Work and Family:

How Can Parents Balance the Demands of Both?

I. Workplace Policies that Support Families
II. How To Win "Family Friendly" Policies at Work
III. The 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers

How would you answer this question: What is the most important aspect of your life? When men and women are asked this question as part of the General Social Survey conducted annually in the United States, the most popular answer is "my family." The second most popular answer is "my work." Unfortunately, these two most important parts of Americans' lives often pull parents in opposite directions.

Parents are frequently caught in the middle between work and family demands: Your child is sick so you must stay home from work and miss a meeting because you can't find child care and your child needs you the most at this time. Or, your elderly father is in the hospital 100 miles away, so you need time off to be with him. What if your boss says that if you miss any more days from work, you'll lose your current position? Or, what if you don't receive a promotion because your boss thinks you're not committed to your job? Each day, many families face these kinds of "choices" between job security and family responsibility.

Work/family dilemmas usually begin during the late stage of the first pregnancy. While many companies have a maternity leave policy that allows an employee to return to her same position after a 60- to 90-day leave, few employers, if any, compensate women on maternity leave for time lost. Additionally, the family is faced with finding child care for a newborn--not an easy feat. Good child care, for children of any age, may be difficult to find, but for children from birth to two years of age, there are fewer child care providers. Also, a high-quality program for infants and toddlers will maintain a high teacher-student ratio so that they can receive individual attention. The increased expense may be prohibitive for some parents.

Even when parents are able to find good, affordable child care, they may be concerned about the implications of controversial research on the effects of institutional care for children under two. For example, it has been found that for some children who begin full-time child care during their first year, different patterns of attachment to their mothers may develop compared to those of children not in full-time care. This finding is open to a wide range of interpretations that need to be investigated further to understand the potential impact on children's long- term development. Nevertheless, for this reason and others, few parents return to work guilt-free, and it is not unusual for a young parent to relinquish a career and financial security to stay home with the baby.

The economic implications of these decisions are compelling. A young family, or a single parent, is faced with the stress of reduced financial resources during a formative stage of family development. When a young parent opts to leave his or her job and stay home to care for the child, the employer is faced with the expense of hiring and retraining a new employee. For some families, having one partner stay home full-time is the best solution, but other families need other options. Increasingly, businesses are recognizing the social and economic benefits of developing alternatives for their employees.

For example, companies like Marriott International, Inc., have found that support for pregnant mothers pays not only in social benefits but also in reduced insurance costs resulting from reduced numbers of high-risk pregnancies. An on-site nurse advises pregnant mothers on health, nutrition, and exercise; and the company's on-site lactation room is available for nursing mothers who have returned to work. Other companies, such as First Chicago NBD and PanEnergy, have similar programs.

In an attempt to reduce parents' struggles among difficult choices, we have compiled information from various sources to help you meet your responsibilities to your job and your family. It is important to keep in mind while reading these articles that this information is aimed at all parents (mothers and fathers.)

The first section provides a general overview of "Family Friendly" policies in the workplace. The next sections provide suggestions on how to win these policies in your work environment, names of companies that are leaders in this area, tips for balancing family life, and additional resources which we hope will be helpful to you and those you work with.

I. Workplace Policies that Support Families
The most common way for businesses to support families is through leave policies, support for dependent care, and flexible work schedules.

Leave Policies

Leave policies are important because they allow time away from work to respond to family needs without a loss in job security. At the same time, companies retain valuable expertise, create more employee loyalty, and save money in training. The most common policies are:

Parental Leave. Provides time off (often unpaid) for the birth of a child and parenting responsibilities; can cover biological, adoption, and/or adoptive families.
Family Leave. Covers parental leave as well as time off to care for other family members (spouse, child, parent, etc.) with a serious illness. (The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which requires businesses with 50 or more employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employees, provided the first nationwide family leave policy.)
Medical or Disability Leave. Provides time off for an employee who is temporarily disabled and unable to work. (Note: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 considers pregnancy a disability; therefore, organizations with 15 or more employees must provide the same leave and benefits to pregnant workers as they would to any other temporarily disabled employee.)
Dependent Care (Child and Elder Care)

Dependent care polices are important because they help to provide support for the employee's extended family. This support may be provided through financial assistance policies, direct services, or information services.

