Changing Policies: Promoting Family-Friendly Policies in Business and Government
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WHAT ARE FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES?
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WHY SHOULD YOU PROMOTE FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES IN THE WORKPLACE AND GOVERNMENT?
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WHO SHOULD PROMOTE FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES?
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WHEN SHOULD YOU PROMOTE FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES IN THE WORKPLACE AND GOVERNMENT?
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HOW DO YOU PROMOTE FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES IN THE WORKPLACE AND GOVERNMENT?
Luz was finding her life extremely difficult. Her job as a housekeeper at the hospital was hard, and that and caring for her four children always had her falling into bed exhausted at the end of the evening, only to get up at five to do it again. Even so, she always managed to get her kids to school and babysitters and herself to work on time. She did her job well and with good humor, and her boss told her he was going to recommend her for a promotion to team leader.
Now, however, she was faced with a complication. Her three-year-old had just been diagnosed with asthma, and her cousin, who took care of him, was afraid to continue. "What if he stops breathing? I don't know what to do. I don't have a car to take him to the emergency room, I have no one to call. You're right at the hospital, but you're halfway across town, and you don't have a car, either. I don't want that kind of responsibility."
Luz didn't know what to do. Her cousin had been babysitting for free, out of love and family obligation. Luz had no idea where she would get the money for child care - as it was, every penny she had went into food, rent, utilities, and clothing and other expenses for the children. She couldn't leave her son with just anyone, especially now that she knew he was asthmatic. And she couldn't take him to work with her.
In desperation, Luz persuaded her cousin to continue babysitting for a few more days, and decided to talk to her boss, the housekeeping supervisor. When she explained the situation, he looked serious. Luz was in tears now. "I may have to quit my job, but if I do, how will I feed my children? I don't know what to do."
"You're not the first person who's come to me with this kind of problem," the supervisor said. "I'll talk to the hospital director, but I don't know what she'll say." A few minutes later, the supervisor was back, smiling. "The director's been hearing about child care problems, too, from a lot of people - housekeepers, technicians, nurses, even some doctors. She went to the Board last month, and they've decided to start a day care center at the hospital for employees' children - it's already in the works. They were going to announce it next week.
"In the meantime, she suggested that we promote you immediately. That will mean a big increase in salary, and should be enough so that you can get child care until the hospital day care center opens."
In Luz's fictional case, the problem was solved, and she was able to continue working. For a lot of real people, however, situations like this are not easily resolved. The chances are that, at many hospitals or other places of business, Luz would have either had to quit, and perhaps end up on welfare, or to somehow find enough money to pay for child care. The fact that her employer had decided to institute a family-friendly solution to a problem common to many employees made all the difference.
Family-friendly workplaces and a family-friendly society are goals for a healthy community. In this section, we'll discuss what family-friendly can mean, look at why it's a benefit for everyone involved, and explore how it can be promoted as policy in business and government.
WHAT ARE FAMILY-FRIENDLY POLICIES?
There are really two definitions to the term "family-friendly" in this section. One has to do with the operation of the workplace, the other with government policies that affect that operation:
A family-friendly workplace or employer is one whose policies make it possible for employees to more easily balance family and work, and to fulfill both their family and work obligations. While this definition often applies to government, a major employer, as well, government has another function in promoting family-friendly policies.
Many of the family-friendly policies of government are those laws, regulations, and social policies that recognize the importance of families to society, and act to meet, directly or indirectly, the needs of children, parents, disabled family members, and the oldest generation.
We'll consider each of these definitions in turn.
FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACE POLICIES.
Family-friendly workplace policies can take many forms. The on-site day care that we talked about in the introductory example is perhaps the one that many people think of first, because it's so clearly family-friendly. What could be more directly aimed at the needs of working parents and their children than day care that is convenient and secure, allows parents to be there instantly if something is wrong, and provides a high quality experience for the child? If, as is often the case, in-house day care is free to the employee, that's frosting on the cake.
