THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411090042
SECTION: HAMPTON ROADS WOMAN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS AND DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 209 lines
THE DOWNTOWN Norfolk offices of B & W Benefit Planning Co. look pretty much like any other, except for the portable crib and baby carriage.
They belong to Tatia M. Jordan, a 25-year-old account representative for the employee-benefits firm. Her 5-month-old daughter, Juliana, spends parts of three days each week in her mother's office, her cooing mixing with the ringing phones, whirring copier and beeping fax machine. Jordan also works from home a couple of afternoons a week.
A cooperative employer and careful planning allow Jordan to manage her job while still spending more time with her baby than many other working mothers.
Jordan brings Juliana to the office Monday and Wednesday mornings and all day on Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the baby stays with a sitter while Jordan works; on Mondays and Wednesdays, Jordan leaves at noon and, while the baby naps, works at home on the personal computer her company bought her.
Hers is just one example of ``flex time,'' a departure from the traditional 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday workweek that has grown in popularity and acceptance in the past two decades.
Much of it has been pushed by women in the work force who still remain largely charged with home duties - three-quarters of women in two-worker families still take responsibility for cooking, cleaning or children, according to one 1993 study. They're left to juggle landing contracts with laundering socks during the workweek.
Some flex-time options are official programs of their companies. For years USAA, the insurance company, has offered its employees a four-day workweek.
Most, though, are ad hoc plans proposed by the affected workers themselves, like Jordan.
She had worked for B & W for 18 months before she had Juliana. Seven months into her pregnancy, sure that she'd have to quit to spend time with her new baby, she sat down with her boss to talk about her future.
``I told them that if I couldn't cut my hours, I couldn't work here, because I didn't want to sacrifice my time with the baby for the job,'' Jordan said, juggling Juliana on her lap.
Jordan offered to work 25 hours a week and to hire someone else to share her job. Her boss, who had been very pleased with her work, accepted. Then, just a few days after she returned to work, Jordan had baby sitter problems and had to bring the baby into the office one morning.
The arrangement worked. No one in the six-person office minded the presence of the infant. And so Juliana's pink-and-teal crib and black-checked carriage joined the traditional mahogany furniture in the high-rise office.
When Jordan has Juliana in the office, she talks on the phone while the infant sits on her lap or in a playpen. She types with the baby lying across her knees. She returns clients' calls when the baby naps or, if she's crunched for time, asks a co-worker to hold the girl.
``She's always been a very good baby,'' Jordan said. ``She never screams. That would be the No. 1 reason I couldn't have her here.
``Everyone is so supportive here. I definitely didn't want people resenting me bringing her in.''
``She's a very sharp employee,'' said Jordan's boss, vice president Teresa E. Profilet. ``We want to try and keep working with her as long as we can.
``We're a small company, and that helps. We can try something out and not have to write it up and offer it to hundreds of employees.''
The baby hasn't been a distraction, but quite the contrary, said the company's president, Robert S. Wolcott.
``She's a delight,'' he said. ``Every time you walk out of the office and see her, it's like taking a minibreak. She makes everyone feel good during a hectic day.''
One reason Jordan wanted the flexible work schedule is because she's breast-feeding. When she brings Juliana to work, she can duck into an empty office when the baby's hungry.
Still, she's had to compromise.
``I'm not as productive in the office when she's here,'' she said, unbuttoning the top of her suit jacket to nurse Juliana. ``It takes longer to do everything. But when she's not here, I get everything done very quickly.''
It's not always easy. Sometimes she feels torn between her baby and her work, especially when Juliana's fussy and Jordan is facing a deadline.
``But that doesn't happen often, because I have a lot of control over my schedule,'' Jordan said. ``If I know something has to be done, I'll do it at home at night.
``Overall, I think I'm a much more efficient worker because I know I have this and this to get done in this chunk of time versus someone who works 40 hours a week who knows they have the whole week to get things done.''
Eventually, as Juliana becomes more mobile, Jordan knows she'll have to stop bringing her to the office. By then, she said, she hopes to increase the hours she works at home.
With an increasing mix of people in the workplace, it's difficult to separate workers from caregivers at home, said Suzanne Smith, co-director of New Ways to Work, a nonprofit consulting and research group that promotes reduced and restructured work-time options. She shares her job, which is another form of flexible work scheduling.
Smith pointed to other developments as well:
- A growing global economy where there's always an office open, around the clock, and traditional work schedules don't fit.
- Company downsizing, where there's more pressure on remaining workers and companies to try harder to accommodate their needs.
