Here’s the latest news on the challenge of balancing work and family responsibilities.
Who are we to judge? What workers are most likely to have flexible work schedules?
The lucky folks are judges and lawyers–64.1 percent of them, according to research by the Center for Designing Work Wisely, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington.
And those also high on the flexibility list are professionals, sales reps and managerial and public administration employees.
And who are the least likely?
Schoolteachers–only 7.7 percent report they have flexible hours. Also on the short end of the flexibility stick are machine operators, handlers, laborers and most workers in service jobs. Does it strike you, as it does me, that those who might need flexibility most are least likely to get it?
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Child care and welfare: The chief concern today of former welfare mothers is how to stay employed–at the same time balancing work and family responsibilities. And a critical issue, as it is for most parents, is child care. Former welfare mothers, who most likely are in low-wage jobs and “don’t have access to … child care … , will have a difficult time staying on the job,” according to a study by Heather Boushey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
“Former welfare mothers who receive child-care assistance are nearly twice as likely to remain employed after two years than former welfare mothers who receive no help. And only one in five former welfare recipients who do not receive child-care subsidies still are employed after two years.”
Providing the providers: Part of the pervasive problem of finding quality child care is that providers are paid such low wages. Chicagoan Ruby Williams, a licensed home child-care provider since 2000 who takes care of six children, had serious financial burdens she thought she could never resolve. However, in the past two years, Williams, an independent contractor for the North Avenue Day Nursery, a network of child-care providers, has gotten out of debt and even was able to buy her own home, which she moved into in October.
Williams was helped by the Banking on Family Child Care program, which focuses on improving the quality of home-based care. The program, which addresses the “economic fragility” of many home-care providers by giving financial help and expertise, was created in 2001 by the Chicago office of the Local Initiative Support Corp., based in New York.
The initiative matches savings of participating child-care providers dollar for dollar up to $2,000 over a two-year period and offers financial management workshops and counseling. Forty-one women–most home-based providers are women–currently are in the program.
“I never thought I’d be able to buy a home,” said Williams.
Be a changemaker: If you’re a manager or human resource professional who wants to “help make your organization a better place to work,” you can get some solid advice from a new line of publications from Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization in New York that works to advance women in business. The series is titled “Making Change” and offers realistic answers to some especially difficult workplace problems–many of them arising from work/life conflicts and challenges of diversity.
The booklets are: “Advancing Women in Law Firms,” “Assessing Your Work Environment,” “Becoming a Diversity Champion,” “Building a Flexible Workplace,” “Moving Women of Color up the Ladder,” and “Using Metrics to Support Workforce Diversity.”
“They’re designed to be practical and solutions-oriented,” said Sheila Wellington, Catalyst president.
Books in the series cost $15 each and can be ordered by calling Catalyst at 212-514-7600 or through its Web site (www.catalystwomen.org).
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Carol Kleiman’s columns also appear in Sunday’s Business and Wednesday’s Working sections. She is the author of “Winning the Job Game: The new rules for finding and keeping the job you want” (Wiley, $16.95). E-mail [email protected].