Direct Services:
On-site/Near-site Child Care. Sponsors or subsidizes the cost of child care centers so all employees can afford child care.

Consortium Child Care Centers. Offers to groups of employers the opportunity to share the costs and benefits of creating a child care center. This option is particularly useful for small businesses.

Emergency/Sick Care. Provides care for children who are ill or who need temporary care.

School-age Services. Supports after-school programs and warm-lines (call-in services for older children at home alone), sponsors seminars for children to learn the skills needed to stay home alone, or provides programs for vacations and holidays.

Financial Assistance:
Vouchers. Pays part of an employee's child care costs in the form of a flat fee, a percentage of the cost, etc.

Discounts. Negotiates with child care centers for a discount for employees.

Dependent Care Assistance Plans. Allows employees to use pre-tax dollars to cover dependent care expenses.

Long-term Care Insurance. Provides insurance to help employees pay for long-term care for themselves or dependents, spouses, or parents.

Respite Care. Provides full or partial reimbursement of the costs associated with hiring a caregiver so employees who care for elderly relatives can take a brief break from their responsibilities.

Information, Training, and Referral:
Child and Elder Care Referral. Provides information on types of care and services available in the community, often as part of national networks. Can provide counseling or written materials to help employees choose among options.

Work-Family Seminars. Conducts on-site seminars on issues related to parenting, balancing work and family, and caring for elderly relatives.

Flexible Schedules

Flexible schedules have become a popular trend in many companies. They help employees balance work and family responsibilities, while allowing employers to meet their business needs. There are many types of flexible schedules, including:

Flextime. Employees set different start and end times to their work day, while working the same number of hours per day or week.
Part-time Work. Employees work fewer hours, with pro-rated pay and benefits, while maintaining the job security of a full-time employee.
Flexplace (or "telecommuting"). Employees work off-site, at home or a satellite office, during all or part of their scheduled hours.
Job Sharing. Two or more employees share the responsibilities of a full-time job, with pro-rated salaries and benefits.
Compressed Work Weeks. Employees condense a standard work week into fewer than 5 days.
Voluntary Reduced Work Time. Full-time employees reduce their work hours for a period of time with a corresponding reduction in pay (differs from part-time because of the expectation that the employee will return to full-time work after a limited period of time).

II. How To Win "Family-Friendly" Policies at Work
Is it possible to persuade your company to implement any of these policies? We have compiled some guidelines for ways you can build support for such policies with your employer. Please keep in mind that you may need to adapt this list for your situation.

Generate Support: Work collaboratively with other employees so that everyone has an opportunity to express what his or her family needs.
Decide What You Want.
What type of policy are you looking for from your employer? Do you want to gather support for flexible work schedules? Make a list of all things you would like. Be sure to consider immediate needs as well as long-term needs.

Approach Others Who Have Similar Needs and Create a Group.
Talk to people you work with about what you would like to have. Find other people who share your interests and needs and meet with them. Try to approach people at all levels of the company and don't worry if the group is small at first.

Gather Information.
Determine what is happening now in your company-what are its resources? What policies exist at similar companies? Consider doing a survey of employee needs.

Determine Whom To Talk to.
Find out who is responsible for implementing employee policy. Also, find out who can advocate most effectively for your group.

Propose Change(s): Develop a team or committee that can follow through on recommendations with the employer.
List Priorities and the "Bottom Line."
Look at your list and identify the most important goals. When prioritizing, try to focus on policies that apply to as many workers as possible. Decide what is the "least" you could all be happy with.

Prepare Your Argument.
You will want to demonstrate need, the impact of the present situation on the company, and how your policy can benefit the company. Also, show that the employees are committed to winning the change they need. Rehearse your case and prepare responses for all possible questions or reactions.

