THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 17, 1996 TAG: 9603170056
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Flex time. Job sharing. Family leave. 401(k) plans.
Sure, they sound like something out of a corporate report, but the jargon is music to my ears.
Why? Because they mean that family counts for something in the work trenches.
Flex time means you can set your work schedule to match your children's school bells. Job-sharing lets you split a job with a co-worker to have more time at home.
With family leave, you can take time off with a new baby or a sick father without worrying about losing your job. And a 401(k) means you can plan for your future and your children's education.
In short, these policies are the best evidence that work life can be compatible with home life. That the balance between job and children can be less of a juggle.
But now I'm hearing some new catch phrases drifting around corporate board rooms, government hallways and, yes, even over the neighborhood fence:
Downsizing. Restructuring. Working smart. White-collar unemployment.
They sound ominous, don't they?
And then there's the new name for the huddled masses of workers: ``The anxious class.''
That's you and me, in case you didn't know, and anyone else who has ever worried about keeping a job.
The economists say we shouldn't get hysterical. They point out the net 27 million jobs gained since 1979. But we wring our hands and cry, ``Yeah, but what about those 40,000 AT&T layoffs? What about people who got downsized into lower-paying jobs? What about the guy across the road who just got a pink slip?''
It's tough to feel good about your 401(k) funds going up once you realize the dividends on your statement were boosted by companies gouging jobs.
This anxiety attack over jobs can deflate family benefits. Because it's not just out-of-work people whose families are hurting, but people who are left in the office, working in fear.
Fear makes you turn down job-sharing, because you think you might lose a foothold in your company. Fear leads you to take the night shift you turned down a year ago. Now it's the only option left in the company reshuffle.
Fear causes you to stay late because you've taken on the work of your laid-off job partner. And makes you work the weekend because you don't want the word ``Expendable'' written next to your name.
And you don't complain, just keep your head down, because, after all, you need the job. Fear takes a toll on family life. As Fredrick Weston, clinical director of Family Services of Tidewater, says: ``You're a lot less likely to take off to go to your kid's Little League game.''
The Families and Work Institute in New York City did a study not long ago of people who work in downsized companies, and this is what they found: People work harder and take more initiative.
They also were more stressed, less loyal and less happy with their work.
With family benefits on one side of the work ledger, and downsizing on the other, trying to figure out the meaning of ``putting family first'' is tough.
Is it taking off at 5 p.m. every night to spend time with your kids? Or does it mean working late and making the out-of-town business trip to make sure you keep a secure job that provides for them in the long run?
The right answer, as any working parent can tell you, is a juggling act. by CNB