Work And Family

It's one thing for a company to say it's "family-friendly." It's quite another when a working parent can leave the office at 4:30 p.m. each day to pick up the kids from day care and not worry about career damage.As the American work force becomes more diverse, an increasing number of chief executives are becoming aware that workplace flexibility is essential to recruit and retain talented employees, human resources experts say.About two-thirds of major U.S. corporations have established policies aimed at helping employees balance the demands of work and family life, according to a survey by the non-profit Families and Work Institute in New York.

The Pew Research Center reports that mom is the top breadwinner - or the sole breadwinner - in 40 percent of homes with children under 18, and we are talking, again, about how we balance our work and our families. It makes sense. Work and family are the central issues of our lives. It is no wonder that we keep rethinking how to get it right. The Pew report suggests that we are not sure we have. In addition to the facts about who is bringing home the bacon (37 percent are married mothers who have higher incomes than their partners, but 63 percent are single moms)

The Pew Research Center reports that mom is the top breadwinner - or the sole breadwinner - in 40 percent of homes with children under 18, and we are talking, again, about how we balance our work and our families. It makes sense. Work and family are the central issues of our lives. It is no wonder that we keep rethinking how to get it right. The Pew report suggests that we are not sure we have. In addition to the facts about who is bringing home the bacon (37 percent are married mothers who have higher incomes than their partners, but 63 percent are single moms)

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act. The 1993 act is a federal law requiring employers to provide employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons, including pregnancy. On this anniversary, we should reflect on how the U.S. is unacceptably lagging behind on parental leave and on what we should do to overcome this gap. Researchers at McGill University's Institute for Health and Social Policy compared policies across the globe and found that among the 173 countries studied, five did not offer any paid parental leave.

Family issues: Helping employees balance the demands of work and family is a bigger concern for small-business owners than it is for top executives of the nation's largest companies, reports KeyCorp, the banking company. In a recent survey, 58 percent of small business owners said work-family issues were a major part of the culture in their companies. That compares with 28 percent of executives at Fortune 1000 firms in 1995 who said these issues were a major part of their business culture.

Manager failure: Many newly promoted executives struggle and fail because they don't build partnerships with their subordinates and peers, says Manchester Consulting, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based firm. Four in 10 newly promoted managers perform significantly below expectations in the first 18 months in their new positions, resign, or are terminated, according to the survey of 800 human resources managers. Other problems the mangers have include being unclear about what their bosses expect of them, lacking political savvy, taking too long to learn their jobs and not balancing work and family.

"Man may work from sun to sun, but woman's work is never done."This old rhyme holds as much truth today as in the past.With the opportunities and technology available in the 1990s, many women believe they should have more time for themselves. They expect their lives to be dramatically different from that of their grandmothers. Unfortunately, change has been slow.Women face many of the same time constraints as men. For many women, however, time management is a growing concern.But this is nothing new. Challenges in balancing work, family and personal interests historically have been a problem.

Employers who have helped workers with child care -- providing subsidies, counseling and referrals -- are now beginning to offer programs for workers who care for elderly parents.They are still only a handful, less than 1 percent of U.S. employers, according to the Conference Board, a New York business-research group. But elder care is steadily gaining as a part of work-family programs at large employers."It is similar to what we saw happen with child care in the '70s and '80s," said Daniel Dreyer, a Conference Board research analyst.

These days, ANY company still offering employment opportunities might qualify as a friendly place to work. But if you believe the demographers, the workplace of 2001 (it's not science fiction anymore, is it?) will force companies into unprecedented "friendliness" programs to attract and retain .employees.Such care and feeding may be too late for Ralph, who bosses around Sally Forth on the comics page. But catering to Ms. Forth and other qualified employees will become necessary as the United States runs out of well-prepared workers -- a view popularized a few years ago in a "Workforce 2000" report.