In-house day care, especially free in-house day care, is hardly the most common of family-friendly policies, however. It's almost entirely restricted to large companies or institutions (or places where day care teachers are trained), because it's expensive, and requires permits and licensed facilities and staff. There are, however, a large number of other policies, many of which can be adopted even by small, mom-and-pop businesses, that help employees to balance work and family. Some are directly aimed toward family-friendly outcomes, while others may be only incidentally family-friendly. In either case, they make a workplace a better place to work. Some possible family-friendly workplace policies:
- Flex-time. For employees with family obligations, control of their time may be the most valuable benefit an employer can give. Flex-time - a flexible work schedule - allows people to choose when they work, as long as they put in their hours every week. Depending upon the employer, that may mean complete freedom to design their own work schedule, or being able to choose from among several set options (a four-day, rather than a five-day week, for instance, or days off mid-week instead of on the weekend, or starting and ending the workday several hours earlier or later than normal.
- Job sharing. Two (or more, but that's very unusual) employees may share a single position, by each working a fraction of the necessary time. In that way, people can hold, or continue to hold, the position they want, and still have time to spend with children or aging parents, or take care of other family responsibilities.
- Temporary or permanent switch to part-time. A full-time employee might be allowed to change to a part-time position - either as part of a job share, or simply as a reduction in working hours - and still continue in the same position. A new mother, for instance, may want to switch to part-time for the first year of her baby's life, in order to bond and spend time with the child, and adjust to the demands of parenthood.
- Allowing work away from the worksite. An employee may work from home or some other remote site some or all of the time. He may communicate and discuss work issues with colleagues and supervisors by spending particular days or a set amount of time at the worksite every week, or he may "telecommute" by using telephone and e-mail. Telecommuting allows people to work at locations anywhere in the world, regardless of the location of the actual workplace.
Telecommuting is generally possible only where the employee's work can be done independently, and where the work (computer programming, for instance, or writing) can be translated to computer or print. (The exception to this is the type of job often advertised in the classifieds - "Work at home! Simple assembly. Earn up to $20 an hour!" - which usually involves tedious piecework or bulk mail, and requires speed and long hours in order to earn more than minimum wage.) The employee also has to be trusted to work efficiently and independently.
- Maternity/paternity leave. Part of an employee benefit package may be paid or unpaid leave for the birth, adoption, or acceptance of the foster placement of a child. A combination of paid and unpaid leave is also a possibility.
The U.S. federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid leave in this situation, as well as for personal or family medical reasons, but only for employees in companies with a payroll of 50 or more. The guarantee is that, if you take such a leave, your job - and your seniority - will be waiting for you when you return.
- Parental leave. This is a short-term option that allows a parent to take an afternoon or a day off to pick up a sick child at school or tend to one at home, attend a school performance or athletic event, or otherwise minister to a child's needs.
- Family medical leave. An employee would use this kind of leave to take care of an aging parent or a family member with a long-term illness, or to tend to her own chronic or temporary medical problems - anything from cancer treatments to arthroscopic surgery to mental health. Once again, it might be paid or unpaid, or some combination, and is usually limited to a certain number of weeks or months. Such a leave, in most cases, is also covered by FMLA.
- Flexible emergency leave. This offers a certain number of days a year to attend to medical or other emergencies, usually with pay.
- Employee and family health benefits. These may include not only generous health and dental insurance, but on-site wellness centers, on-site fitness centers or subsidies for joining a gym, and even health-and-fitness-oriented programs for employees' children or spouses.
- Child care. On-site day care isn't the only option here. An employer might subsidize employees' child care, paying all or some part of approved arrangements. Other possibilities are to provide referrals to reliable child care, or reserve slots at particular facilities for employees' children.
- Elder care. Although very few employers, if any, actually provide elder day care or home care, many provide resources and referrals - and even subsidies - for such care.
- Family-oriented events. Many employers arrange company picnics, Christmas parties, and other events to include employees' families.
- Family-oriented environment. Some employers, particularly smaller ones, make it possible for people to bring their children to the workplace from time to time when necessary. These employers may set up a playroom, with toys and children's videos to keep children busy at those times.
- Tuition for employee education.
- College scholarships or loans for employees' children. An employer may award one or more scholarships a year, on a merit or need basis, to the children of employees, or may actually pay or lend some amount of tuition for each employee's child who attends college.
- Including family issues as part of an employee assistance program. An employer may offer seminars and workshops on parenting, keeping kids off drugs, education, and other family-oriented topics.
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