Flexibility
Parents around the country are beginning to work out informal arrangements with their companies, allowing them to better shoulder the responsibility of being parents and productive members of the workforce. Levs shares a variety of personal stories from fathers who constructed alternative work arrangements, urging his readers to explore options for themselves and join the growing community of flex-work parents. He recommends leading workplace attitudes and policies toward flexible work arrangements, asking managers for opportunities, designing and pitching personalized plans, setting time frames, and following through with plans. If all else fails, workers may want to consider looking for other places to work.
Company Transportation
Every American employee is familiar with the infamous traffic clogging the nation’s roads at rush hour. Sitting in traffic is an enormous drain on both time and productivity. It extracts a toll on the body and emotions, preventing employees from working and from being home with their families. Levs floats the idea of using company buses to transport employees to and from dropoff/pickup points near their residences, allowing workers to plug in and work while on the journey and leave early to get back home to their families. Companies like Google and Facebook are already experimenting with such concepts. Less time spent in traffic can be translated to valuable time spent where it matters most.
Communal Care
Working parents, particularly those with lower incomes, need all the help they can get from their communities, their employers, and their governments. Levs proposes concepts such as expanded social programs, universal pre-K, more affordable health insurance, and an easier way for ex-convicts to surmount the difficulties posed by their criminal records. However, he places much emphasis on communal care for working families struggling to balance monetary demands, education needs, and family life. Individuals and groups can all pitch in to make life easier for their neighbors, whether by offering babysitting services while the parents escape for a romantic date, or paying for a night at the movies for the whole family.
Comments