The Effect Of Flexible Work Programs On Employee Motivation

As a child, I’ve seen my parents focused the majority of their time and energy at their work to provide for our family. In 2000, the U.S Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics had recorded that working couples with children under 18 years of age worked an average of 66 hours a week compared to couples without children, who worked an

Studies suggest that when the number of children in the home rise, and as the age of the youngest child decreases, there are more conflicts within the family. In establishing relationships with children, parents struggle to manage work and family, including having insufficient time to completely focus on both the necessities of work and family (Cichy, Stawski, & Almeida, 2012). Due to new job obligations, MJ experiences work stress independently, enhancing personal and financial stressors. There can be an adverse effect between job security and father-child relationship due to fathers striving to secure careers so they are able to provide for their family. As personal stressors are experienced more regularly, so are perceptions that one’s work obligations increase negative effects on their family life (Minnotte, Pedersen, & Mannon, 2013).

If the workplace of today could be characterized by a single theme, it would most likely focus on the continual presence of change. Dramatic changes in technology, the marketplace and the workforce have compelled organizations to re-evaluate not only the competitiveness of their products, but also the core ways in which work is performed. It is out of this pursuit for continued survival that organizations have been faced with the notion of varying work-schedules beyond the traditional hours of nine to five. This paper will explore the societal and business changes that have led to a proliferation in flexible work patterns. This paper will also address the benefits and disadvantages of flexible work patterns for

Work-life balance has been a popular topic for employees across all age and occupations for years, representing a rising concern of contemporary human resource management and labor policies. This topic has attracted the attention from the millennium generation, who is stepping into the market and beginning to grow a career. Therefore considering the increasing demand, well-designed workforce planning with diverse scheduling options offered to employees appears to be extra credits for most companies. This research paper aims to communicate the positive effects of four-day workweek, and providing support for why employers should adopt this schedule for employees and themselves through 1) introducing background and history of four-day workweek as a work schedule option and 2) demonstrating benefits of four-day workweek from both employer and employees’ perspectives.

According to Statistics Canada, the amount of two parented full time working families has gone up 17% since the 1980’s. As a result of such an outcome, more employees in larger and smaller based companies are finding it harder to keep up with both risen work loads and home life necessities, which in turn have caused more absentees in the work place. The reason being for this is due to

Flexible work shifts have been on the rise due to changes in demographics such as higher amounts of females in the workplace and dual income households (Idris, 2014). In most health care industry positions, employees may be required to work long hours and shift hours. These shifts can be very hard on employee morale and welfare. Strenuous and difficult shifts can lead to burnout and high retention rates (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2014). Alegent Health offers flexible work schedules in order to help employees gain a balance between their work and personal lives. Alegent Health’s willingness to be flexible with their employees increases their retention

Flexibility is important when it comes to choosing a job and balancing home life. Ways that lower-income parents have less flexibility at work than higher-income parents can be due to the job they have and the education they have received. This is one of the situations that lower-earning women typically deal with because they get fewer benefits (health insurance, sick leave..) than higher-earning women. If a woman gets pregnant, she needs to go on maternity leave and if she has a low-income job, chances are she won't get paid leave. If she has a high-income job, she probably has more flexibility benefits at work and might have a shot at paid maternity leave. Flexplace and flextime are options for parents to overlap work time and place with child-care situations (Hill). With that option, they are able to do their work from home. For someone with a low-income job, that wouldn't be an option. When raising children, women will have less income (Slaughter) and lower

Support fair scheduling practices- Workers risk losing their job because they lack the flexibility to alter their schedules when they need to take their child to the dentist or pick up a sick child from school—tasks that are more likely to fall to mothers than fathers. Legislation has been passed in Vermont and San Francisco in the past year that provides workers with a “right to request,” allowing them to ask for greater flexibility or scheduling predictability from their employer without jeopardizing their job. Being able to keep a job is essential to closing the gender pay gap.

Brief summary of information: Provides suggestions and options for employer on developing and managing equitable flexible work practices.

These types of workplaces have been directly linked to less work-family conflict (Kelly 267). By providing schedule control, employees have the ability to work closer to home and spend more hours a day with their families, decreasing the effects of negative work-family spillover. An example of this type of workplace would be the ROWE, results only work environment, initiative. At this workplace employees can do “whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done” (Kelly 269). By setting this mentality in workers, they are far these prone to the work stress that triggers negative work-family spillover. According to the American Psychological Association psychologically healthier workplaces produce higher rates of employee satisfaction and 50% less employees reporting chronic work stress (“APA Center”). This then allows the workers a less likely chance of seeing any work-family spillover in their lives. As with every solution, creating psychologically healthy workplaces has its withdrawals and

As a single parent I agree when I hear people say employers should provide a flexible work environment for employees. I understand this is not always possible, that some jobs require “strict timetables”. However, that applies to only a number of jobs. There are so many industries that are able to operate more freely.

Flexible work schedule allows workers to vary their arrival as well as departure time to their workplaces. About 27% of the United States workforce currently reports the capability to change their daily starting as well as ending times to work. But the provisions of flexibility in the timing of work seem not to be keeping pace with the demand. There also seem to be much disparity in the access to scheduling flexibility by employees demographic as well as work together with job characteristics. Research finds that the possibility that an employee tends to have such flexibility is decreased by being female as well as non-white together with less educated. Flexibility tends to be reduced for those working a normal shift or forty hour workweek. Hence employees sacrifice their leisure time or income for them to get better access to flexibility in work scheduling (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2014).

Single parents trying to make a living and be in their children’s’ lives can also cause negativity in the workplace. This can cause negativity because people are asked to work overtime at work or switch hours with someone for a certain reason. It’s hard for a single parent to work overtime when they want to be in their children’s lives and they are the only parent in the household. It’s also hard for them to switch hours because when they find a job they usually try to find a job that gives them hours while their children are in school so that they can be with them before and after school and on the weekends. There are some jobs that fire people because they can’t work overtime or switch hours or ask for off time on a holiday. Some single parents are even working minimum wage jobs just so that they have some kind of income coming in to support them and their family. Dujon made a very good point, “If businesses had a work ethic they would gladly establish a family friendly culture that allows parents to meet their children's physical, psychological and financial needs.” (Dujon par. 2) This is true because if a business had a work ethic then they would understand the importance of family values. There are after school programs, but most of them are too expensive for someone working a minimum or low wage job and raising a family. It’s also hard to find a baby sitter when most people have a job and many people don’t know their neighbors well enough to allow them

In this context, women have ben able to find work outside of the home, yet they have received governmental assistance for child daycare to offset the time and energy needed to raise their children while they work. This point of view provides a counterargument to the idea of financial compensation for work in the domestic sphere, yet it does not adequately resolve the complex issues that mother’s face when they come home after work. More so, mother’s that cannot find work have no financial recourse in their daily work activities in the home.

In the article “Work/Life Balance for working Single Parent!” the audience for the website is general. The information presented on this website is primary since the person is writing from her own personal experience as a working single parent. The article on this website can be easily read, since the information provide is general. The page link does not link to any additional websites or organizations. In this specific article, there is no bibliography or list of cited reference (Broadley).