When the President and First Lady of the most powerful country in the world hold a conference pushing for more flexible work conditions, it must be time to celebrate the coming of age of work life balance. Mustn’t it?
It was most impressive to see US President and Mrs Obama convene the White House forum celebrating more flexible work situations, such as telecommuting and flexible hours or job sharing and part-year work.
We’ve long quoted Michelle Obama on the topic. She’s often spoken about the realities and guilt that come with trying to be the best mother while also being the best worker.
Here are just 6 points from the event worth repeating:
Some words from President Obama…
- Workplace flexibility isn’t just a women’s issue. It’s an issue that affects the well-being of our families and the success of our businesses. It affects the strength of our economy — whether we’ll create the workplaces and jobs of the future we need to compete in today’s global economy.
- And ultimately, it reflects our priorities as a society — our belief that no matter what each of us does for a living, caring for our loved ones and raising the next generation is the single most important job that we have. I think it’s time we started making that job a little easier for folks.
And some from First Lady Michelle Obama…
- But here’s the thing: As we all know here today, it just doesn’t have to be that way, doesn’t have to be that hard. And that’s something that I learned for myself, not just as an employee but as a manager, when I discovered that the more flexibility that I gave to my staff to be good parents, and I valued that, the happier my staff was likely to be and the greater chance they were to stay and not leave, because they knew they might not find the same kind of flexibility somewhere else.
A new White House report also showed that flexibility actually improved productivity. And we know from our research that our perception of flexibility made women believe they had work life balance.
Finally, a telling statistic from the conference:
- Today, two-thirds of American families with kids are ‘juggler families’ where there is no spouse at home full time to deal with many routine and emergency family needs. This is the complete reversal of the situation in 1970 when almost two-thirds of married couples had one spouse at home.
So what’s happening in your work place? And have you started your own company to give yourself flexibility?
