Family Life Education || Family Support Systems Paychecks Can't Buy

Family Support Systems Paychecks Can't BuyAuthor(s): Joyce SullivanSource: Family Relations, Vol. 30, No. 4, Family Life Education (Oct., 1981), pp. 607-613Published by: National Council on Family RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/584351 .

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Family Support Systems Paychecks Can't Buy

JOYCE SULLIVAN*

Corporations seeking to increase productivity are recognizing changing roles and values in the family by instituting higher levels of integration between work and family life. Innovative family support systems are being developed such as corporate day care, flexible and equitable benefits and employee assistance programs. The dramatic increase of women in the workplace has affected corporate reevaluation of "executive transfer" and opened new career avenues. Alternatives to the eight-to- five workday are surfacing with women and men seeking new models to get the best of both job or career and family life. Family educators are capable of working with both individuals and corporations to effect optimal integration and support.

The productivity crises in the United States has focused needed attention on the inter- relationship between work and home life. The family's need for more sensitivity in the workplace is not a unique concern to supporters of family life. What happens between eight and five does, indeed, influence the family, and, by the same measure, what happens at home does affect productivity at work. Work and family are fully integrated. When difficulties occur in either job or marriage, performance correspondingly deteriorates in the other. The emergence of increased dual income families and single parent families tends to mag- nify this relationship. As roles change and values are more clearly defined, adjustments in both family and corporate structures will become increasingly apparent.

There is growing evidence to suggest work

*Joyce Sullivan, Manager, West Coast Branch, Batten, Batten, Hudson & Swab, Inc., 17870 Skypark Circle, Irvine, California 92714. Human Resource Consultants to Manage- ment.

Key Concepts: corporate day care, employee assistance programs, family life education, family support systems, occupational mobility.

(Family Relations, 1981, 30, 607-61 3.)

patterns, family lifestyles and corporate poli- cy may simultaneously formulate models designed for more optimal integration of the demands and rewards of family and the workplace for both men and women. The ultimate goal of this emerging phenomenon needs to be of mutual benefit to individuals, families and corporations. Higher levels of integration of work and family life will provide men and women greater personal and family security which should in turn provide a basis for increased levels of productivity in the job.

This paper will focus on contemporary ex- amples of corporate and family responses to shifting roles and changing work/life values. Work in this context will be defined as occupational employment, business or professional pursuits, financially compensated.

Until recently the American family has al- lowed work to shape the family lifestyle (Velie, 1973). Family residential patterns, family mobility and child-rearing responsibilities have traditionally been assigned in con- junction with the demands placed upon the family wage-earner by his/her employer. Workplace demands frequently determined where families lived, when they moved, when they ate and which members assumed the roles associated with child-rearina.

October1981 FAMILY RELATIONS 607



Work/Life Value Changes

The rapidity of value change, coupled with the increased demand for economic security has given rise to a wide array of experimental lifestyles. The oncoming generation is less willing than their parents to pay the high cost of "total commitment" to their jobs thus risk- ing stress disease in exchange for high wages. This value change is reinforced by the acceptance of women in the work force and by the concept of equal pay for equal work. The choice to become a two-paycheck family has been selected by approximately 25 million couples. Every year an increasing number of women join the labor market regardless of the level of their husbands' income. For the first time in history the number of two-income families outnumbers single income families.

New yardsticks, often far removed from the size of the paycheck, are being applied to measure the validity of career decisions, such as job potential, job satisfaction, geographical location and feasibility of combining full- time work and home life. The two-paycheck family has advantages and disadvantages un- like those of the single paycheck family. Mo- bility, once only a male occupational necessity, has become a major family issue of con- flict for many two-career couples. Frustra- tions mount as more and more dually employed couples attempt to combine the multifaceted demands of family and work. Hall and Hall (1978) claim that the dual-career couple represents a "corporate time bomb" which will exert its greatest impact as these employees advance to responsible, critical positions in management.

For millions of other Americans, many of whom clearly identify with Johnny Paycheck's song, "You Can Take This Job and Shove It," satisfaction and involvement in the company are real issues. For those who find the grind of work a necessary exchange of boredom and drudgery for a weekly paycheck, negative atti- tudes toward work can readily spill over into family relationships.

For many young families, inflation has made staying at home to rear the family a lux- ury rather than a necessity based on value judgment. Dual career couples, single parents, working women and unsatisfied workers

are exerting influences on the institutional structures of family, community and the corporation. Innovative support systems are being developed in all of these sectors.

