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Subscribe to RSSGive me more workplace flexibility, or give me death.
Well, maybe not death. But it turns out employees are willing to sacrifice a lot in exchange for more flexibility at work.
A survey by staffing company Mom Corps released Thursday found that so-called "workflex opportunities" are worth more than money for some employees.
Here are some of the findings from Mom Corps’ second annual Labor Day poll, conducted by Harris Interactive:
- Nearly half of working adults surveyed (45 percent) are willing to give up some percentage of their salary for more flexibility at work.
- And they’re willing to give back nearly 9 percent of their wages on average, an uptick from the amount they would be willing to fork over in last year's survey (5.8 percent).
“We are beginning to see significant patterns in the value professionals of all ages place on workplace flexibility,” said Allison O’Kelly, founder and CEO of Mom Corps. “More and more, we feel challenged by the collective pressures of a demanding work life, a hectic personal life and a desire to find fulfillment in both.”
Unfortunately, according to Families and Work Institute (FWI) data, workflex arrangements aren’t exactly exploding in the workplace to meet the demand.
Only 3 percent of wage and salary employees work mainly from home, said Ken Matos, senior director of employment research and practice at the Institute, and co-author of the forthcoming book “WORKFLEX: The Essential Guide to Effective and Flexible Workplaces.”
And of those employees who do not get to work part of their regular paid hours at home, 50 percent would like to.
Employees are so serious about finding the right flexible options at work that nearly 90 percent of the workers FWI surveyed said that when they look for a new job workflex will be “extremely” or “very important” in their decision process, according to Matos, who will be taking questions about workflex options and how to get them from NBCNews.com readers during a live web chat Thursday at noon ET.
Mom Corps’ survey results bolstered FWI’s findings that flex time is a high priority.
Their poll found many employees, 52 percent, would consider starting their own business in order to find the flexibility they crave, with men age 35 to 44 the most anxious to do this at 75 percent.
Despite the gloomy work-flex landscape today, however, 67 percent of employees agree it is possible to "have it all" when it comes to work-life fit.
Who says American workers aren’t optimistic?
Eve Tahmincioglu is a career blogger and director of communications at the Families and Work Institute.
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For some with family obligations ,etc. I suppose having the flexibility to sit at home in your pj's and work is very appealing. But for those who don't have kids I think the money is more important. I, personally, wouldn't give up any of my pay at this point. But I don't need flexibility either. I have enough accumulated paid time off to take off whenever i need to and our company also pays us for 16 hours of community service time so I cand still do my volunteer work during work hours if I need to. I like being out in the work force and working from home for me would feel too isolating. When I'm home I want to play and relax, not work.
I don't like working from home as a rule, but it is nice to be able to do that whenever I want to. (especially since I live an hour from the office)
FLEX time. An opportunity for the employer to get more out of the employee for LESS pay. Give me flexible PTO any day and then understand that it is part of my compensation not managements incentive program.
I would love to have more flexibility. My employer is going backwards, implementing RIGID start and end times, not allowing any deviation from it. Plus, while we get a minimal paid vacation, we get no other PTO such as sick leave or for doctor appointments. If you are not at work, you don't get paid for it, period. And this is in an office environment, not a factory hourly job. And lastly, what's worse is there are a few 'special' employees who don't have to follow the rules and can come and go as they please, take long lunches, and management looks the other way. This alone has caused morale among other office employees to sink to new lows.
How did the article make the leap that flextime automatically means working at home? I've had flextime for more than 20 years. I still put in 8+ hours every day at my employer, but we have flexible hours and a basic "core time" that everyone is usually expected to be here.
It doesn't cost the employer a thing and the office is actually open more hours because some people choose to come in as early as 6am; others stay until 7pm because the employees adjust their hours around their respective lifestyles. Flextime makes us MORE productive, but so many employers out there can't see it because they have blinders on.
I like the idea of core time. You need times when you can reach everyone reliably, but the beginning and end of the day is when you need the most flexibility.
Flex time with a few hours of core time is what I like best. That way you know everyone you need to work with will be in the office from about 10 to 2, but let people start earlier or work later to meet their needs. After all, a happy worker is a more productive worker.
"Mom Corps’ survey results bolstered FWI’s findings that flex time is a high priority."
You guys actually believed a news story, based off some survey, that was created by a company that is a parody off a tv show.
Mom Corp is the business, ran and controlled by, Mom. A heartless industrialist bent on total monopolization of business and slight world conquest. The person and the business is fictional characters on the cartoon television show, Futurama. As much as I think that all those MORONS out there thought they were taking a real look at an actual survey, it's actually fake.
