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Many people automatically translate work-life balance and flexibility into "family-friendly" policies. Asking for a different schedule in order to care for a newborn baby or a sick parent has an urgency that can be compelling. Other family responsibilities, like coaching the soccer team or being home in time for dinner, may seem less urgent but may also meet with approval.

But reasons for flexible work schedules should encompass a broad range of individual needs -- from taking a graduate course to training for the marathon, to volunteering. This is what we prize in Jewish life, a multi-dimensional approach that allows us to engage in culture, spirituality, education and community.

Flexible work arrangements should not create competition for who is the most deserving, nor should the impact of these arrangements affect one demographic disproportionately. In fact, many single people in Jewish organizations have expressed concern that flexible scheduling depends on their willingness to cover for their colleagues, particularly on evenings and weekends. Instead, all employees should be seen as equal candidates for flexible schedules. The emphasis should be on restructuring the organizational work, to permit a range of flexible work requests.

In the Jewish world where flexibility meets resistance, even for parents of small children, it will take real imagination for executives and managers to envision the benefits of opening flexible opportunities to people at every stage in their lives and careers. But this kind of creativity is what's required to attract and retain the best employees for 21st century organizations.


Really Useful Stuff
Good Business: A Best Practices Guide to Retaining and Advancing Women in Jewish Communal Service
by Sulam: A Career Ladder for Women in Jewish Communal Service
A Project of the Jewish Communal Professionals of Chicago, Spring 2005.
Concrete recommendations intended to help Jewish communal professionals maintain and improve job peformance, stay in their current positions for longer, and increase job satisfaction.
Read report

Life and Work
by Shifra Bronznick
Presentation for the United Jewish Communities General Assembly, November 2002.
Our organizations still depend on the notion of the “ideal worker,” always ready, willing and able. To improve job retention and satisfaction, we need to analyze our 24/7 habits and revamp how work is structured.
Read presentation

The Equity Imperative: Reaching Effectiveness Through the Dual Agenda
by Lotte Bailyn and Joyce K. Fletcher
CGO Insights, Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO), July 2003. Briefing Note Number 18.
Lotte Bailyn and Joyce K. Fletcher suggest that dealing with inequities in the workplace -- the equity imperative -- serves a dual agenda: to provide equitable, though not necessarily identical, conditions that allow employees to realize their potential, thereby creating effective organizations.
Read article

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