Cindy Ayers's List: Alternate Work Arrangements: Win or Lose for Company execs?

WP#4-Portfolio-Reflection revision suggestions

This assignment did not receive any critical peer reviews. However, after reading comments from Mr. Adams it was obvious I missed the grading criteria. The primary revision I would make is first review the grading criteria and make sure I understand every component and requirement. Thorough evaluation of the sources was a key element to the success of this writing as it would be used in the integration of sources needed to support my perspective in my final writing project. Obviously I would revise this in order to receive a higher grade on the assignment.
Introduction

Bankers hours, 9 to 5, sunrise to sunset. These are all terms for standard work schedules. Can you guess which schedule fits which occupation? Obviously the term bankers hours is a schedule most likely to pertain to workers in the banking or corporate financial filed. The term 9 to 5 generally refers to those workers in many government office jobs like the department of motor vehicles or courthouses. And sunrise to sunset is a schedule that is most often endured by farmers, although most farmers I have ever known are usually up and working long before sun-up and continue well beyond the great streetlight in the sky comes up after dark. These types of work schedules are becoming less and less commonplace in our corporate society due to a global economy, workers desiring a easier way to balance work-family life, opportunities for employers to reduce office space cost, and a desire to reduce carbon footprints of corporations. Offering employees flexible or alternate work schedules may not be a question of win or lose for company executives after all. It may mean both employer and employee can experience substantial benefit. But can there be benefit without risk? Although it may be possible, it is unlikely in the case of offering alternate work schedules, especially for certain types of businesses.
Flexible Work Arrangements: Do they really improve productivity?

Jan 29, 11

Koch, K. (1998, August 14). Flexible work arrangements. CQ Researcher, 8, 697-720. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/

This article addresses alternate work arrangements: Telecommuting and flexible schedules. Information regarding increase/decrease productivity, cost/savings associated to providing these alternate arrangements, and benefits to employers who offer such options is discussed as well.

library.cqpress.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/...document.php flexible work schedule telecommuting virtual work environment virtual alternate work schedule
What are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Alternate Work Schedules?

Feb 12, 11

Waichler, Iris What are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Alternate Work Schedules? eHow 1 Apr. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2011
http://www.ehow.com/facts_6178437_strengths-weaknesses-alternate-work-schedules_.html

This article shares some strengths and weakensses as they pertain to alternative work schedules. Included are stigmas commonplace in work environments where some but not all employees participate in alternative schedules.

www.ehow.com/alternate-work-schedules_.html alternative work schedules strengths and weaknesses of alternative work schedules workplace stigmas
Life Beyond Pay - Work-life balance

Mar 03, 11

Economist. 17 June 2006. 379(8482): 73-74 Retrieved from Academic Search Premier http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?hid=13&sid=eb6df873-e4af-485a-a7f1-9697bc7f8071%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=21213550

Employees are seeking work that fits their lifestyle better than their workstyle. Some companies saw the change of mood some time ago. IBM has more than 50 different programs promoting work-life balance and Bank of America over 30. However, there are many other firms that remain unconvinced and lack the ability to offer such benefits even if they wanted to.

login.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/login work_life balance flexible employment
How to ask your boss for flexible work hours

Mar 03, 11

Shields, Julie (2004) How to ask your boss for flexible work hours. T+D. Jan2004 58(1):14 Retrieved from Academic Search Premier http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?hid=13&sid=0cf08773-b5ff-4583-96c2-86a29dea38c1%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=12418216

Julie Shields is an advocate for family-friendly work environments. This article is taken from a trade magazine T+D (Training and Developoment) and provides some helpful tips on how to request a flexible work schedule from your boss. Critical points to consider when approaching your boss is to present your request in a serious and professional manner. If you do a little investigative work upfront and find out what the company policies are you will have a better idea of how to present your request. Some companies have enjoyed significant savings in employee turnover and retraining costs. Employment performance and satisfaction is known to have increased when companies offer flexibility in the work schedule.

login.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/login negotiate work schedule flexible work flexible work schedule
A time to work: Recent trends in shift work and flexible schedules

Feb 25, 11

McMenamin, Terrence M. (2007) A time to work: recent trends in shift work and flexible schedules. Monthly Labor Review, Dec. 2007. 130,12. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2007/12/mlr200712.pdf
It is a very detailed and labor intensive resource. I will skim it for statistical data to support or argue the research question of this writing. This article provides information regarding the various groups of people who work an AWS (Alternate Work Schedule). It provides statistical data ranging from percentage of male and female coworkers from 1985-2004 who worked AWS and includes race and industry data.

