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Improving Work-Life Fit in Hourly Jobs
The Center for WorkLife Law
41.7% in order to care for an elder; and about one-
third (31.7%) of the managers had an employee
who called off to care for a sick partner or spouse.
Over half (56.8%) of the managers had experienced
a "no show," where the sales associate did not show
up for work and did not call to say why. (Lambert,
Haley-Lock & Henly 2010)
Why would an employee be a no-show? Reasons
differ. Obviously, some people are just irresponsible:
this is true among people of any income group.
Others are young and inexperienced--especially
in how to deal with work-family conflict. Said
Maureen Perry-Jenkins, a psychologist who studies
work-family conflict:
I...[had] one young mother who was
working at a customer service phone
job, a good job with the potential for
benefits after a 6 month "trial period."
She actually loved the job and for two
months had received awards for handling
the most clients. Her baby got sick, she
had no support network and she just
missed work one day to care for her baby.
She did not call in...I have no idea why.
Scared, nervous, inexperienced...who
knows. She went in the next day and was
fired. She called me to see what she could
do...she was a wreck. I only wish she had
called me that day so I could have helped
her problem-solve. Within a month she
had moved in with a friend, within two
months she and her baby were homeless.
(Perry-Jenkins 2010)
Do people fail to appear for work because they don't
want to work? Sometimes--but not often. Ninety-
four percent of welfare-to-work mothers chose the
option, "I feel I am good or productive in my work"
in one survey. Said one, who both had an infant and
was nursing her mother back to health after a near-
fatal illness, "I wanted to get back [to work]. You
know, I don't like being on welfare." (Weigt 2006,
p. 344) "I hate not working," said another. "I'd love
to work if I had day care." (Kossek, Huber-Yoder,
Castellino & Lerner 1997, p. 85) Another mother
explained, "I think that mothers who work are good
role models for their kids....[M]y kids, they need to
see me going to work. They need to see that I have
to work for what we have. You know, it doesn't just
get given to you." (Weigt 2006, p. 346)
Yet low-income mothers, like all responsible mothers,
will not put their children's safety and well-being at
stake. A low-income Boston mother explained why
she left a job she liked: "It was taking this toll on
my son....I couldn't take one day off to go on a field
trip....I wasn't there for him." (Dodson & Bravo
2005, p. 9) Taking short periods of time off typically
is not an option: low-wage workers are 50% to 100%
less likely to have paid time off to care for sick children,
to use flex-time daily, telecommute, or be able to
decide when to take breaks. (Corporate Voices 2006)
Only 17.5% of women with high school degrees can
vary their schedules. (McMenamin 2007)
When today's jobs are designed for yesterday's
workforce, frustration emerges on all sides. A manager
in Milwaukee linked "massive absenteeism" with
"irresponsibility." He continued: "usually it's linked to
other irresponsible-type behavior, even though that's
not irresponsible, obviously you're being responsible
to take care of your children." (Dodson 2009, p. 33)
Employers are frustrated; so are employees. "My mom
had a heart attack," said a blue-collar worker, "and she
was in the hospital and I had to do the sixteen hours,
nonstop, just like worried and what's goin' on, and I
can't call out, `cause I get fired." (Gerstel 2010)
Impact of unstable jobs in the just-in-
time sector
They create the attrition they then manage
around.
-- Susan Lambert
Just-in-time jobs simply do not fit with workers'
lives. For one thing, last-minute scheduling makes
it virtually impossible to arrange for child and elder
care. Work schedules typically are posted with a