The Chief Operating

Michelle Obama spoke last week about her commitment to flexible work and desire to be personally involved in helping it expand.  She talked about how important flexibility and other benefits like paid sick time are in helping people deal with realities of their lives.  In her down-to-earth manner, she got a good laugh when she said that, like her, ‘Everyone should have a chief of staff and a couple of personal assistants; that’s what they need.’ And she noted, ‘There are a lot of people counting on us to figure this out.”  Clearly, expanding access to flexibility is something high on her agenda; she knows how important it is from personal experience.

You can help your company understand that to be in compliance legally, it now must do more than simply allow flexible work options for some employees.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) says employers should encourage it and make sure that there are no barriers to workers’ access to it.  It also says that employers should re-evaluate old practices that are obstacles to flexibility (like mandatory overtime) and make sure that line managers fully understand and support flexible work options.  You may want to pass on this news.

This blog post by Dr. Sandy Burud originally appeared in Sloan Work and Family Blog, and was reposted at Georgetown Law Workplace Flexibility 2010.

I’m usually out in the trenches, talking with employers about flexible work practices or others who monitor their attitudes. As I hear their questions and hunt for answers, I notice some that seem to not yet have been answered. So, I pass them on to those of you who do research and discover answers so well. I should say up front that if anyone’s already doing this work, I’m eager to know about it. Let’s get the word out.

I’ll mention three in this blog:

1. Who Requires What Type Of Flexibility?

I read with interest “Putting Yourself Out There on a Shelf to Buy” in the March 28th Personal Business section of the New York Times.  I was feeling vindicated when I saw the words “But what if I don’t want to be a brand?

If you are a union member or potential member, in case you didn't know it, someone has been working on your behalf to make important information available to you.  You may know of the Labor Project for Working Families -- a fantastic advocacy organization that has lead the charge for union members and helped create all kinds of flexibility and related benefits.  These same folks have just created a terrific new resource that includes a national database of information for people who want to understand their rights.  It also has contract language and laws related to bargaining for these benefits, current laws that impact bargaining, case studies, and bargaining techniques.  It's a free online resource network -- the "Labor Education & Resource Network" (LEARN) and can also help anyone working to create a similar benefit somewhere else.  

Recently I was introduced to Twitter and quickly became smitten with the notion of hyper-relevancy and hyper affinity.  Take the “sound byte” and put it to good use – ie, collaboration.  As a newbie to social media, I have been fascinated by the direct correlation of success to openness.

Who says that in order to have flexibility the adjustments need to be made by an employer?  Let me be clear –  FlexPaths  does not advocate companies standing still but I did hear an interesting story last week.