Even without your iPod you can hear echoes ofBob Dylan around every watercooler these days. The hot currency in office boasting sessions is quickly moving from the number of power breakfasts under your belt to the number of school plays you’ve managed to make. Women may be driving this workplace revolution, but make no mistake, men are realizing the benefits of flexibility too. We are simply the canary in the corporate mine.
At Capitol One Judy Pahren saw flexibility was no longer just a “women’s initiative” when they did a follow-up to their survey and included the whole company. “We realized that flexibility was actually a need across our entire associate base. We had thought that maybe it was gender-based, but it was actually true of the men who worked here too,” said Pahren. A few months later, the Flexible Work Arrangements program was moved out of the women’s initiative and implemented for the whole company.
And no wonder—America is changing. “We are very much a time-famished nation. People want more control over their time,” says Kathleen Christensen of the Sloan Foundation.
look at these stats:
78 percent of couples in this country are dual-income earners.
63 percent of us believe we don’t have enough time for our
spouses or partners.33
74 percent of us say we don’t have enough time for our children.34
35 percent of adults are putting significant time toward caring
for an elder relative.35
bottom line?
Half of us want fewer hours.36
Half of us would change our schedules.37
More than half would trade money for a day off.38
Three-quarters of us want flexible work options.39
Not a very satisfied group! It simply isn’t our fathers’ workplace anymore. More and more workers of both sexes are willing to scale back their career goals, according to Family and Work Institute data.
Many of us certainly see that at home.
“My husband is absolutely as concerned as I am about family time,” says Robin Ehlers. “He runs his own business, so he’s lucky, but he’s always arranging his schedule to take three-day weekends for sports events, or even big chunks of the summer off to be with the kids. And I don’t even bug him or nag him or ask him to do it!” she laughs.
“Reduced aspirations does not mean employees are not talented or good at what they do,” explains Lois Backon of the Family and Work Institute. “Most do want to feel engaged by their jobs. But in focus groups they also say things like ‘I need to make these choices because my family is a priority’ or ‘I need to make these choices to make my life work.’ ”
Why the changing priorities? Burnout is key, say experts, and the fact that companies, even though they still long to discipline us, can’t really be decent father figures anymore. Benefits, pensions, other perks and protections are almost all a thing of the past. Not to mention job security, particularly in a downturn. Americans no longer believe they will spend a career at one shop, and they are right. The average American will hold ten different jobs over his or her lifetime.40
With the insecurity of that new mobility comes an unexpected benefit—more freedom. And the fact that we don’t stay in one place for forty years anymore gives us enormous latitude to move sideways, backward, in and out—to define our own paths. We’re looking for our security and fulfillment and confidence elsewhere. Our employer’s definition of success is becoming meaningless, even suspect.
But—time for another reality check. We may want more freedom, but we’re still scared. We long to embrace this new mindset, but we’re worried about the consequences. Almost half of working parents believe their jobs might be in jeopardy if they work flexibly, especially now.41 Not so, however, for the younger revolutionaries.42
Oliver Phillips, a partner at Brunswick Group, a strategic communications firm that advises a range of corporate clients, says younger employees are starting to measure success with a new yardstick. “The millennials are influencing expectations for the entire workforce.”