Guest Bloggers: Chai Feldblum & Michael Teter
In this guest post, we welcome Chai Feldblum and Michael Teter. Chai Feldblum is a Professor at Georgetown Law and Co-Director of
Workplace Flexibility 2010, an initiative supporting the development of
comprehensive public policy on workplace flexibility that meets the
needs of both employees and employers. Michael Teter (YLS ’02) is a Teaching Fellow and supervising attorney
in the Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic at Georgetown
Law. Workplace Flexibility 2010 is a client of the Clinic. Mr. Teter will be a panelist on the Workplace Flexibility Panel at the Conference.
For more information, visit www.workplaceflexibility2010.org.
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Opting or pushed, women attorneys’ exit from the legal profession denotes a serious problem in the American workplace. Indeed, more broadly, the unmistakable and erroneous message from such women’s exit resonates across the professional world: to remain competitive, our workplaces cannot afford to place any significant value on the personal and family needs of the American workforce. The result is that Americans struggling with the demands of work cannot always meet the needs of their families – and are sometimes forced to choose between them.
Over the last forty years, the American workplace has become increasingly demanding of workers’ time. In addition, the demographics of the American workforce have shifted dramatically in recent decades. Women now represent a major component of the American workforce – and, for most American families, the reality of today’s economy is that both members of a couple must work full time.
But to date, the normative structures of our workplaces have failed to catch up with the full ramifications of these changes. In an era when most families no longer have a person at home who can be tasked with ordinary life needs, there is often a serious mismatch between the workplace and the day-to-day realities of working families. Millions of American workers struggle to succeed at work while meeting the demands of family – and a significant majority feel they fail to achieve either one very well. And some believe that struggle has now prompted an exodus of some of the most highly trained, economically valuable women from the legal profession and from the public workplace.
Balancing work and home life is almost always painted as an individual problem that each employee or family must face alone. But achieving that balance isn’t an individual problem; it’s a societal imperative that demands public policy attention. In order to ensure the long-term strength of the American workforce – which requires providing professional women the opportunities they need to succeed at work while also caring for their families – we must address the mismatch between the policies that structure our workplaces and the daily realities faced by American employees.
At the same time, we must also acknowledge that this issue is much broader than just a caregiving issue and certainly broader than a “women’s issue.” As a realistic matter, the pressure to balance work and family is often still gender-skewed because women tend to carry more caregiving responsibilities than men. But this pressure is felt by both women and men in the workplace today who take their caregiving responsibilities seriously.
Indeed, this pressure to balance work and life is felt by millions of working Americans, representing every age, race, gender, and income level. It is felt by those who want to remain active in the workplace when faced with a chronic disease or disability; it is felt by those who are struggling to sustain a normal family life when a loved one is deployed to a war zone; it is felt by those who wish to phase into retirement but not leave the workforce completely; and it is felt by those who want to succeed at work while also returning to school, or engaging fully in their religious practices, or volunteering in their community.
Workplace flexibility – an approach that encompasses options from flexible work schedules and telecommuting to extended time off and phased retirement – is a solution at the crossroads of that myriad of pressures facing our workforce. Flexibility can help ease the intense strain that is created by the competing demands of work and personal obligations or family needs. It can provide employees with:
- The ability to have flexibility in the scheduling of their full-time hours;
- The ability to have flexibility in the number of hours they choose to work;
- The ability to address unexpected and ongoing personal and family needs as they arise; and
- The ability to have career flexibility with multiple points for entry, exit, and reentry into the workforce.
Essentially, it provides employees with the flexibility and freedom to work – and with the opportunity to achieve the highest professional success possible – without sacrificing personal fulfillment beyond the workplace.
The benefits of workplace flexibility for employees are obvious. But there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that workplace flexibility can also benefit employers. Flexibility is already serving as a strategic management tool for businesses to attract the best talent and increase their competitive advantage. Flexibility is being used in organizations and industries across the country to reduce turnover rates, boost recruitment, and enhance productivity and performance. And flexibility is now recognized by a growing number of business leaders as a way to streamline and modernize how work gets done.
Workplace flexibility can support both employers and employees in meeting the demands of the 21st century economy. But in order to make workplace flexibility a new standard of the American workplace, we must not only encourage voluntary business practices – but also develop consensus-based, common-sense public policies that work for families and in the marketplace.
Unfortunately, over the last several decades, the policy debate around the intersection of work and family has been plagued by political stalemate. But we believe that – through meaningful dialogue with business leaders, labor representatives, family, aging and disability advocates, and policymakers from both sides of the aisle – we can develop comprehensive workplace flexibility solutions that bridge political divides in Washington and beyond.
As workplace flexibility becomes an integral part of the American workplace, it will help ensure that women have every opportunity to flourish in their professional lives while caring for their families, whatever their choices about work may be. Ultimately, we believe workplace flexibility will support more effective business, a stronger workforce, and healthier families.