The Corporate Response

Through sheer numbers, women have become one of the most vocal influences on American business. Seventy percent of women work, not necessarily because they want to but because they must. For the first time in U.S. history, married, employed fe- males outnumber full-time homemakers. Five and a half million working mothers of preschool children, the fastest growing seg- ment of the labor market, have become keenly aware of the nation's need for higher quality and more affordable day care facilities. Sur- prisingly there are fewer licensed day care facilities available today than there were in 1945. Approximately 20% of preschool children are currently enrolled in day care programs; the remainder are cared for by relatives, friends, or private or home-care programs.

Corporate Day Care Involvement

During the 1960's over 200 employers offered day care programs using government funds. But as these funds ran dry in the 1970's, many were forced to close the doors. Although the costs of these programs were amortized over five years, corporations often found their operation too costly and trouble- some.

Large corporations such as Polaroid have recently ventured into corporate day care by providing child-care discounts for employees who utilize the Cambridge, Massachusetts Community Child Care Center. The Ford Foundation has instituted a plan where mod- erately paid staff members are provided vouchers for day care provisions of their choice ("Leading Two Lives," 1980). PAC In- ternational in North Carolina, recently fea- tured on television news, operates and sub- sidizes a child center for employees which is open until midnight. The staff is highly qualified, highly paid and includes a company nurse. Company officials claim increased employee satisfaction, decreased absenteeism and tardiness are only a few of the benefits re-

608 FAMILY RELATIONS October1981



alized since the inception of the program. In- creasing concern for productivity along with increasing demand for quality day care will most likely increase lobby activities for more company-operated child care centers at work sites.

The commitment to equal opportunity and equal pay for equal employment brings into sharp focus the complex relationship between employment practice, public intent, and family well-being. Prenatal concerns as well as support systems for child care is an issue of consideration for business as well as for families. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and the Extended Pregnancy Law of 1979 prevent discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and require health insurance plans to reimburse pregnancy and delivery expenses, and disability benefits on a compar- able basis with other medical coverage. Some corporations have taken a further step. AT&T, for example, provides both parents with un- paid pregnancy leaves of up to six months (Pifer, Note 1).

The government offers tax credits for child care expenses and has proposed a "cafeteria benefit plan." The proposed "cafeteria benefit plan" allows the employee to have input into how fringe benefits will be allocated. A set dollar value of benefits is given to each employee, some of which is marked for fringe benefits. The remainder may be earmarked for other benefits as determined by the employee. Younger workers may choose to contrib- ute a portion of their benefits to child care programs; older employees may choose to al- locate more to a retirement program (Skalka, 1979).

Employee Assistance Programs

Alcoholism treatment programs were orig- inally instituted in some large corporations to help corporate officials and/or members of their families overcome this often job-related problem. The programs were cost feasible when the total cost of losing a top executive and retraining another were considered. The programs met with such a high degree of success for both employees and employers that they have now been expanded in many major corporations to include drug dependency and emotional problems. United California Bank

employs human resource counselors to help employees identify personal, financial, or health-related problems, discuss alternatives and assist the employee in seeking outside counseling services ("Human Resources," 1980). United Airlines has recently instituted an Employee Assistance Program. Although difficult to assess, United conservatively esti- mates that alcoholism alone once cost the air- line company over $27 million per year. Since the program has been launched, absenteeism and sick leave have been reduced by 70% (Friendly Times, Note 2).

Other corporations are attempting to or- ganize preventive programs for employees in addition to or in lieu of rehabilitation-type programs. Corporate exercise rooms, exercise programs, diet workshops, seminars dealing with reduction of stress and anxiety are frequently offered. Annual paid health examina- tions, once provided only for top-level management, are now often available to many workers, especially those in stress-related oc- cupations (Skalka, 1979). In addition to corporate concern for employees' health and physi- cal condition, there have also been noted increases in corporate training programs for employees in the area of self-esteem, personal development and career pathing.

Executive Gypsies: Corporate Endangered Species

Perhaps the most devastating corporate practice imposed on executive or mid-level management personnel is the need for family relocation resulting from the "move-up-or- move-over syndrome." This practice was no doubt based upon the assumption that the corporate wife was an extension of her husband's identity. Her social role was often in- directly assigned in a set of unwritten expec- tations ranging from social hostess to a community witness of her husband's success and prestige. If the corporation deemed it advis- able to transfer the executive, family movement was expected.

