This past Sunday NY Times Magazine was titled The Work Issue and we applaud them for continuing to push the topic. One article in particular, Parent Companies, focused on companies changing their entire office culture to create to increase flexibility Here is a sample that perfectly sums up why The Second Shift is not just trying to find flexible jobs for our small sample of women, we are trying to effectively change the way that businesses think about work/ life balance, career path fluidity and working women. This is our mission and we are thrilled to see that the cultural zeitgeist is moving in our direction.
Workers in the experimental group were told they could work wherever, and whenever, they chose so long as projects were completed on time and goals were met; the new emphasis would be on results rather than on the number of hours spent in the office. Managers were trained to be supportive of their employees’ personal issues and were formally encouraged to open up about their own priorities outside work — an ill parent, or a child wanting her mom to watch her soccer games. Managers were given iPods that buzzed twice a day to remind them to think about the various ways they could support their employees as they managed their jobs and home lives.
The research found that employees in the experimental group met their goals as reliably as those in the control group, and they were, in short, much happier: They were sleeping better, were healthier and experienced less stress. Other studies examining the same workplace found that the effects even cascaded down to employees’ children, who reported less volatility around their own daily stresses; adolescents saw the quality of their sleep improve. A year out, and then three years out, employees in the experimental group reported less interest in leaving the organization than those in the control group.