What do you call the process by which an employer who offered flexible work arrangements to employees for years suddenly decides to retrograde flexibility? Unflexing.

Of all the reasons given about why U.S. workplaces shouldn't worry about work-life issues, this one is probably the most simpleminded one I've heard in a while: Being a workaholic is good for your career and life.

When so many of us think about work-life issues the image that often comes to mind is that of a working mother. Well, 2013 will hopefully see an end to that as more and more working men start fighting for their own piece of the work-life pie.

Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a disaster to change perceptions when it comes to how workers work and what makes sense for employers.

Like every other workplace in America, employees at the State Department have lives beyond work, and many at the agency recognize employees can be more engaged in their mission if their personal and home life are working well.

"Workplace flexibility" was the term that would lead me to salvation. Except it didn't. There's as much negativity around that term today as there was five years ago around "work-life."