Traditional career mobility has, for men, im- plied the possibility of residential mobility for the family (Van Dusen & Sheldon, 1977). Nu- merous legal and social sanctions have arisen to reinforce this expectation. The assumption was so widely accepted as a necessary fact of




life forexecutives and theirfamilies that, ironi- cally, the phenomenon received very little attention in research until the 1970's.

Several researchers have traced male occupational mobility and have noted that wives have had virtually little or no impact on movement decisions. Duncan and Perrucci (1976) concluded a husband's occupational mobility has an overall deleterious effect on career-minded wives, but the employment concerns of the wife were not influential in a male's geographical mobility decision.

The shifting priorities of dual-career couples have caused a reevaluation of "executive transfer." Widening occupational horizons for women have also contributed to the "accepta- bility of employment" of upper middle-class women. Executive wives are no exception. Approximately one-third of the wives of corporate executives are currently employed full- time and another one-third are employed on a part-time basis. Many of these women are involved in their own businesses or in management of large corporations. It is increasingly apparent to more and more corporations that a wife with a career can drastically reduce the male executive's geographical mobility or vice versa. In the past few years many executives have chosen to limit options for geographical mobility because of the careers of their wives. Several major corporations are exercising caution about transferring employees with employed spouses, although they continue to recognize the two-career family can "create a problem in upward mobility." One representative of an international executive recruiting firm claims, "Our clients are learning that to attract many of today's brightest young executives, they've got to find career opportunities for the spouse as well" ("The New Corporate Wife," 1979, p. 94).

Other illustrations of changing corporate practices are surfacing. One oil company is currently utilizing six-months offshore assign- ments rather than permanent transfers in an effort to reduce the necessity of family relocation. This company flies the scientist back to the family every couple of weeks. Another company offers child care or live-in expenses incurred in managerial out-of-town business trips.

Several companies have launched the practice of job hunting or paid placement search services for the spouses of transferred executives (Hall & Hall, 1979). Rosabeth Moss Kanter, in her critical review of work and family in the United States, claimed corporations will change social aspects of their functions to a more businesslike approach in the future. For example, she predicts that out-of-town business meetings will be shorter and will not include the executive's spouse (Kanter, 1979).

Flexitime: Alternative to the Eight-to-Five Model

The topic of changing hours of work has received widespread interest. Currently 17% of the U.S. companies and 237 government agen- cies offer flexitime options to employees ("Leading Two Lives," 1980).

Flexitime has been incorporated into more and more of the nation's businessess and is considered to be highly successful. It is defined as a work schedule which offers, within certain boundaries, the opportunities to start and finish work at one's own time discretion, provided a fixed number of work hours per week are completed. Many corporations have discovered flexitime has increased worker productivity, increased work satisfaction and decreased tardiness. Several patterns of flexible scheduling are currently available in the United States. Some companies are experimenting with a compressed three or four day work week of 30 or more hours. For some organizations, this option is viewed as an alternative to lay- offs during slow periods of production as well as an opportunity to provide employees with larger blocks of free time. Other companies have experimented with compressed work months similarto the schedules to which river- boat pilots have been accustomed. This re- sults in 30 days of work and 30 days off work. A six-months-on, six-months-off work schedule has also been proposed for some positions and organizations.

An extension of flexitime, referred to as debit-and-credit flexitime, offers the possibility of banking hours during one period to be carried over to another period. This system re- duces overtime and provides employees with flexible scheduling for family responsibilities (Glueck, 1979; Swart, 1979).




Some companies have instituted permanent part-time employment. This concept permits employees to work fewer than 40 hours per week without a set minimum number of hours. These positions offer fringe benefit packages similar to full-time work. For business, it provides a previously untapped resource of com- mitted workers who wish to work part-time out of necessity or desire. Permanent part-time employment is becoming more attractive to two-income families as well as single heads of households. Further, it offers the older worker new career opportunities during advancing years.

Permanent part-time options can be expanded into job-sharing positions. Two persons hold one full-time job, arranging work schedules most suitable to each other. Flexi- bility in production demands can thus be easily covered without addition of overtime compensation. Job-sharing also provides permanent part-time workers with a potential for upward mobility, more time to devote to family responsibilities, education or personal fulfillment ("One Job," 1981).

Changes in Work Space and Place

As the cost of transportation increases, it may be more advantageous to work out of the home or at locations other than the traditional office. Home offices would save time and energy without decreasing productivity for certain types of positions, at least on a limited bas is.