www.bls.gov/...mlr200712.pdf statistics for flexible schedules AAWS alternate work schedules trends in workplace
Why your office isn't like GOOGLE'S

Mar 03, 11

Welch, J. & Welch, S. (2008) Why your office isn't like GOOGLE'S. BusinessWeek. 25Aug. 2008. 4097: 100 Retrieved from Academic Search Premier http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?hid=13&sid=a75fba5f-5607-4b14-8bd7-2d02405b2434%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=33870604

This article discusses GOOGLE Corp and their philosophy that offering flexibility in the workplace, not only with schedules but with employee involvement is critical to business success. With employee empowerment a company will reap the benefits of an employee pool that has high morale and a desire for improved productivity.

web-ebscohost-com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/...detail employee empowerment flextime flexible
Telecommuter Occupational Outlook Quarterly

Feb 19, 11

Mariani, M. (2007) Telecommuters. Occupational Outlook Quarterly Fall 2007. 8 pgs. Web. www.bls.gov

This was obtained using google and was found at the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. Article by Matthew Mariani taken from Occupational Outlook Quarterly fall 2000. Discusses what telecommuting is and why it is on the rise. It provides information on the technology required to support telecommuters. It also provides a telecommuter self-assessment to determine if telecommuting is right for you.

www.bls.gov/...art02.pdf telecommute telecommuting benefits telecommuting problems
Hospitals offer flexible work schedules, boost morale

Mar 05, 11

Howell, Whitney L. J. (2010) Hospitals offer flexible work schedules, boost morale. H&HN: Hospitals & Health Networks Aug 2010. 84(8): 11 Retrieved from Academic Search Premier http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?hid=13&sid=74fd72b3-0eac-40a4-90a4-57e688c22fe6%40sessionmgr10&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=53067710
This article shares benefits some hospitals have enjoyed by offering flexible work schedules and telecommuting options to employees. Not only is morale and employee satisfaction improved, where telecommuting options are available hospitals can use the vacated office space to expand medical programs.

login.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/login flexible work schedule employee satisfaction flexible
More tips to Reduce Employee Turnover

Feb 12, 11

Heathfield, Susan M. More Tips to Reduce Employee Turnover. Weblog. Retrieved from About.com 18 Feb. 2011.
http://humanresources.about.com/od/retention/a/turnover_tips.htm

This blog posting provides tips employers can use to retain employees. By providing not only competitive slalary and benefit packages, by introducing a couple of other benefits employers can increase the loyalty of their employees. One of the tips incliuded in the list is offering flexible work schedules.

humanresources.about.com/...turnover_tips.htm human resource strategies alternative work schedules
Work, Family and Stress: Can overworked Americans cope with today's time crunch? 13

Jan 29, 11

Clark, C. S. (1992, August 14). Work, family and stress. CQ Researcher, 2, 689-712. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/
This source was found using the MCC database CQ Researcher. The article presents the conflicts of balancing work, family, leisure in the live of Americans. Information discussing how some manage it by telecommuting or flexible work schedules helps with the stress.

