Working flexibly for your family
In the wake of prevalent corporate restructuring, traditional hierarchical organizational careers have become less prominent. The evolving sequence of work experiences has increasingly become more mobile, disrupted, discontinuous and improvisational. Focus has moved from employment to employability through a process of lifelong learning. There are more viable options than full-time permanent work.
Concerns about work-family balance as well as traffic congestion have contributed to companies’ granting workers more freedom of action and maneuverability for as long as results are achieved. Traditional working conditions, anchored on time and place of work, are increasingly becoming deregulated. Companies have realized that offering flexibility makes sense.
Many organizations have created flexible work environments, in which time and place of work are not determined by the organization but by the employees. These organizations have adopted flexible working policies and practices such as flexible working hours, part-time work, job sharing, and telecommuting.
Under a flexi-time work arrangement, employees are allowed to work for an agreed number of hours spread over a set period in order to manage the workers’ work and family commitments. Part-time work, on the other hand, consists of working fewer hours than full-time employees work. Telecommuting is working away from company location, usually at home, by using technology. Job sharing is when two employees cover the same full- time job, with each working a proportion of the hours.
Studies have shown that employees who work flexibly are more satisfied with their jobs and their lives, and experience better work- family balance. Flexible work arrangements have also reportedly increased productivity and quality of work.
Flexible work arrangements balance work and family requirements. The roles we play in our family and work impose demands, expectations, responsibilities and pressures on us.
In a traditional setting, men have the primary responsibility to set the direction for the family. Women, traditionally the homemakers, are primarily responsible for caring for the family members. Family concerns such as procre- ation, parenting, and household management need to be aligned with career demands, work schedules, achievements, and traditional notions of success. In the process, work is restructured to meet family needs and vice-versa.
Flexibility is present among professional, bureaucratic and entrepreneurial careers. In a bureaucratic career in an organization, employees can have a successful career and successful family life at the same time.
Employers play a decisive role to make this happen. Company policy is key to allowing workers to have a fulfilled and active working life and to meet their home and family commitments. The willing employer will facilitate the balance between work, personal and family demands, not because employees want it but because they need it. Multinationals in the Philippines, such as Johnson & Johnson and IBM, are examples of familyfriendly workplaces that offer flexible working arrangements to their employees. Johnson & Johnson is specifically aligning these programs with their company credo, which states: “We must be mindful of ways to help our employees fulfill their family responsibilities.”
In a professional career where one acquires socially valued knowledge and expertise within professional boundaries and in an entrepreneurial career in an organization one has created, an individual keeps himself or herself competitive and entrepreneurial for the family.
The family is an emotional commitment that is deep, lasting, and permanent while a job is subject to change. Thus, when family and work seem to be at odds, it should be kept in mind that the family has long-term preeminence over work. It is good that both workers and employers have come to realize this. Through flexibility, work adds value to the person and his or her loved ones. A healthy balance between work and family is achieved.