Peaceful Revolution: What Would You Say to the First Lady?

On May 7th I attended the event that is now plastering the news: the First Lady Michelle Obama spoke out on work-life issues.

You may have heard some of the lines from her speech at Corporate Voices for Working Families -- that she is a 120-percenter, meaning that if she hasn't done any job at 120 percent, she thinks she is failing; or that she has a blessed life now, with all kinds of support including a personal assistant -- everyone needs a personal assistant! And you may have heard that she called for more work life assistance, from paid time off to quality child care.

Mrs. Obama ended the public part of her speech by saying:

I am looking forward to learning what works and what doesn't work [in business initiatives in work life], what's economically feasible, what I can do to be of help in furthering some of these agendas.

At a private meeting that I attended with her following her speech, Mrs. Obama heard more about "what works" from two companies and asked us why these initiatives aren't more widespread. If family-friendly programs and policies are so good for employers and employees, she asked, then why aren't more companies providing them?

According to my organization's 2008 nationally representative study of the U.S. workforce, Mrs. Obama is right on target. For example, only 50% of employees strongly agree that they have the flexibility they need to successfully manage their work and family lives.

The people around the table suggested a number of reasons why more companies don't provide flexibility and other work life programs. They said it can be more difficult to manage employees who are working flexibly, flexibility is seen as a perk, not a business strategy, and some programs can cost money.

Then a man in finance spoke up. He said, "Show me the dollars saved by these programs." Although it wasn't mentioned, if someone assumes that "presence equals productivity," they dismiss even dollars and cents arguments.

The First Lady has asked for our help, and has said she wants to "further this agenda." What would you say to her is and isn't working and how can the work-life agenda be furthered? I will pass on your comments to her office.

A Peaceful Revolution is a blog about innovative ideas to strengthen America's families through public policies, business practices, and cultural change. Done in collaboration with MomsRising.org, read a new post here each week.

Comments

[Javier Esteban]

prueba

[joebaggadonuts]

I can give you the answer in three sentences:

1. Doing your employees a favor is seen as a sign of weakness, and recognizing the importance of their ability to raise good children even more so.

2. Economics as practiced for the past, oh, I don't know, forever, doesn't take into account holistic values; rather it externalizes costs so that historical firm-centric accounting practices which glorify the short term bottom line looks better if all sacrifices don't show up on the score sheets.

3. There's no entry on the ledger for ethical practices.

[Betsy Boyd-Flynn]

First: please do what you can to shift the dialogue to acknowledge that the changes we need will require MEN demanding them, as well as women.

Second: Find a way to include the voices of the women and men who don't have the luxury to consider choosing not to work for pay; the working poor, who truly have no option. This must not devolve to a conversation of how to better help white-collar workers balance their lives on the backs of blue-collar helpers.

Third: Tell the man who asked after dollars saved: what does it cost you to hire and train a new employee? If you could save employee turnover by making your workplace more attractive, wouldn't that be something to consider? How about because it's a decent thing to do?

[jerzeylin]

I would have to say that there really isn't a way to allow flexibility to family-wit­h-small-ch­ildren-emp­loyees without providing the same options for everyone, and that is why more companies don't do it. Mrs. Obama seems to be taking the role of people-pleaser here. Plus, in a down economy all of the family friendly (a treacly phrase if ever there was one) forced perks go right out the window. Today's mantra is You Know Where The Door Is.

[intelliwoman]

I SO agree

I have no problem with these policies AS LONG AS THEY APPL EQUALLY TO ALL, whetther or not they have children, elderly parents, a sick spouse, WHATEVER

[BobLablah]

I would tell her that it's impossible by definition to work at more than 100%. I'd also ask how and why she kept news of her private chef secret while she lived in Chicago.

[joebaggadonuts]

Go ahead, send her a note so she can put you on her loser list.

[BobLablah]

The sad thing is, they really do keep an enemy list, just like Nixon.