A fuel-tight future may demand and produce many changes in work scheduling. Analysts predict a heavy increase in the utilization of home telephones as fuel shortages and increased fuel costs affect business and indus- try. The necessity of many business trips could be drastically reduced as new technology enables us to make face-to-face visita- tions with clients in distant cities without leav- ing home. According to experts of AT&T, new technology will soon enable us to connect home telephone lines with home computers and television screens ("Analysts See Ameri- cans," 1979).

The Family Response

Women who work because they have to and women who work because the want to are both

seeking new avenues to provide the best of marriage and the best of job or career. In- creased inflation, tighter job markets and rap- idly changing roles among both groups of women continue to demand new support systems in both family and corporate structures. Women in dual income professional families, who can better afford to take financial risks than lower income groups, may well be estab- lishing future options. Relocation is no longer a factor for males only. The highly qualified, mature woman is in top demand. Frequently it may be the woman who has the greatest career potential if she is mobile. The president of a large Dallas bank recently stated, "So great is the demand for bright career women that there is hazard in losing them after they are trained" (Kronholz, 1978).

Long-Distance Marriages-A Viable Alternative for Some

In response to marital/career conflicts and pressures for career mobility, some contemporary marrieds have elected a lifestyle termed commuter marriage, weekend marriage, two- location marriage, married singles, dual- career variant, or long-distance marriage. Whatever the term used, this lifestyle con- notes a relationship in which the spouses voluntarily live apart, maintaining separate residences in distant cities for the purpose of pursuing individual careers, while at the same time maintaining their marital relationship and family responsibilities.

Career advancement and commitment to work were viewed as major advantages by long-distance marrieds studied by Orton and Sullivan. Loneliness was the most frequently mentioned disadvantage of those engaged in the lifestyle. Although the majority of couples would overwhelmingly favor living together again if the opportunity arose, the self-gains and career advantages were seen as benef icial enough to offset the disadvantages en- countered in the two-location arrangement. Some women said they actually preferred it to a one-residence lifestyle since they felt they had more time for their careers and for them- selves (Orton & Sullivan, Note 3). Holmstrom (1970) suggests that as long as geographical mobility is a critical issue of employment, it would be to each spouse's advantage to




choose a geographic residence indepen- dently.

Another Alternative: Alternative Paths in Career Models

During the past few years corporations have become more aware of the impact of occupational mobility on contemporary family lifestyles and have decreased the incidence of transfers among young executives. However, changes in occupational mobility patterns alone will not be a sufficient remedy to cure the problematic symptoms which modern marrieds face. Greater flexibility and wider alternatives will be demanded within the corporate and family structures to allow both women and men to combine personal and family priorities within the realm of occupational responsibilities. One alternative might be a drastic change in the traditional career path.

The work ethic avenue to career success has typically been college degreee entrance into a position and then on to the proving grounds. This necessitates working through many phases of the organizational structure while under constant and stringent evalua- tion from superiors. Achievement- and result- oriented persons recognized the constant demand for productivity and commitment if they were to "get ahead." The harder one worked, the greater the dedication to the job, the more likely one would be recognized and rewarded with advancements and promotions. These advancements, in turn, demand more respon- sibility, more time and energy devoted to the job and greater job pressure. The climb to the top leaves little time for family togetherness or consideration of the development of the spouse's career.

Bailyn (1979) suggests other models which may be more viable for combinations of career and family development. The apprenticeship model, for example, involves fairly long periods of continued learning and training during the early phase of career development and operates at a slower pace than the traditional career success mode. Commitment to job and involvement in the corporation increases with time on the job and age of employee. This model would have many advantages for young men and women concerned about career

pathing as well as family planning. New concerns pertaining to the role of

fathering in today's society bring attention to the multifaceted demands on both wage- earners and parents with more and more couples considering the impiications of hav- ing a family as well as a career. Two parents and two wage-earners do, indeed, impact on roles, values and priorities.

A culture which measures male success by the size of the paycheck leaves little room for occupational experimentation. Launching of women into higher-paying positions will ulti- mately reduce presure on the male and allow for more flexible models leading to career success and fulfillment for women and men. It will provide possibilities of rotational models which permit one person in the coupleship to further career training and development while the other places concern on earning the family income. It will virtually double the opportunities for couples to accept promotions, transfers, career shifts, job changes, sabbaticals, and so forth. Corpo- rations have already begun to change some of the traditional criteria for career success. What was once a sign of personal instability and referred to as job-hopping may now be evaluated by some business concerns as an indication of personal drive and breadth of ex- perience (Bailyn, 1979).