Ask for the Changes.
Arrange a meeting with the people you need to talk to, and present your case.

Follow-up: The committee, as well as other interested employees, might collaborate in follow-up activities focussed on communicating effectively that you will continue to work for family-friendly policies.
Follow-up in Writing.
Write a letter of thanks after the meeting and use this as an opportunity to repeat your key points. Ask for a response by a certain date.

Inform the Group.
Make sure that everyone knows what is going on so that you maintain support among employees.

Follow Through.
Do any tasks necessary as quickly as possible. Ask for any resources you need to complete them.

Celebrate Any Victory.
Any progress is a victory, celebrate it with your group.

III. The 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers
Now that we've examined the characteristics of a family-friendly workplace, it is useful to look at companies that have taken the lead in implementing such policies. Working Mother magazine has just released its 11th annual survey on the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers.

Some interesting findings are:

an increase in the use of flexible work schedules as well as an increase in the number of companies providing training to managers and employees on how to develop such schedules;
a growing awareness that child care needs aren't limited to company headquarters as more on-site centers at field locations were opened;
more new fathers and adoptive parents using paid leave;
more programs that set specific goals for promotion of women to senior management levels, and the growing number of companies that now evaluate managers on achieving that goal;
continued support for the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, which aims to improve and expand dependent care (elder and child) in their communities;
It is important to keep in mind that making a company family-friendly is useful not only to the employees, but to employers as well. Companies can experience lower turnover and a more productive workforce by providing these policies.

Other interesting highlights from this year's Working Mother survey are:

Nine of 15 companies on the list with fewer than 1,000 employees offer child care services without impacting negatively on the companies' bottom line.
A frequent objection from employers in terms of child care assistance is that they can't help employees when they are not concentrated at one site. Yet, TIAA-CREF arranged with a national child care chain that specializes in emergency care to provide employees in 4 cities with 10 free days of backup care; Fannie Mae headquarters provides employees on-site emergency care, while workers at other locations are issued vouchers to pay for backup care; and SAS Institute charges workers at headquarters $200 per month for on-site care, while employees at its 29 field offices pay $200 monthly for care, with the SAS Institute paying the difference.
Most companies in the United States fail to provide employees with adequate time off surrounding the birth of a baby or during illness of family members. However, 23 companies in the Working Mother survey provided paid leave to new fathers. In addition, 27 of the companies offered fully paid leaves to adopting parents.
Twelve companies from the survey offer formal policies that allow employees to reduce their schedules for a period of time so they have more time to spend with their families.
Working Mother magazine also identified the 10 best companies for working mothers, based on criteria that included pay, opportunities to advance, child care, flexibility (in work schedules), and other family-friendly benefits. The top 10 companies were:

Barnett Banks
Eli Lilly
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
MBNA America Bank
Merck
NationsBank
Patagonia
Xerox
(First appeared in Working Mother in October 1996. Written by Milton Moskowitz. Reprinted with the permission of Working Mother magazine. Copyright 1996 by, Working Mother magazine. For more information, visit Working Mother website.

Sources:
Bravo, Ellen. (1995). The Job/Family Challenge: Not for Women Only. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Breast-feeding Promotion Committee of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies. (ND). What Gives These Companies a Competitive Edge?: Worksite Support for Breast-feeding Employees. Washington, DC: Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies.

Families and Work Institute. (ND). Options for Family-Friendly Programs and Policies. 330 Seventh Ave. 14th Floor. N.Y. N.Y. 10001

Families and Work Institute. (ND). The FWI Facts about...Flexible Work Arrangements. 330 Seventh Ave. 14th Floor. N.Y. N.Y. 10001

Moskowitz, Milton. (1996, October). 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. Working Mother Magazine, pp. 10-70.

Painter, Kim. (1996, October 10). Company Policy: Healthy Pregnancy .USA TODAY, p. 8D.

Perry-Jenkins, Maureen. (1994). All in a Day's Work. In Todd, C. M. (Ed.), Child Care Center Connections 3(5): 4-5. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service.