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Road to flexible workplace has its obstacles
By Maggie Jackson, Globe Correspondent, 4/25/04
After 11 years as a part-time lawyer, Pamela Berman was so fed up with getting second-rate cases and disproportionately low pay that she was poised to quit practicing law. A Boston firm's offer of a full-time job at competitive pay, however, salvaged her career.
''I didn't like being marginalized, which happens to a lot of people who stay part time,'' says Berman, a Canton mother of three children, ages 13, 11, and nine, who joined Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C. as a partner in litigation last year.
The ''flexibility penalty'' is hard to escape. Although workers increasingly want control over when and where they do their jobs, and many employers see gains in offering telework, job sharing, and similar options, the push toward the new flexible workplace is not without obstacles. Nearly 40 percent of workers say that employees who use flexible work options are less likely to get ahead in their jobs and careers, according to a study published last week by the Families and Work Institute in New York. What's more, this sense of jeopardy may be well-grounded, at least for working mothers, a separate study by a University of Iowa professor shows.
A seven-year study of 324 working mothers by sociologist Jennifer Glass found that managers and professionals who teleworked or worked part time even for some part of that span suffered dramatic wage gaps compared to their peers. For example, women managers or professionals who teleworked five or more hours a week for about 20 months were paid nearly 27 percent less than office workers in similar positions. Glass did not study why this was true, but surmised that the adage ''out of sight, out of mind'' explains a lot.
''There's a huge cognitive bias against rewarding workers who aren't in supervisors' control,'' said Glass. ''People who make the decisions about compensation and salary increases are saying, `Who's around me all the time? Who seems to carry the weight of the organization?' ''
The idea that teleworkers or part timers are often overlooked by management was bolstered by Glass's Glass' finding that wage gaps virtually disappear when women change firms companies and resume full-time, in-office work. Those who end a flexible work arrangement but stay with the same employer continue to show wage losses over time. ''You're kind of marked,'' she said, adding that ''flextime''- varying the start and end hours of a full-time job - carried only a small wage penalty for managers. Her 1992-1999 study, the first of its kind, will be published in August in ''Work and Occupations'' journal.
Despite numerous hurdles, flexible work is gaining ground. Nearly 45 percent of workers have access to flextime, up from 30 percent a decade ago, according to the Families and Work Institute study, which coincided with a Senate subcommittee hearing on flexibility and other work-life issues. Flexible work has been linked to higher productivity, job satisfaction, and commitment, according to the Boston College Center for Work & Family.
Some firms companies are working to iron out the penalties. KPMG recently changed how the tax and audit firm evaluates professionals on reduced schedules, by adjusting performance expectations to reflect reduced hours of work. That way, part timers don't look as though they are trailing full timers.
For some, the penalties associated with flexible work are worth it. ''I won't earn as much and down the road, it will cost me to have made this choice,'' says Lara Stone, a mother of three who works part time as assistant director of the nonprofit Greater New Bedford Workforce Investment Board Inc. But ''I want this time with our kids enough.''
Maggie Jackson's Balancing Acts column appears every other week. She can be reached at .
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