Oh, like your going to flip a burger at home, for McDonalds? Or your going to check in 5 tons worth of merchandise from your home? If your a paper pusher, I can understand doing work from your home, because you can use your computer. But you'd be racking up minutes on those conferance calls, that you'll be paying and not your boss at work.
I don't think you people actually sat down and looked at the wording of the document above. It only showed the results of the survey. They didn't show you the WORDING of the question from the survey. Wording can make the differance between you placing a Yes, or a No, answer in your responses. I put yes, because I would LUV flexibility. That doesn't mean I'd be willing to give up my pay. Especially after food items are nearly $4.00 per item. Meat being nearly $6-$8 with $1.00 per ounce of meat. Pork is .33 cents an ounce. Poptarts are $4.00 a box. Small box of brand named cereal is $4.00 a box. Bottle of syrup, the cheap variety. Went up to nearly $8.00 a bottle.
Gas prices are up to $4.03 at my location, and is INCREASING as of today.
My rent went up $100.00
I would LOVE more flexible position at my work place....but I will not FCKING sacrifice MY EARNINGS, because I can ill afford a pay decrease. I'm pretty much slaving with extra work, with all those workers my corporate MASTERS layed off. I'm being "Efficient", because I have MORE TASKS and JOBS to get done now, then what I had 4 damn long years ago.
And you people want to sacrifice PAY, to work out of your home? Your morons. Idiots. Your complete mental cases. You want to earn less, while paying more? You people must be rich. I mean, look at the fcking prices around you people, and ask yourself, do you have what it takes to become homeless? Are you willing to sacrifice food on the table for your children? If you said no, they why did you tell Mom Corp, yes, you would?
Hey retard, you might want to check your facts before wasting keystrokes on nonsense. I checked Momcorps website myself, funny there was no mention of Futurama on their site.
http://www.momcorps.com/home.aspx
Read it and may your ignorance dissipate like a dimwitted fog under the burning hot sun of fact checking.
I wouldn't trade salary for flex time; but I would like additional vacation days in lieu of a raise in pay. 52 weeks/year x 5 workdays/week = 260 workdays/year, so each work day is worth 0.38%. Based on that, a 2% raise = 5.2 days. Give me the 5 days instead of the 2% raise, call it even, and I would be happier than I would be with the extra twenty bucks a week.
I'm retired but I would NEVER subsitute salary for flex time or anything else.
My advice to anyone who cares to hear it is earn as much as you can and SAVE.
Bad (worse) times are ahead.
anton bee,
Respectfully, If everyone earns as much as they can and just "saves" their money, how do you expect these so called "bad times ahead" to not happen? The economy is primarily based on sales, is it not? If we all save our money (dont spend anything) what is going to keep the economy going?
It's like if I'm dying of thirst and finally come into a stash of water, I'm not going to drink any of it just in case I'm dying of thirst again. Meanwhile, I'm already dead from not drinking any of it.. LOL
Randy, I didn't make myself perfectly clear!
It's not my suggestion that one saves ALL of their money, but as much as they comfortably can after living expenses.
As I mentioned, I'm retired and my philosophy has paid off well for me. Folks will need a financial cushion in their later years. Trust me.
I work from home full time and I do not see any point in taking a pay cut to do so. I am (along with many others) saving the company money because it is less floor space that they need to lease (leased internally), I'm using my own electricity and internet connection to connect to them. I am doing the same amount of work that I would do if I were in the office. So why take a pay cut?
However, the flip side is that maybe it would be worth a slight pay cut to work from home just to get away from coworkers that complain all day long and the BS gossip that goes on. I found that my attitude has turned around 180 degrees by not being around the constant complaining that coworkers like to do :)
Unless you don't have an office at all, you're not saving floor space. Estimates are that half of the cost of an on-site employee is salary. Electricity and Internet costs are low for you, and even lower for the company. Some people are able to work better at home or remotely, but most don't do anything valuable at all during those hours. It's really about dedicating yourself to a pursuit, and home distractions compete with that. Most companies see "working remotely" as fewer hours on the job.
Flextime to most companies is putting in a ten hour day which starts whenever you prefer. Most workers that are not tied to the business day arrive later to skip both the morning and evening rush hours. Flextime to women means putting in even fewer hours.
Mom Corps is describing a conversion to part-time work, something that women love. Do you want to work for fewer hours at a lower annual income ?