library.cqpress.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/...document.php flexible schedules telecommuting stress work work family stress
- Conflicts between work and family continue to raise questions about the roles of men and women, questions that society has been struggling with since women first entered the work force in large numbers three decades ago.
- The frustration was evident in a 1990 Roper Organization poll, which found that for the first time in 15 years, more respondents (41 percent) said the most important thing in their lives was leisure rather than work (36 percent).
- The craving for more time was shown to be exacting a toll on people's health. Scientists expressed amazement at the number of Americans who were sacrificing sleep to get more done and showing up at work visibly drowsy. “Stress is running like fire through the American workplace,” said an official of Northwestern National Life Insurance Co., which surveyed its employees this year and found that 65 percent suffered from exhaustion and insomnia.
- Some are organizing interested parents, some are campaigning for a shorter workweek, some are negotiating for more flexible workplace rules and some are seeking help from government, among them liberals concerned about children in poverty and conservatives promoting “family values.”
- For decades, one of the most vocal critics of women who leave their children for work has been conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly. “I believe babies need moms,” she now says. “But I urge young women to choose a career for part-time work, and I support flexible [workplace] options.”
- The solution to the time famine that attracts support across the political spectrum is the movement to make the workplace “family friendly.” The smorgasbord of benefits that many companies have begun to offer includes varying combinations of on-site child care, financial aid or referral services for child care, job sharing, voluntary part-time work with benefits, maternity leave, leave for adoptive parents or employees with elderly relatives who are sick, flexitime, telecommuting (see story, p. 704) and flexible combinations of benefits, known as “cafeteria” plans.
- A recent survey of 1,000 major firms by Hewitt Associates found that 66 percent are providing some form of help with child care, 36 percent help with elder care, 53 percent offer flexible scheduling and 51 percent offer parental leave. According to the Corporate Reference Guide to Work-Family Programs, published in 1991 by the Families and Work Institute and the Ford Foundation, the most family-friendly companies are Aetna Life and Casualty, Corning, IBM and Johnson & Johnson.
- The main reason companies are pitching in, notes the institute's Galinsky, is to stay competitive with rival companies in recruitment and retention of quality employees. She also notes that in the long run, family benefits will sweeten a company's bottom line by keeping employees loyal.
- Despite a number of well-publicized changes, however, corporate resistance to family-friendly flexibility remains pervasive, specialists agree. The demand for a shorter work week, as Juliet Schor observed, goes against many executives' views of how to keep their companies profitable. Three-fourths of the CEOs in a Fortune magazine poll said “competing with [the] Japanese will require us to push managers harder,” she noted. In fact, shorter work hours are classified by the Commerce Department as a negative “leading economic indicator,” points out University of Iowa Professor Benjamin K. Hunnicutt, author of Work Without End.
- “Employers see a slippery slope,” says Maria Lacquer, executive director of the Association of Part-Time Professionals. “They say, ‘If I let one employee do it, I'd have to let everyone, and no work will get done.' There's also a perception that managers and supervisors resent it because they can't schedule meetings or take time off themselves.”
- “For the most part,” says Diane Generous, senior associate director of employee relations of the National Association of Manufacturers in Washington, “the manager's attitude remains, ‘I came up the hard way, I sacrificed, took time from my kids, and everyone should do it if he expects to move up.'”
- A study by the Washington-based Urban Institute surveyed companies to determine how family-friendly benefits broke down among income classes.
- Flexitime was offered to 26 percent of employees from high-income families but to only 13 percent of those from low-income families; the work-at-home option was available to 16 percent of upper-income families but to only 4 percent of low-income families; and “cafeteria” benefits packages were available to 9 percent of employees from high-income households but to only 5 percent of the poor. Is there a role for government in relieving work-family stress?
11 more annotations...
California's overtime law makes alternative scheduling easier

Mar 05, 11

Laabs, Jennifer J. (1998) California's overtime law makes alternative scheduling easier. Workforce. Mar 1998. 77(3): 14 Retrieved from Academic Search Premier https://web-ebscohost-com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?hid=21&sid=44718d86-17ff-4436-84f3-4eaeb91a759b%40sessionmgr10&vid=3&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=339947
This article focuses on the the California overtime law which was instituted in 1998 allows employers an easier time of offering flexible work schedules to employees. Previous law required employers to pay overtime rates to employees who worked over 8 hours in a day. The new law allows employers to pay premium rates when an employee reaches in excess of 40 hours in a week.

login.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/login alternative work schedules overtime California employment law employment
Good work, At times

Mar 03, 11

Alini, Erica. (2011). Good work, at times. Maclean's. 24Jan. 2011. 124(2):42. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?hid=13&sid=c01a9453-25aa-4c67-a1fa-f2520f296d1f%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=57419605

Part-time employment in Canada is on the rise. And although some may think that a rise in part-time employement may be a sign of the recession, it may not be all that bad after all. The article states that findings from a survey of Canadian workers found the only factor more imporant than salary was the ability to enjoy a flexible work schedule when looking for a new job. Further statements in the article also mention turnover rates are greatly reduced when companies offer flexible work schedules according to many U.S. companies.

login.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu/login flexible work schedule employment attracting workers
Conclusion

In review of the research I have conducted to this point, I have discovered I have chosen more information that expresses my theories and viewpoint. My goal in this research and writing assignment was to be as objective as possible but I find myself gravitate to data that substantiates my opinion on the subject. I realize now after evaluating my resources more thoroughly, I must find resources that provide another viewpoint. I may have to conduct personal interviews if I cannot find sources that will provide another perspective.

1 - 15 of 15

20 items/page

List Comments (0)

List Info

Cindy Ayers

15 items | 24 visits

This list is to provide organization of resources I collect to support my WP#2 writing assignment for ENG-102, Annotated Bibliography. I plan to provide a comparison or argumentative writing asking the question: Alternative Work Schedules: Win or lose for company Executives?

Updated on Apr 29, 11
Created on Mar 03, 11

Category: Business & Finance

URL:

Cindy Ayers's List: Alternate Work Arrangements: Win or Lose for Company execs?

Work, Family and Stress: Can overworked Americans cope with today's time crunch? 13

List Info