The Role of the Family Educator in the Workplace

The American society is in the process of accepting full employment of women, not only in the workplace, but in a philosophical, pragmatic and legal mind set as well. The rapid increase of married women and single parents into the labor force will continue to affect family need for sensitivity in the corporate structure. Increased employee autonomy and greater flexibility have proven to be bene- ficial in terms of increased productivity and job satisfaction in hundreds of companies, regardless of size or type of business, including Lincoln Electric Company, Western Electric, Metropolitan Life Insurance, TWA and Mc Donald's Fast-Food Restaurants (O'Toole, 1980). The need to be more fully integrate work and family life should become an inte- gral part of family life education.




Professionals with backgrounds in family life education can help to bring about positive and productive change in business and indus- try by helping to develop sensitivity to family needs. This awareness needs to be incorporated into the policies and practices of corporations, and can best be realized through training and development programs designed to help both the individuals and organizations become the best they can be. The concepts and principles which operate to develop potential within the individual are the same as those which underlie the potential for organizational development. Family educators have the knowledge, skills and abilities to assist both individuals and organizations in the process of actualization. A recent study at Har- vard University claimed that 85% of success in business is dependent upon interpersonal and communicative skills. The business environment can serve to help develop the skills which will enhance not only the work climate but the conditions needed for total living.

Humanization of the corporation will be realized when employers recognize "What is Good for General Motors is Good for the Family" (Skalka, 1979) and when employees begin to think in terms of "Thank God It's Monday" (O'Toole, 1980) rather than singing "You Can Take This Job and Shove It" (Johnny Paycheck). It is high time, for employees to march to a different drum.

REFERENCE NOTES

1. Pifer, A. Women working toward a new society. Unpub- lished manuscript, 1976. (Available from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, 437 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022.

2. Friendly Times Newsletter, October, 1980. (Available from United Airlines, P. 0. Box 66100, Chicago, IL 60666.)

3. Orton, J., & Sullivan J. Long-distance marriage: Is it a viable lifestyle for couples? Unpublished manuscript, 1979. (Available from Florida State University, College of Home Economics, Tallahassee, FL 36201.

REFERENCES

Analysts see Americans staying at home more. Wall Street Journal, July 3,1979, 1, p. 1.

Bailyn, L. How much acceleration for career success. Man- agement Review, 1979, 68, 18-21.

Duncan, R. P., & Perruci, C. Dual occupation families and migration. American Sociological Review, 1976, 41, 252- 261.

Glueck, W. Changing hours of work: A review and analysis of the research. The Personnel Administrator, 1979, 3, 44-47, 62.

Hall, F. S., & Hall, D. T. Dual careers-How do couples and companies cope with problems? Organizational Dynamics, 1978, Spring, 55-77.

Hall, F. S., & Hall, D. T. The two-career couple. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1979.

Holmstrom, L. L. Career patterns of married couples. In A. Theodore (Ed.), The professional woman. Cambridge: Schenkman, 1970.

Human Resources: Companies which come to the aid of employees with job-related emotional problems and find there is a bottom line pay-off. Executive Magazine (Los Angeles ed.), May, 1980, pp. 55-75.

Kanter, R. M. Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books, 1979.

Kronholz, J. Women at work, management practices change to reflect role of women employees. Wall Street Journal, September 13, 1978, p. 1.

Leading two lives-Women at work and home. Newsweek, May 19, 1980, pp. 72-78.

Mahoney, T. A. The rearranged work week. California Man- agement Review, 1978, 20, 31-39.

One job, two careers. Working Women, March, 1981, pp. 79-80, 82, 84.

O'Toole, J. Thank God, it's Monday. Best of Business, Fall, 1980, pp. 23-28.

Skalka, P. What's good for the family is good for General Motors. Passages (The Magazine of Northwest Orient Airlines), 1979, 10, pp. 28-32.

Swart, J. C. Flexitime's debit and credit option. Harvard Business Review, 1979, 1, 10-12.

The new corporate wife goes to work. Business Week, April 8, 1979, pp. 88-90.

Van Dusen, R. A., & Sheldon, E. B. The changing status of American women: A life cycle perspective. In A. Skol- nick, & J. Skolnick (Eds.), Family in transition. Boston: Little, Brown, 1977.

Velie, L. Where have all the fathers gone? Reader's Digest, 1973, 102, 155-157.




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