This is the Maryland Week of the Working Parent, a few days set aside to recognize the role of parents in the state's work force and to help employers find practical approaches to work and family issues that affect their employees.It's also a time to offer those parents a helping hand by sharing these Tips for Working Parents, developed by The Maryland Committee for Children, which is sponsoring the week. Today's tips address communication with care-givers.Parents need to have a good relationship with their child's care-giver or teacher.

Jerome "Jerry" Shuman, a structural engineer who designed several road bridges along Interstate 95 near Delaware, died Dec. 27 of complications from cancer and dementia at Gilchrist Hospice Center in Towson. He was 77 and lived in Pikesville. Born in Baltimore, he grew up in the Pimlico area. He attended Baltimore Polytechnic High School and Forest Park High School, graduating in 1952. Soon after, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving four years aboard the USS Wasp during the Korean conflict.

Aberdeen resident Christina Rumbaugh, 48, has been involved with Soroptimist International of the Americas since she was about 10 years old. Back then, she would tag along with her mother, Jean Royster, a member of the Havre de Grace chapter of the nonprofit organization. After Rumbaugh graduated from Towson University and became a working woman herself, "She roped me into the group," Rumbaugh said of her mother. These days, both women belong to that Havre de Grace chapter, which has about 30 members.

Sarah Palin should thank Gloria Steinem. Without the feminist leader and the movement she helped inspire, it's hard to imagine a mother of small children becoming governor of Alaska - much less a nominee for vice president of the United States. But Ms. Steinem should be thanking Mrs. Palin too, despite the activist's many complaints about the governor's candidacy, outlined Thursday in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece. Why? Because after Mrs. Palin's nomination this week, the argument that feminists such as Ms. Steinem have long fought to overcome - that women with youngsters should stay at home - is effectively over.

In the early-morning hours of a snowstorm, David Drown will make a decision that will have a ripple effect on all of Howard County: the decision whether to close schools. Like other school officials in the region, he'll wake up about 3 a.m. to check weather reports, test-drive county roads or simply toe his front yard to determine whether the conditions are safe for students. Drown, the director of transportation for the Howard County public school system, will forward his decision up the chain, where it will be approved or rejected by the superintendent and broadcast on local television and radio stations.

When Karin Cochran decided to leave Deloitte & Touche during her second pregnancy to become a full-time mother, it was not an easy choice. She loved her job as a health care consultant, yet wanted to be home with her children. Still, she wondered whether her career would fall behind. So, she joined a new program by the financial services company to lure at-home mothers back when they're ready to return to work. "That's the advantage of the program, [which is] to say, `You're not going to deteriorate when you're home and closing off the whole world to make this decision,'" said Cochran, 36, a mother of two in Cary, N.C., who left Deloitte in 2004.

I have returned from a work trip and need to make things right with the 3-year-old princess in my house. My daughter Leah has always loved to hear stories while snuggling with a parent. And, as do most preschool girls I know, she has a fascination with tiaras, dainty slippers, ball gowns and happily-ever-afters. Where she got it, I do not know. But when your child is 3, imaginative and imperious, you go with what works. So I cuddle up close and begin the story of Rapunzel -- she of the hair long enough for a prince to climb.

Work and family programs. Corporate-sponsored drug counseling. Company fitness centers. Employer-subsidized legal advice. Stress management programs.These and a host of other employee benefits that have sprung up in recent years, complementing the traditional company health and pension plans, strike many employees as an unqualified good.But Laura Nash, a Harvard-educated classics-scholar-turned-business-ethicis t who treasures the image of Socrates as gadfly, sees something pernicious in the employer largess: corporate Big Brotherism or, in the phrase she likes to use, the birth of the "nanny corporation."

ANTHROPOLOGIST Joseph Campbell once provided us with a wonderfully concise history of Western civilization. In the early years, he said, the church steeple was the tallest structure in the community because religion mattered most. As government grew in size and importance, the steeple was dwarfed by the capital dome or the town hall tower. More recently, both the steeple and the dome have been dwarfed by the corporate skyscraper as business has become the driving force in Western civilization.