As reported by Web Worker Daily, a new law in the UK allows workers to request flexible work schedules.
I wonder how long before something like this is implemented in the United States? With the current regulations on maternity leave and the state of the economy, a flexible environment like what is being offered in the UK would be beneficial to not just parents, but businesses as well.
Today found this mom working from home while tending to a baby with a fat lip following the morning from hell. See, my 10 1/2 month old daughter is now walking...but still very clumsy. We were at the hospital getting a CT scan done on her (she's got a cyst on her eye that needs to be removed so the CT scan was to get imaging on that), and she's running around the waiting room, seeing how fast she can go when...splat, mouth-first into the floor. Tears, screaming, blood and swelling followed. What better place for this to happen than at a hospital, right? She's fine now (I worked from home to keep an eye on her as a precaution). Our problems are minor and acute, but with this situation and the baby's impending eye surgery (as well as a surgery of my own in the near future), medical problems are always very stressful. I'm fortunate to have the option to work remotely on occasion, but I have an appreciation for the struggle faced by parents whose children have chronic medical problems, who need to work in order to keep insurance or pay for medical costs, and do not have the option to work remotely. But if we had a policy in place in the US similar to what's being done in the UK, it would be one less stressor on families whose lives are already stressful enough.
What do you think? Would broad-scale flexible work legislation be beneficial in the US?
1 comment:
The biggest "problem" - and I hesitate to call it that because that's more of an opinion than anything else - with this country is that our concept of work-life balance is out-of-whack. We treat working overtime and putting job above all else as a badge of honor; it's considered a "win" if you only have to work 40 hours in a week. With an attitude like that, I suspect it'll be very difficult to get enough oomph behind that kind of legislation in this country.
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