Chapter 13: Balancing Work & Family Life

1. Summary:

            Chapter 13 examines the choices and constraints families have in the workplace and how economic changes impact many. It begins by explaining that family life is greatly affected by the economy and work situations. During economic downturns many families worry about how they will survive if their income drops. A significant number of Americans are experiencing a financial crisis caused by 3 macro-level variables: 1) Deindustrialization which results in a decrease in manufacturing jobs many companies rely more on technology than on human labor. 2) Globalization which increases deindustrialization due to the growth and spread of investment, trade, production, communication, and new technology around the world. 3) Off shoring or the relocation of jobs from one country to another to cut a company’s cost at home. Many hold arguments in favor of off shoring while others claim it causes nothing but problems.

            The chapter also discusses how social class plays a role in how families live. The working poor have little time for family life because they work a lot of hours which affects their lifestyle but their incomes remains below the official poverty level. Low-wage earners are faced with many work-related problems such as no health insurance and “wage theft” which puts a lot of stress on their family life. Families with members who work nonstandard work hours, which include evenings, nights, or weekends and are commonly among those who are lowly educated, people in service occupations, and those who work in hospitality industries. Families may face negative consequences if one has to work non-standards hours; the amount of interaction with their children may decrease, thus there is less parental supervision and less involvement/help with school-related work or activities, which, in turn, can negatively affect children’s attitudes and behavior. However, the rate of unemployment continues to be on the rise in the U.S.; in fact, mass layoffs are being conducted because of the severity of job losses. The highest unemployment rates are seen with African Americans. Unemployment entails many negative effects: it is very overwhelming and can trigger a vicious “chain of adversity;” many experience extreme lifestyle changes; marriage rates decrease, as many men believe they can’t support a wife and family; and among the worst outcome of unemployment is poverty. Likewise, as unemployment rates have increased in the U.S., the number of Americans living in poverty has increased. Poverty can be defined in 2 ways; absolute poverty is when a family does not have enough money to afford the most basic necessities of life and relative poverty is when there is not enough money to maintain an average standard of living. Poverty line defines when a person is officially poor and is eligible for government assistance; it is the minimum level of income that the government considers necessary for basic subsistence. Children, women, and racial-ethnic minorities are disproportionately poor; children, female-headed households, as well as blacks and Latino’s are more likely to be poor than their counterparts. There are 2 possible explanations for why people are poor: 1) the poor have themselves to blame for being poor (the poor are different from other members of society and this difference is the cause of their poverty); 2) societal factors where a society creates and sustains poverty. Many claim that poverty persists in the U.S. because many people benefit from it consequences. In general, most people are poor because economic conditions, job loss, physical or mental disabilities, or an inability to afford health insurance which, in turn, can result in acute health problems that interfere with employment. Poverty often results in homelessness; African Americans, the mentally ill and single men make up a large part of the homeless population. Homelessness can result from increase unemployment rates and lack of affordable housing. The chapter distinguishes the difference between chronic homeless (the long time street residents who suffer from addiction or psychiatric problems) and economic homeless (the working and middle-class people who recently have lost jobs and homes because of the economic recession and have nowhere else to go).  

            An increasing number of women are participating in the labor force today. Many women work during a pregnancy and make quicker returns to work after the pregnancy, thus the number of employed mothers is on the rise. Men’s participation in the labor force may be decreasing due to social factors like a lack of college degrees and economic factors such as deindustrialization and off shoring. As more and more women become college educated they become a big part of the workforce. This chapter provides 2 possible reasons women work outside the home; 1) for personal satisfaction and 2) to support themselves and their dependents. There has however been a decrease in women’s participation in the workface; while many have chosen to go back to traditional gender roles as the primary homemakers the decrease could possibly be due to job losses resulting from the economic downturn or because unfriendly family policies have pushed them out.

Although traditional gender roles still exist today, attitudes toward appropriate work and family roles are changing significantly, thus there are 2 variations on the traditional division of labor within marriage introduced in this chapter: 2-person single career (1 spouse is expected to participate in the performance of the partner’s career, although their participation is neither directly recognized nor rewarded with pay) and stay-at-home dads (men who are the main caregivers and homemaker for the family while their wives are the main breadwinners). Men may be stay-at-home dads because they were laid off; have a health problem or disability that prevents them from working; their wives have higher incomes than them; or they are retired. The benefits of men being stay-at-home dads include their ability to be involved with their children’s life and no need to worry about the quality of day care or after-school programs; however, unemployment may cause many men to feel stigmatized and emasculated because much of their identity comes from being a good provider.

While the number of 2-income families is on a rise, they are becoming increasingly diverse; there are dual-earner couples in which both partners work in order to meet the financial needs of the family and dual-career couples where both partners work in professional or managerial positions that require extensive training, a long-term commitment, and ongoing professional growth. There are many benefits as well as costs for 2-income families; BENEFITS include: families standard of living increases, relieves men from the pressure they may face with low-incomes or lay offs, and children might become more independent and have a greater respect for financial issues; COSTS include: role overload, which, in turn, can lead to many negative consequences such as productivity reduction and increased health risks. A trailing spouse is a partner who gives up his/her work and searches for another position in the location where the spouse has taken a job; this allows the main provider to increase their income and job opportunities but it can also lead to the trailing spouse becoming the full-time partners care taker. Commuter marriage includes partners who are married, but live and work in different geographic areas and get together at various intervals. Partners may opt into such arrangements because one partner may decide not to move if their chance of employment may be negatively effected by relocation; both partners might have well-established careers in different cities and aren’t willing to sacrifice their jobs after marriage; and because it may ensure financial security. Although commuter marriages may allow couples to focus on their work more and appreciate the times they spend together, they can come with added time and extra costs (such as the expense and time for visits) as well as an increase risk of extramarital relationships or divorce perhaps as a result of feelings of isolation from community and social relationships. The last 2-income families discussed are those in which wives earn more than their husbands; women with higher earnings are often short term while their husbands are temporarily out of work; furthermore, high-earning wives are often still left with the homemaker and caregiver responsibilities, sometimes referred to as “second shift.” Therefore, major gender inequality exists both in the home and in the workplace.

