London Girl Geek Dinner Panel Discussion Questions August 2008

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WORK LIFE ‘BALANCE’ IN I.T.? DEBATING CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

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These are the slides from the Girl Geek Dinner 3 year anniversary by Dr Al James who hosted the panel discussion on Work Life Balance. For more information please see the www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk website where the video, write up and slides about this event can be found.

Transcript of London Girl Geek Dinner Panel Discussion Questions August 2008

Page 1: London Girl Geek Dinner Panel Discussion Questions August 2008

WORK LIFE ‘BALANCE’ IN

I.T.?

DEBATING CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

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The Rise of the Work-Life ‘Balance’ Agenda in the UK

Multi-variable juggling act – finite resources of time and energy

WLB: ‘the absence of unacceptable levels of conflict between work and non-work demands’ (Greenblatt 2002: 179) (but not the only term!)

Work Foundation (Cowling 2005): UK 2nd longest ave work hrs of all EU members states (around 6% of male & 4% of female working population work over 60 hrs per week)

Problems vary by sector – IT as particularly problematic

1990s onwards: working longer, harder, to less predictable schedules

Same time, increased female labour participation rates; household life more complex: e.g. more dual earner, lone-parent households

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Profound Social Importance of (Uncertain) WLB ‘Business Case’

Not just arrangements for / parents mothers: WLB (in theory!) extends earlier work-family focus to all

Lack of WLB: stress, lesser physical & psychological well-being, family / marital strain

TUC, Amicus: providing WLB arrangements crucial for (re)stabilising households, improving worker well-being, (re)integrating society, improving gender equality

However, employer implementation rests on demonstration of ‘bottom-line’ advantages

‘Business case’ also underpins UK govt WLB campaign

HOWEVER: still highly uncertain; ongoing dearth of empirical evidence to inform (still partial) understanding

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1. Everyday Causes & Consequences of Work-Life Conflict in IT?

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2. Preferred Flexible Working / WLB Arrangements for Overcoming Those Conflicts?

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2. Preferred Flexible Working / WLB Arrangements for Overcoming Those Conflicts?

Flexibility of WHEN work is done

Flexibility of WHERE work is done

REDUCED TOTAL work hours

Employer assistance with childcare

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3. Benefits of Using Different WLB Arrangements?

For Workers? Employers? Families?

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4. Drawbacks of Using Different WLB Arrangements?

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5. Ongoing Challenges & Ways Forward

Line manager buy in

Cultures of presenteeism

Some job roles simply not amenable

Resource constraints (small firms)

Appropriateness of WLB term itself?

Engendering a deeper cultural shift

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IDENTIFIED BENEFIT AT FIRM SCALE

WLB POLICY IMPLEMENTED

Increased Productivity

Improved retention

Improved recruitment

Decreased absenteeism

Decreased turnover

‘Flexible work arrangements’ / ‘Flexible work schedules’ Scholars tend (differently) to sum: flextime, part-time work, telecommuting / flexplace, job sharing, compressed work weeks

McCampbell 1996 Perry-Smith and Blum (2000) Rodgers (1992) Seylor et al. (1993) Shepard et al.(1996) Boyer (1993); Dex et al. (2001) (part-time)

Hannah (1994) Rodgers (1992) Bevan et al. (1997)

Baltes et al. (1999) Dalton and Mesch, (1990) Rodgers (1992) Seylor et al. (1993) TUC (1998)

Batt and Valcour (2003) Glass and Riley (1998) Rodgers (1992) Seylor et al. (1993) Scandura and Lankau (1997) Dex et al. (2001) (flextime, job share, homeworking)

Employer-supported childcare policies

Seylor et al. (1993) Perry-Smith and Blum, 2000 Dex et al. (2001) (parental leave, paternity leave)

Grover and Crocker (1995)

Kossek and Nichol (1992) Seylor et al. (1993)

Seylor et al. (1993) Goff et al. (1990)

Kossek and Nichol (1992) Seylor et al. (1993)

Parental leave Includes maternity and paternity leave (paid and unpaid)

Human Resource Management (1996): paid time off for family illness

Glass and Riley (1998): maternity leave - paid and unpaid

Studies Supporting the WLB ‘Business Case’

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Major causes of work-life conflictHighly variable workloads over devt cycleNeed for rapid response to client crisesInternational work teams in multiple time zonesMaintaining skill sets in dynamic IT sector

Everyday experiences of work life conflictinterrupted sleep patternsstress and exhaustionregular evening and weekend workingrelationships with partner / children

sufferingworking (at home) when feeling unwellmissing out on leisure / hobbies

Everyday Causes & Experiences of Work-Life Conflict: Strongly Gendered (c.f. enlightened policy rhetoric!)

If you just try and deal with it, you’ll just muddle through, same as you always have. But, the only way I could

make a decision for us as a family was to play it forward 20 yrs. OK, there would be more money in the bank,

that’s if we’re still talking to each other, if the kids haven’t gone off the rails because we haven’t had time to sit down and talk anymore... Female

Business Devt Manager, now on 3 day work week, Dublin

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Policy Type

Description Examples

Flexible Work Arrangements

Policies designed to give workers greater ‘flexibility’ in the scheduling and location of work hours while not decreasing average work hours per week

Flextime (flexible beginning or end work time, sometimes with core hours) Flexplace / Telecommuting (all or part of the week occurs at home) Job sharing (one job undertaken by 2 or more persons) Annualised hours

Reduced Work Hours

Policies designed to reduce workers’ hours

Part-time work Compressed work weeks (employees compact total working hours into 4 days rather than 5) Term-time working

Practical Help with Child Care

Policies designed to provide ‘workplace social support’ for parents

Employer-subsidised childcare – in-site Employer-subsidised childcare – off-site Information service for childcare Workplace parent support group Breast-feeding facilities Policy of actively informing staff of benefits available

Personal Leave

Policies and benefits that give leave to provide time for personal commitments & family caregiving

Extra-statutory maternity leave Extra-statutory paternity leave Adoption leave Unpaid leave during school holidays Guaranteed Christmas leave Use of own sick leave to care for sick children Leave for caring for elder relatives Emergency leave Study leave Sports achievement leave

Range of WLB Arrangements (Differentially) Available in Dublin & Cambs IT Firms

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Reducing Negative Impacts of WLB Take-up On Workplace Interactions

Range of mediating solutions identified so far:

house sharing for home workers

in-house instant messaging systems (constant informal chat)

communal customer email systems (two job sharers, one email account)

centralised online data storage (eliminates problems of files left elsewhere)

video conferencing

‘blueberrying’ (double edged sword)

HOWEVER: negative perceptions from customers still a strong limiting factor (e.g. Huntingdon web design / part-time working court case)