 

New from the Network:

New in Work and Family:

  • Six Months of Job Loss Push Economy Toward Recession
    ABC News reports that the number of jobs created in the United Stateshas dropped for the sixth consecutive month, a marker many economists use to declare a recession on the way. The hardest hit industries include construction, finance, and manufacturing, and unemployment levels are at 5.5 percent.

  • Survey Suggests Incentives That Might Persuade Older Workers to Delay Their Decision to Retire
    The Wall Street Journal Market Watch reports on research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute that tested nineteen possible incentives for encouraging employees to postpone retirement. Popular incentives include feeling truly needed, receiving a pension while working, and contract work.

These as well as other popular press articles from around the world may be found in What’s New in Work and Family on our main site.

Technology: Beneficial or Detrimental to Working Fathers?

Chelsea Lettieri
July 9th, 2008

 

Achieving a work-family balance doesn’t seem as foreign to fathers these days as it once did. Technology advances are giving fathers the freedom to focus on their family life while maintaining their workplace responsibilities…or so it seems.

A recent survey by human resources consulting firm Adecco USA found that 81% of fathers were somewhat likely to send work-related emails late at night. The evolution of technology has allowed fathers to take a more prominent role in the family. Email and devices like blackberries have made it easier for fathers to get their work done at home after the kids have gone to bed.

However, some might argue that all of these technological advancements have caused work to overflow into family life. Countless phone calls, emails, and text messages on blackberries and I-phones can cause unwanted disruptions during family time. In a recent Monster survey, 75% of dads said they believed bringing work home interferes with a parent’s relationship with their children. However, that may be the price some working fathers are willing to pay in order to have the flexibility to cater to family demands.

While some fathers continue to think technology has blessed them with the opportunity to achieve work-family balance, others fear it is doing more harm then good. Do you think the evolution of technology has helped working fathers and their families?

*It is important to note that technology would be more of a solution for middle- and upper-class working fathers, as not everyone has access to advanced technology.

Press Release: Work-Family Issues for Employed Parents of Children with Disabilities

Judi Casey
July 7th, 2008

 

The Sloan Network recently hosted a panel meeting on Work-Family Issues for Employed Parents of Children with Disabilities. Today, we distributed a press release to highlight the importance of this issue and to announce that an action plan will be available shortly here on the blog.

As I mentioned in the press release, “Although considerable attention has been paid to the work-family issues of working parents, the needs of parents with children who have physical, emotional and learning disabilities have not received significant attention. The number of families affected, the stress on family relationships, and the impediments to workforce participation are considerable.” Attendees at the panel meeting discussed the daily challenges faced by working parents who manage their child’s health, school and child care concerns while meeting their work responsibilities.

The consensus is that working families with children with disabilities are a pressing concern that could benefit from additional data collection as well as increased visibility of the issues. Currently, we are developing resources on the website including a Topic Page and an Encyclopedia entry to help move forward with dissemination of critical resources. If you have any recommendations about resources to post on the site, please let us know. Do you have any suggestions about how workplaces could be more supportive to these families and help to make the invisible visible?

What’s New

Karen Corday
July 3rd, 2008

 

New from the Network:

New in Work and Family:

  • Jeanne Fagnani writes about her chapter with Antoine Math, “Family Packages in European Countries: Multiple Approaches,” from the book Childhood: Changing Contexts.

  • Nevenka Černigoj Sadar reports on Slovenia’s Young Mothers/Family Friendly Employment project, funded by the European Social Fund of the EU, aimed to “investigate the problems of young people and young parents looking for employment, learn about their workplace situations, sensitize the public about the problems young people, especially young mothers, have with balancing work and family life, inform employers and managers about work-family issues, and give suggestions for strategies to ease reconciliation of work and family demands.”

These as well as popular press articles from Korea, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States may be found in What’s New in Work and Family on our main site.

To those celebrating, Happy 4th of July!

When Home and Work (Literally) Come Together

Sandee Tisdale
July 2nd, 2008

 

We all have heard or seen a child trying to “whisper” but it really comes out more like a raspy yell, right? Well, the other day I was on a conference call for work, and everyone on the line distinctly heard such a “whisper” in the background saying, “Mom. Mom! I’M HUNGRY!” I’m not certain who the cutie belonged to, but it gave us all a chuckle, nonetheless. Someone was working from home, no doubt! This was such a great illustration of what telework can look like.

Telework has been defined as, “A subset of alternative work options where work is conducted at an off-site location and the employee uses telecommunications technology, including computers, video, and telephone systems, fax machines and high-speed hook-ups for data transfers” (Kossek, 2003). The Office of Personnel Management reports that more than 23 million U.S. workers telework on a part-time or full-time basis. Interestingly, this number is twice as high as it was just 15 years ago.

What might be the cause for the increase in telework? Two major shifts in society can be attributed: increasing mobile technology and increasing fuel prices.

Technology ~ Many workers now have no excuse for not being connected to the job. With cell phones, fax machines, and the all important EMAIL, staying connected from afar is almost as easy as 1,2,3. Some employers will even set up a home office for their off-site employees and compensate for the expenses of a home office.

Gas Prices ~ The biggest hassle of a commute used to be dealing with those terrible other drivers on the road. Now, it’s the ridiculous gas prices and the cost of just getting to and from work. Staying home can offer relief to one’s wallet, the traffic congestion on the road, and the quality of our air.

However, there are still the drawbacks, and teleworkers often claim that they were surprised with how stressful working from home can be with children in the house. Weight gain (the kitchen is right next to the office!), feeling the pressure of proving yourself, and dealing with on and off ‘mom requests’ are just a few. The team at Work It, Mom! has a blog to that effect.

Perhaps this is a decision unique to every worker and their management. We can only hope that workplaces and employees can reach a mutual agreement for their needs. Has this been an issue for you?

For more information on this topic, check out the Sloan Network’s topic page on telework or our statistics fact sheet.

Next »