There’s a flood of work life news this week. First, check out the new report on work/family conflict from the Center for American Progress and the Center for WorkLife Law. You will find the results rather shocking and disturbing. I think this report , The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict: The Poor, the Professionals, and the Missing Middle sets stage for some hardcore discussion in Washington about work life legislation.
The work life terrain of 2009 was like riding a jeep through the Sahara Desert and running into an oasis. We began with President Obama’s post-election celebratory Hawaiian vacation – work life integration – beachside. He and First Lady Michelle made working families a top priority
In a recent study by the Families and Work Institute, The State of Health in the American Workplace: Does having an effective workplace matter? a “Climate of respect and trust” is one of six criteria of effective workplaces. A Woman’s Nation takes a different approach.
Part of the challenges are mounting health care issues leading to stress in the workplace. As we recognize National Work & Family Month, workplace wellness is grabbing headlines. Congress is turning up the heat on the health care debate and H1N1 is boiling up a storm on the front burner.
A few days ago she pointed me to Fem 2.0 where a “blog carnival” is taking place posing the question, “what is considered gainful employment” in the 21st century.
The glass ceiling hasn’t been broken on the pay scale, but ambition to potentially shatter it has picked up momentum, and Millennials, (under the age of 29) are in the drivers seat.
It’s that time of the week when we wind down and reflect on the stories impacting our working and living experience. Here’s some of the biggies that galvanized us, and some of the more obscure stories that got me thinking.
Sunday, the Obama transition team announced the new “White House Task Force on Working Families” through a press release which defined this new entity as a major initiative toward, “raising the living standards of the middle-class, working families in America.” President-elect Obama has tapped Vice President-elect Joe Biden to chair the task force.
The jury is still out on this one. There is little word on how the workplace will be impacted by an Obama Administration other than some threads of concern that if business is footed with a bill of higher taxes, workers might feel the brunt of their annoyance.
Our work life scenario as a nation might have been plucked from the depths of stagnation. Perhaps. Either way, the chasm separating the interests of big business and labor desperately needs to be narrowed.
