Juggling Work and Family

It is socially, economically, and politically necessary to reorganize work and how we think about it. The structure of work in America was determined in the early twentieth century. The roles of the “ideal worker” and the “ideal parent” are now in conflict.

Examples of problems faced by working parents (and children)  single mom with “latchkey” children  single dad with difficulty finding and paying for quality child care  married couple working “split shifts” so that one is always home with children  wife working part-time  wife quits work to be full-time mom  adult child caring for elderly parent(s)  single mom uses all of her own vacation and sick leave after exhausting all of her unpaid FMLA to care for disabled child  married couple both working but cannot afford support services on minimum wages from service occupations

Employers voluntarily implement family friendly policies to attract and keep best employees, offer more flexibility to professional, white-collar employees (who are treated as assets) than blue-collar workers  law firms offer part-time employment, but with limited career advancement  Hewlett-Packard: shared jobs, flexible work schedules, work from home, work teams  Baxter International: part-time schedules, flexible schedules, work from home  Marriott: subsidized child care centers; social work agency hotline to help with employment, housing, healthcare, child care, transportation, language, immigration for service workers

Employers required to offer unpaid leave under FMLA since 1996  Baxter International: blue collar workers allowed to take unpaid medical and family leave, use their own vacation and sick leave, and keep their job

Unions negotiate for family friendly benefits  NYC hospitals agree to provide fund to subsidize child care, after school programs, summer camps, mentoring programs for healthcare workers union members and children

Additional public policies necessary  paid family and medical leave  national system of child care  change in the structure and organization of work o ceiling on mandatory overtime o shorter work week o flexible and part-time work arrangements without loss of benefits or career prospects

Although we benefit from a capitalist economy, do we really want to live in a capitalist society?