open flexible work

childcare & early education open flexible work

October 30, 2012

(this post was originally published in my blog, LadydeeLG , on July 18, 2012.) Yesterday I commented on Ms. Mayer’s thoughts and focused on what her non-existent maternity leave could say to employers and employees about the expectations and needs of working mothers (and parents) or what employers could demand from employees as a result. Today, I want to focus on how this could be positive: Marissa Mayer as CEO of Yahoo! gives her a tremendous voice. She has power. While her initial comment about “working through her maternity leave” has been heavily scrutinized and criticized, another side...

Diana Limongi

childcare & early education environmental health open flexible work momsvote

October 24, 2012

In 2011, I taught two summer courses, directed a federal budget research organization and paid taxes. Taxes are the dues I pay for living in a democracy. Like you, I contribute at the local, state, and federal levels. I want us to fall a little bit in love with the federal budget and there’s no better place to begin than understanding where our federal tax dollars go. So, I’d like to tell you a story – my story – of how the federal budget – our tax dollars – affects my life. Meet my children. My daughter is six going on 33, a courageous, big-hearted cyclone. My son is four. In one instant,...

Jo Comerford

open flexible work

October 21, 2012

More telling than Governor Mitt Romney’s inaccurate “binders full of women” comment during the presidential debate last week, were his comments about workplace flexibility, and, the comments he didn’t make. When asked by voter Katherine Fenton how he planned to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, Romney said, “I recognized that if you’re going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible. My chief of staff, for instance, had two kids that were still in school. She said, I can’t be here until 7 or 8 o’clock at night. I need to be able to get home at 5 o’...

Liz O'Donnell

paid family leave childcare & early education open flexible work

October 9, 2012

How fitting that Marissa Mayer birthed her baby on the eve of National Work and Family month. Yet she disappoints other moms , bloggers and work-family advocates by stating she'll work throughout her maternity leave , appearing on Fortune Magazine 's cover in a decidedly not-pregnant glam shot and remaining silent about the feminist status her new power-mom-CEO role confers. Leave the woman alone, right? She just had a baby! And if she's like most of us, right about now she's sleep-deprived, sore-nippled and shocked at the new world she just entered of human infant needs. But here's why what...

Nanette Fondas

open flexible work

October 9, 2012

This blog was originally posted on October 2, 2012 on the Huffington Post I've been thinking a lot about the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on our work and family lives and continue to be fascinated by this topic. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reported this September that, "on the eve of Apple's unveiling of the iPhone 5, 45% of American adults own smartphones." This reflects a 10% increase from May 2011. In addition, " smartphones are particularly popular with young adults and those living in relatively higher income households; 66% of those ages 18-...

Judith Casey

open flexible work

October 7, 2012

In 2004 I co-founded a digital strategy company that focuses on inbound marketing (i.e., getting clients found via the Internet). My team consists of independent contractors that work virtually throughout the US as well as in other countries. In talking with Joan Blades, I learned that we worked under a high-commitment workplace model. At the time I didn’t really know what that was. The business structure was initially created out of necessity. But indeed, that is how I have worked, in my company as well as a few prior corporate and entrepreneurial assignments. So how did I figure this out?...

Mackey Cynthia

open flexible work

October 2, 2012

Every year The Center for WorkLife Law, which I direct, runs a leadership academy for women law firm partners . One key message we send is that sometimes what it takes to make partner is different from what it takes to rise in the partnership. “I’ve noticed that the women work so exceptionally hard,” said a management consultant, when I asked her whether she thought women have to Prove It Again! “It’s really hard for anyone to be biased against them because they are doing above and beyond many of their male peers.” This could be, she continued, because they sense the bias. Or it could be that...

Joan C. Williams

open flexible work

September 25, 2012

Today, on Making It In America , Vinnie Politan will feature Holly Reisem Hanna who is a mom entrepreneur committed to helping other women successfully start their own businesses. Her book, The Work at Home Woman is a site dedicated to mom entrepreneurs. The show airs today at 4 p.m. Eastern. Making it in America takes viewers into the struggles and triumphs of people trying to carve out their own path to the American Dream. Viewers will leave armed with ideas they can use in their own lives. Making it in America inspires you to take a risk, reinvent yourself and live your own American dream...

Wilhelmina Jewell Sparks

open flexible work

September 25, 2012

You’ve heard of Reddit, right? It’s a social link sharing site with a very active user base, and it’s called the front page of the internet. On Reddit, they do this thing called “AMA” (ask me anything) where users will post their occupation and answer any question they’re asked from other users. Anyway, there was an AMA from a Comcast employee the other day that was called to our attention. And when Cali and I read it (reddit.. see what I did there), it just pretty much blew our minds. It was so familiar, and it’s the kind of thing that drives us to make Results-Only Work Environment the new...

Jody Thompson

open flexible work

September 21, 2012

Susan Lambert , Associate Professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and the author of a much-discussed op-ed in yesterday's New York Times , once told me that she gets a lot of grief. "You study what," say her social work friends. "Scheduling?" I am happy Susan's brilliant work is getting the attention it deserves , because reshaping schedules of low-income workers is actually the single best shot we currently have at an anti-poverty program. Susan makes bold proposals for the redesign of the Fair Labor Standards Act that deserve serious attention. But,...

Joan C. Williams