Making work easier on working parents

1 comment February 5th, 2008

Lots of companies are making it easier to work while raising kids, according to a survey commissioned by a staffing agency.

More than three in five companies surveyed have made policy changes in the last five years to accommodate working parents, according to OfficeTeam.

The survey was given to 150 randomly selected senior executives at largest 1,000 U.S. companies: 62 percent said their companies had made changes, 33 percent said no and 5 percent weren’t sure.

These kinds of perks — telecommuting, flex time, extended family leave — are fast becoming industry standards as more folks demand a “work-life balance.” It’s a buzzword that’s getting tossed around HR circles a lot lately, but it basically seems to mean that the incoming generation of professionals just won’t work 60 hours a week to accumulate toys. In fact, when people say that this next generation won’t make as much money as its forebears, I sometimes wonder whether that will be as much a sign of economic instability or a conscious choice of individuals.

Here’s an example: I have a old friend right now who quit his stable government job last year and is now traveling through Africa. He just doesn’t see work as an end in itself; he’d rather just work for a while, then do what he wants to do, then come back to work only when finances require it.