THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609220011
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: 61 lines
As I maneuvered my eight-month-pregnant stomach behind my computer six years ago, a senior colleague reminded me how times had changed for working women.
``Used to be,'' he said, ``You had to quit work as soon as you started to show.''
Whoa. I was way beyond that point.
And certainly a woman would not be expected to return after her baby was born, back in the days my co-worker remembered.
But things have changed. Working Mother magazine's annual listing of the ``100 Best Companies for Working Mothers'' shows even a decade makes a difference.
When the magazine started its annual survey of family-friendly businesses in 1985, only 30 companies were worth noting. Paternity leave was unheard of. Time off for sick children a rarity. Flex time a suggestion that caused most bosses to raise their eyebrows.
But the list released last week showed some interesting changes. More than 400 companies vied for 100 slots, and what was once considered remarkable is now standard fare.
Merrill Lynch, which has offices in Hampton Roads, offers new mothers 13 weeks of paid maternity leave, and 13 more unpaid weeks. Another company with local offices, USAA, is breaking ground in Norfolk this year for an on-site child-care center, a benefit that 75 percent of the companies on the list offer. And NationsBank - which ranked among the top 10 best companies - has an innovative program that cares for children in the bank's Norfolk headquarters when school is closed because of bad weather.
But what's most impressive is that these work-family benefits are no longer dismissed as ``just a woman's thing.''
Twenty-three of the top 100 companies give new fathers paid leave, a benefit that was nonexistent in early surveys. Patagonia, a California-based clothing company, gives fathers an astounding eight weeks of paid leave after a child is born. USAA's four-day-work-week policy is just as popular among dads as it is moms.
And perhaps the most telling sign that this ``family benefits'' movement has legs - and not just ones with pantyhose - is this: The Working Mother list now has competition, and not from another woman's magazine.
Business Week released its first-ever top 10 ``Work-Family Champions'' this month, with the likes of Eli Lilly, Marriott International and Hewlett-Packard on the list. All three made the Working Mother list as well.
Maybe we're getting somewhere after all.
These lists aren't just fodder to fill magazine pages; they mean something to companies, or those companies wouldn't be sending in their slick full-color pitches and videos to earn the coveted slots.
The lists are recruitment tools. They help keep loyal employees. They make companies leaders in work-place trends.
``The better you treat people, and the more you invest in their lives and their future, the more likely employees are to stay,'' said Jim Walker, vice president for Merrill Lynch's Hampton Roads' offices. ``It's a win-win situation.''
And best of all, these trail-blazing companies give incentive, and pressure, for other firms to cough up some of the same benefits for their own employees.
Which is good news, even for mothers who just dream about 13 weeks of paid maternity leave. by CNB