TAKE IT EASY: Flexible working conditions can lead to greater productivity

Benefits like the flexibility to see a child’s soccer game or leave work in time to get to a night class play a vital role in job satisfaction, workers say. Those saying include an increasing number of men.

And employers continue to offer more flexibility and add policies and programmes that support a balance between work and living, like child-care assistance, tuition reimbursement and paid leave for new fathers as well as mothers. The reasoning goes that a happy worker is healthier and more productive, saving the company money on health care.

Still, many Americans heed a conflicting implicit set of rules that say that dedicated workers hungry for success will put in long hours and sacrifice personal commitments for professional ones.

Face time ? the amount of time an employee’s face is seen in the office ? remains crucial for workers seeking top ranks in corporate America, said Susan A. DePhillips, who interviewed about 75 executives for her book, Corporate Confidential: What It Really Takes to Get to the Top.

“The instinct is if they’re physically here, and I can see them and I can better control what they’re doing, then that’s a better situation,” said DePhillips, a consultant and former vice president for human resources at Ross Stores, based in Pleasanton, California. Last year, 71 per cent of employers said they offered flextime, up from 32 per cent in 1996, according to a survey by Mellon Financial. Half of employers offered work-at-home options in 2004, compared with 9 per cent in 1996.

However, research shows that workers often do not use those options. In fact, 50 per cent of benefits managers say that some employees believe “using work-life benefits might hurt their career advancement”, according to a poll in June by Employee Benefit News. And 34 per cent of workers agree that work demands “seriously interfere with their private lives”, up from 24 per cent in 2002, according to surveys by ISR, a Chicago-based employee research and consulting firm. When it comes to what people want, flexibility rates increasingly high on the list. In fact, men are more and more seeking schedules that allow time to care for children and parents.

On a 1-to-5 scale men ranked balance, on average, at 4.43, and women at 4.59, according to research by the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Virginia. And younger workers value work-life balance more than older workers, which partly explains the gap between policy and practice. In fact, it is the No 1 factor in job satisfaction for workers aged 35 and younger, the society found, while the 36-to-55 age group rated it third, and those 56 and older ranked it seventh, well behind concerns about benefits and job security.

Many workplace cultures reward long hours and personal sacrifice, particularly in the current climate where fewer people shoulder heavier workloads. To change that culture, companies need work-life “champions,” one or more high-level managers who believe in flexibility, encourage workers to use it and point out the payoffs ? loyalty, productivity and reduced turnover costs ? to other leaders, she said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has long offered work-life benefits like part-time schedules. A worker can even become a partner on reduced hours. Yet many of the accounting firm’s 24,000 American employees sacrifice personal time and forgo vacation to keep up with heavy workloads.

“Workaholism is a badge of honour,” said Jennifer Allyn, director of the firm’s diversity office. Now management is trying to change that, particularly after learning in exit interviews that many employees cited lack of balance as a reason for leaving.

“Every time someone walks out the door it costs us $80,000,” Allyn said.

Supervisors are urging employees to plan real vacations ? not just a day here and there, but bigger chunks of time without their laptops. Scott Stevenson, 36, is among the rising ranks of men looking for more flexibility from their employers.

When he transferred from the PricewaterhouseCoopers Los Angeles office to New York two years ago, Stevenson sought and found a short commute ? 25 minutes by bus and train to Montclair, N.J. ? and leaves work around 5 p.m. at least three nights a week to get home to his wife and two young sons.

“It takes a bit of self-confidence” to leave before many of his co-workers, he said. “I can’t say there aren’t times when I am leaving at 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and there are people working away I don’t feel a twinge of guilt.” “There’s a culture not only in PWC, but New York in general, an expectation that there are longer hours,” he said. Recently promoted to human resources director, Stevenson said he achieved balance by managing his time well.

That is essential, said Bill Jensen of Morristown, N.J., an employers’ consultant whose mission “is how to make it easier to get stuff done.” Whether or not a company supports work-life balance for its employees, workers are responsible for achieving it, said Jensen, author of The Simplicity Survival Handbook. He suggests workers look at their life holistically, ask what they want their legacy to be, then shape their personal and professional lives around that vision.

Many workers could reclaim a few hours a day by skipping meetings with little relevance to their job, and navigating e-mail more efficiently, Jensen said.

In companies where there is no policy in place, Seitel suggests that workers submit a proposal ? like working from home on Fridays ? and explain how they will accomplish their work.