THE WORKPLACE Family-friendly employers still aren't the norm

Changes to make the workplace more flexible have been slow in coming.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Kathy Ullrich starts many days at 8 a.m., works until 3 or 4 p.m., then cares for her 9-month-old son until 8 p.m. Then she goes back to work.
"I love it. The flexibility is great," said Ullrich, an executive recruiter who works from her San Mateo, Calif., home and shares child-care duties with her husband and a part-time day-care provider. "My work day is 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., but I take the breaks I need when I need those breaks."
Although Ullrich's days are long, she has a setup many working parents would envy.
But to achieve this flexibility, Ullrich left the corporate world for self-employment. This raises the question: Is it possible to run a company in which work gets done efficiently, yet employees are able to take care of their personal lives?
Many experts have ideas about how the workplace could change to make it easier for both women and men to meet their family responsibilities. But so far, changes have been slow and, in most cases, relatively small. Some say attitudes need to change even more than the structure of work.
"The way we define good jobs in the U.S. is still around an 'ideal worker' who works full time, full force for 40 years straight," said Joan C. Williams, director of the Program on Gender, Work and Family at American University Law School in Washington. "That either describes someone without children or someone with a wife picking up the pieces."
But not many workers today have someone at home full time taking care of children, elderly relatives or household tasks. Fewer than one in five U.S. families includes a married couple with only one worker, according to 2000 Census data.
Ideas
Many employers have taken steps to make balancing work and family easier. A recent survey by the Families and Work Institute found that the percentage of workers who said they had complete control or a lot of control over their work hours rose from 30 percent in 1992 to 36 percent in 2002.
Proponents of workplace flexibility envision a corporate world in which full-time workers have more control over their schedules and can choose to work part time without penalty. Among the concepts they promote:
U Flexible schedules for full-time work. A number of companies already allow workers some flexibility in when they start and stop their workdays. Even more flexibility would allow some workers to duplicate Ullrich's schedule, taking a break in the late afternoon and early evening to be with their families and finishing their work at night.
U More (and better) part-time work. Williams advocates giving an employee who works three-quarters time 75 percent of the pay and benefits of a full-time worker -- and eligibility for promotions at three-fourths the speed.
Another idea is to let employees negotiate a 90 percent schedule, for example, in which they would work full-time 90 percent of the year but take an extra five weeks off, said Kathleen Christensen, director of the program on Workplace, Workforce and Working Families for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
U Career flexibility. Many professions today have what Christensen describes as "relatively rigid, probationary, up-or-out" paths for those trying to enter them. It can be difficult for workers to advance after having cut back, for example, to care for a baby.
"We need to change career paths to allow people to stop and start more," Williams said. "Now, if you stop, you do so at your peril."
U Better planning. Most organizations assume employees will sometimes get sick. But many don't acknowledge other demands on employees' time: children's doctor's appointments, helping care for elderly parents, parental leave. Similar planning for these events could help make them go more smoothly, Williams said.
In addition, planning ahead for business travel would ease the burden on working parents -- and make it more possible for them to take the trips that can lead to career advancement.
"You need to respect your employees and give them the advance warning," Ullrich said.
Obstacles
Even employers who want their workers to have flexibility see obstacles:
U Cost. Two part-time workers may require more work space, equipment and supervisors' time than one full-time worker. Some companies may balk at this extra cost, though others have found that it's worth it.
"There is a cost associated with this," said Rick Fezell, office managing partner for Ernst & amp; Young in San Jose, Calif. He helped lead an effort to combat the "brain drain" caused by women leaving his firm. The solution: Give everyone more flexibility. Workers get the equipment they need to work from home; the company also tries not to have anyone travel on Sundays, even though that means missing part of Monday's work day in transit.
Ernst & amp; Young decided it was a good investment.
"It's a much bigger cost when you have a lot of people walking out your door that you've invested in for three or four years," Fezell said.
U Management. Many employers say that if they allow some workers to work from home or at odd hours, they will have to let everyone do it. Some jobs don't lend themselves to this -- and some workers don't either.
"For a people manager, the essence of their job is to direct work and lead other people," said Cheryl Hannon, vice president of human resources at iManage in Foster City, Calif. "That means you've got to be available to them."
U Client demands. The bottom line is that work still has to get done.
Fezell said that although his office's flexible arrangements have been successful, there are times when they don't work.
"You can lay out these plans, you can do everything," he said, "but it doesn't preclude a client calling and saying, 'I've got an emergency."'
Then, he said, employees have to be flexible as well.