- The Family and Medical Leave Act, which means companies have to look at organizing their work forces around employees taking time off for, say, maternity or dialysis, or returning to work part time.
Making it all possible are the increasing availability and affordability of personal computers and modems, couriers and conference calls, fax machines and Federal Express.
``There's been nothing but growth in that way,'' Smith said. ``When done right, it works well for everyone including, incidentally, for society.''
In fact, that 1993 study by Families and Work Institute, a New York research organization, showed that workers who have more control over their work content and schedules are more satisfied, productive and loyal.
Employers, by and large, haven't recognized this yet, the study concluded. Just 29 percent of workers have flex-time options; 45 percent of workers with children under 13 said they would or might be willing to change jobs to obtain flex-time.
October's Parenting magazine reported that in a survey of a Delaware company's employees, 56 percent of the men and 76 percent of the women wanted flex-time options ``to help them balance competing work and family demands.'' Holding management back in many instances are misconceptions, the magazine reported: employees only work when in the office; ``face time'' - you and your boss seeing each other - equals performance; people on flexible schedules aren't serious about their careers; managers must treat all workers alike; most jobs can't be done on flexible schedules; if one person gets a flexible schedule everyone will want one. All false, the magazine said.
Donna J. Russell agrees.
For more than two years, the 43-year-old civilian secretary for Navy engineers has had every other Monday off under a flex-time option that only about 40 percent of her co-workers accepted. She works an extra hour on most of the other days to make up for it.
For her, it's more luxury than necessity.
``It's like a mental-health day,'' she said.
She shops or goes to the doctor, the bank or the hairdresser without enduring the crowds on a busy Saturday or having to use one of her leave days. Three-day weekends every other week allow her to go out of town more often.
By leaving work later the rest of the time, she misses the crush of Naval Base traffic. If a project is due, she gets more work done when most everyone else has gone home and the phones are quiet.
``I really like it,'' Russell said. ``And if anybody tries to take it away from me, I'm going to fight them.'' ILLUSTRATION: PAUL AIKEN/Staff color photos
Tatia M. Jordan, an account representative for B&W Benefit Planning
Co. in Norfolk, can type and manage her 5-month-old daughter Juliana
at the office.
ABOVE: With Juliana in tow, Jordan delivers paperwork to her boss
Robert Wolcott.
LEFT: Jordan brings the baby to work with her on Monday and
Wednesday mornings and all day on Fridays.
Graphics
GETTING AHEAD
Ten tips for flex-time workers who still want to get ahead, from
Working Mother magazine:
1. Reiterate your goals, so your boss knows your objectives
haven't changed.
2. Be flexible and available, even coming in on a scheduled work
day at home, to show you're committed to making your schedule work
for your company's benefit.
3. Be reachable. Call in at least once a day for messages and to
keep up with what's happening in your office.
4. Communicate any changes in your schedule to your boss and
co-workers, so they know what you're doing.
5. Hang on to plum assignments by directly addressing your boss's
concerns and showing how you'll be able to meet job requirements.
6. Stay tuned to the company grapevine. This pays off when it
comes to office politics and company news.
7. Promote yourself in writing. Let your boss know every couple
of months what and how well you've been doing.
8. Develop an area of expertise that sets you apart from others,
which helps quiet doubts about your schedule.
9. Anticipate and manage crunch times. Schedule ahead three to
six months so you can arrange to handle busy times and deadlines.
10. Maintain your contacts. Your flexible schedule can isolate
you; don't cut back on business lunches and other traditional forms
of networking.
``FLEX'' OPTIONS
Nine flexible work-scheduling options, as identified by New Ways
to Work, a San Francisco nonprofit consulting and research firm:
1. Flex time, where the employees work on non-traditional
schedules that accomodate them or their employers
2. Compressed work week, where employees squeeze 40 hours of work
into fewer than the normal five days
3. Flex place or telecommuting - working some or all of the time
from home
4. Part time
5. Job sharing, where two workers fill one job slot and split pay
and benefits pro rata
6. Phased retirement, where employees establish a schedule of
increasingly reduced work time leading to complete or partial
retirement, say over five years
7. Voluntary reduced work-time programs, or V-time, where
employees each year renegotiate for time off, say two afternoons a
week to take a class, then revert to full-time at the end of the
year without losing benefits
8. Leaves - family, medical, for sabbaticals, even for
public-service work
9. Work sharing, an alternative to layoffs where work time is
reduced for an entire section of a company and the available work
split up; in 17 states - but not Virginia - legislation has been
passed or is pending that would allow employees to receive
unemployment compensation for the percentage of time they're not
working
by CNB