I wake to NPR’s “Morning Edition” but that’s not enough—I reach for my phone to check the headlines in the New York Times. (The paper copy, waiting on my doorstep, won’t be sufficiently up-to-date.) Then I check Facebook to see what clips from other papers my friends have posted. Then I weigh in on those […]
It’s the Culture, Stupid
I don’t know much about the massage industry, but it occurs to me it must be riding high these days. (Note to self: ask broker to look into publicly-held massage businesses.) Everywhere I look, companies are providing employees with on-site massages, or covering massage therapy in their insurance, or both. Those goofy-looking massage chairs lurk […]
Happy 2017! Here’s What U.S. Employees Still Need
Happy New Year, everyone! Back at Thanksgiving, I wrote a post about work-life-related progress in 2016. This week, like many of us, I’m thinking ahead. I’m not much of a believer in New Year’s resolutions, and, in any case, the kinds of things I’m thinking about aren’t in my (sole) power to bring about, so […]
6 Tips for a Better “Working Mother 100 Best” Essay
Aiming to get on next year’s Working Mother Best Companies list? The application, which also includes the opportunity to apply for “Top Companies for Women,” is now available, and the clock is ticking till the early March deadline. There’s a lot of data to gather, and those pesky holidays are coming, so it’s a wise […]
Bringing Flexibility
Back to Retirement:
An Interview with Paul Rupert
These days, “flex work” is often taken to mean one thing: the ability to work from home. So you may not be aware that when the concept of flexible work arrangements was first introduced, in the 1970s and 80s, it referred to a long menu of options, from flexing start and end times to job […]
Employees Have Made Progress This Year, and For That (At Least) I’m Grateful
It’s been a tough year for this country in many ways. A highly divisive election campaign, culminating in a highly divisive election; sad tidings about the death of so many American icons, from Mohammad Ali to Prince; a seemingly endless parade of news about shootings and other senseless violence. So I wondered what there might […]
What Makes a Company One of the “Best”?
Every year, I work with companies to help them tell their stories on the Working Mother 100 Best Companies application, among others. Although I have been steeped in the work-life field for nearly all my professional life, I am still frequently surprised and impressed by the smart ways my clients find to support their employees […]
9+ Things I Learned At The “Working Mother” Conference
October is National Work and Family month, so I was happy to take a couple of days last week to attend Working Mother Media’s Work-Life Congress, an annual conference built around the Working Mother 100 Best Companies list. In addition to a gala awards dinner, the event featured a day and a half’s worth of […]
Why Charisma’s Not Enough
To say that this election season is unusual is beyond understatement. Nonetheless, it looks likely to end like every other U.S. presidential election in the last 200-plus years: with a new president-elect, who will be duly sworn in come January. Even another strikingly unusual (in a completely different way) election, that of George W. Bush […]
What IS “Family-Friendly,” Anyway?
It’s National Work and Family Month, and I’ve been thinking: What does it mean for a workplace to be “family friendly”? Actually, since one of my regular gigs as an “employer-of-choice” writer and consultant is helping companies with their applications for “best workplace” lists, this question arises a lot. I find it fascinating how differently it can be interpreted […]