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> FACTS ABOUT JUGGLING WORK AND FAMILY

TITLE: Juggling Work And Family with Hedrick Smith

AIRDATE/TIME: Sunday, September 16, from 9-11 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings)

DESCRIPTION: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith takes an in-depth look at the acute tensions between work and family, a critical issue that affects workers from all walks of life. From the executive suite and computer assembly plants to hospital ORs and hotel housekeeping, Smith interviews Americans about how they handle the challenge of demanding jobs and the need to raise a family or look after aging parents. The program focuses on several progressive organizations that have forged innovative ways to balance work and home. Experts analyze the issues and suggest necessary changes to accommodate the needs of today's workforce.

SEGMENTS:

Boston Lawyers (Boston) The culture of big law firms virtually requires crushingly long hours and 24x7 availability to clients, and that clashes with the changing demographics of the legal profession. This exacerbation of work-family conflicts make lasting solutions difficult to implement and sustain.

  • Today, 50 percent of law school graduates are women. Almost as many women as men go into big law firms, however almost half leave within three years;
  • According to intensive interviewing and reporting, young associates in big law firms revealed that they billed an average of 2000 hours annually or from 50 to 65 hours per week;
  • A study released in 2000 by the Women's Bar Association found that while 90 percent of big firms have part-time policies, only four to five percent of their lawyers actually work part-time. Others fear jeopardizing their careers.


Hewlett-Packard (San Francisco) In the "war for talent," Hewlett-Packard uses flexible work schedules as a way to attract and retain top-flight professionals, particularly women.

  • Former CEO Lew Platt pioneered the concept of alternative work schedules after his wife died in the early 1980s, leaving him with two young daughters to raise, and thus greater sensitivity to work-family balance;
  • Hewlett-Packard encourages work arrangements such as flexible work schedules, job sharing and telecommuting, though the type of job or the attitude of the department manager may limit flexibility;
  • Today, Hewlett-Packard has a significant number of women in senior executive positions, including its current CEO Carly Fiorina, in an industry once considered a "white male haven."

Baxter International (Chicago) A growing number of the more than 40,000 employees of medical supply and research giant Baxter International are working alternative schedules.

  • Professionals, managers and technical staff, like those in Corporate Treasurer Steve Meyer's office, have a much better opportunity to use more flexible schedules than frontline workers;
  • For example, less than half of Meyer's 20-member staff work a traditional 9-to-5 schedule. The rest have customized schedules to accommodate their family needs, such as working part-time, telecommuting, shifting hours or combining different options;
  • Forty percent of Baxter's U.S. employees work in production plants, tied to assembly lines, with little chance for flexible arrangements;
  • The Family & Medical Leave Act protects the jobs of frontline workers by allowing them to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off for family medical emergencies.

Marriott International (Washington and Philadelphia) Eighty-five percent of Marriott's employees are rank-and-file workers, many of whom are in daily contact with Marriott guests.

  • Donna Klein, Marriott's vice president of Diversity and Workplace Effectiveness, found that the programs that worked for managers did not work for the rank and file workers;
  • So, Marriott contracted with Ceridian LifeWorks in Philadelphia to run a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week employee assistance line, which offers help with issues like child care, housing, transportation, substance abuse, domestic problems or legal issues;
  • About 10 percent of Marriott's 135,000 employees have used the hotline, which is staffed by graduate-level social workers;
  • The child care center in Washington, D.C. is the first public/private partnership of its kind between the federal government, the District of Columbia government and Marriott International, all of which contributed to the $2.5 million start-up costs.


Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union (New York) The unpredictable, emergency-driven work schedules of hospital workers creates an acute problem for working parents.

  • In 1989, the union learned that many of its workers--most of whom are women--were demanding support for child care, and it made that part of its bargaining with New York City hospitals;
  • The union won an unprecedented agreement from Catholic hospitals for subsidized child care in 1989, after Cardinal John O'Connor gave orders to accept the union demand;
    Today, more than 200 hospitals in New York support the fund;
  • The $10 million child care fund supports 8,000 union kids per year. But, that is only a small fraction of the 55,000 eligible union kids. The money is parceled out on a rotating basis, so parents don't receive the subsidy every year;
  • The union is bargaining to increase the fund to $24 million in order to cover every member who wants the benefit.

EXPERT PANEL: Ann Crittenden, author; Eileen Appelbaum, research director of the Economic Policy Institute; Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute and author of Ask the Children; Joan Williams, law professor and co-director of American University's Gender Work and Family Project; Phil Mirvis, business consultant; Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary.

PRODUCER: Hedrick Smith Productions

PRESENTER: South Carolina ETV

PRODUCTION CREDITS: Executive producer/correspondent: Hedrick Smith; producers:
Pauline Steinhorn and Paulette Moore; editors: Cliff Hackel and Carol Slatkin; production manager: Sandra Udy

UNDERWRITERS: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of New York

WEB SITE: www.pbs.org/workfamily

OUTREACH: An action kit to spark discussion of the issues among community groups and other involved parties is available at 800-277-0829. The package features a discussion leader guide with a VHS cassette of video excerpts from the program.

PRESS CONTACTS: Lisa Meredith, lisa@goodmanmedia.com, or Edie Emery, edie@goodmanmedia.com, Goodman Media International, 703/837-9500