The chapter discusses the gender pay gap in which the average women must work more each year to make the same wages as a man. This earning disparity limits the quality of life and purchasing power of women. There are 3 main reasons for this gender pay gap: 1) women choose fields with lower earnings, whereas men tend to dominate the higher-paying fields; 2) women don’t take promotions that require great job responsibility, possibly due to glass ceiling effects; 3) many mothers earnings are affected by a gender pay gap attributed to being a mother referred to as a “motherhood penalty;” mothers experience reduced wages and salaries as they are more likely than fathers to work part time, take leaves, or take a break from the workforce to raise children. Furthermore, mothers are considered by many employers to be less committed, less reliable, and less competent than non-mothers in the workplace. Employed mothers are often penalized and discriminated against for being parents. Some women have tried to resolve the gender gap by filing class action suits and using a comparable worth policy, which states that men and women should receive equal pay for doing work that involves similar skills, effort, responsibility, and work conditions.  This gives women more purchasing power while cutting the poverty rate of women in half and strengthens the economy. As families suffer from employment inequalities, many must deal with sexual harassment which is common in male-dominated occupations where females are viewed as being undesirable. Many cases are often committed to show one’s power in the workplace, which often can lead many to refrain from reporting such abuse because of the superiority one has over the victim. Sexual harassment can result in job lose or leave and forfeit of potential raises and promotions; examples of wage discrimination.

The chapter ends with a discussion about family and work policies. To accommodate many parents’ needs, 3 changes have been introduced in the workplace allowing parents to combine work and child rearing: 1) companies allow parents to bring their babies to work because they don’t want to pay for maternity leave or day care and because they want valued workers to stay. This can however become very distracting and impede productivity; 2) companies are offering flextime which allows workers to change their daily arrival and departure times; which, in effect, decreases tardiness; and 3) more companies are introducing telecommuting, which allows employees to work from home through electronic linkups to the central office. This can bring the family closer together, boost productivity, and create more flexible schedules that reduce child care costs; however, it can also reduce the quality of family time, decrease productivity, and create tension at home. Despite laws against pregnancy discrimination, the rate has increased in recent years with women being fired, downgraded, or have responsibilities taken away from them when their employers learned that they were pregnant. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid annual leave, with continuation of health benefits, after the birth or adoption of child, to care for a seriously sick family member, or to recover from their own illnesses. This act prevents the loss of jobs and guarantees the same or a similar job when they return; but, it does not cover smaller companies. Many large companies often violate the law by providing shorter unpaid leave, it only involves unpaid leave so parents may accumulate more problems with income, and it may cause disagreement between employees and employers over the jobs and responsibilities that they return to. The United States does not guarantee paid leave and has no national child care program so many parents are struggling to find quality day care services for their children and many low-wage workers struggle to afford the costs of day care centers. In general, many parents struggle to combine employment and family life. The chapter concludes by stating that families face many constraints and their choices are limited in the workplace, as more and more families struggle financially due to economic changes.

2. What was interesting/what did you learn:

              I found the section on commuter marriages very interesting. Before reading this, I never really thought about married couples actually living apart from each other in different geographic areas  other than if they were separated and on the verge of getting a divorce. However, after reading this, I became aware that there are partners who live apart because of their careers; one might choose not to relocate with their partner because they might have a great chance of employment where they are located, thus moving would hamper that opportunity; or both may have already well-established careers in different cities and neither are willing to sacrifice those jobs after marriage. (The last reasoning doesn’t seem like the marriage would work out if they weren’t willing to make adjustments from the start of their marriage.)

            The section on sexual harassment in the workplace brought up a variety of real-life examples from popular companies. The one that caught my attention was the charges against American Apparel Inc.’s CEO for holding meetings in his underwear and regularly referring to women in derogatory terms. American Apparel is one of my favorite places to shop at; in fact, half my wardrobe consists of clothing from there. However, after hearing about this ill treatment, I really don’t wish to spend my money on clothes that is associated with a sexual abuser. I have recently noticed many American Apparel locations shutting down; wonder if these charges have anything to do with that.

Just Google “American Apparel CEO” and thousands of new articles and complaints against him will pop up; here’s one of them: http://jezebel.com/5012440/american-apparel-ceo-orders-subordinate-to-pleasure-herself-she-services-him-with-lawsuit

3. Discussion Point:

As I was reading the section about an increasing number of companies allowing parents to bring their babies to work I was amazed, especially when I saw the picture on page 376 of a mother with her child in a crib in her cubicle at work. I have never heard of any company that goes so far to allow parents to actually care for children in the workplace setting; I have just heard of companies providing their own daycares for parents in the building, but the children are monitored by others and are not right beside their desk/in their cubicle. I personally think it’s a horrible idea to allow babies in the workplace setting; this takes away from not just the parent’s work productivity, but also every other employee in that office. We all know babies cry a significant amount and it takes awhile to get them to calm down; well imagine that in a work setting; would you be able to concentrate? I don’t think I could. So while I support companies who provide daycares within their buildings for employees to bring their children as they work, I oppose the idea of allowing parents to bring babies into the workplace setting. If they feel the need to be with their children during work, then they should consider companies that offer telecommuting. No one should be given the opportunity to distract others from their work.

Do you think it is appropriate to allow parents to bring their babies to work? Or do you think this practice could be a potential risk to companies?