How to manage a chaotic workplace

American Demographics, June, 1996 by Diane Crispell

Clothing is not the only way in which customers evaluate frontline employees. The way people wear their hair, and the cosmetics and accessories with which they adorn their bodies, add up to a nearly infinite range of looks. Employers should accept the fashion statements their workers make, as long as they don't have a clearly negative impact on customers. The same goes for physical attributes. It makes sense for airline attendants to be neatly groomed because this conveys an air of professionalism, but it doesn't follow that they need to be free of wrinkles or gray hair.

3. WORK AROUND CHILDREN.

Somewhere along the line, the line between individual and organizational responsibility has become blurred. Employees now expect employers to accommodate their personal lives. Older supervisors often wonder why younger workers seem so whiny and demanding. But, to a large extent, baby boomers and younger workers bring their personal lives to work out of necessity.

When both father and mother are employed, or when a single adult is raising children, work schedules can be upset at any moment. These household types are the norm for workers in most businesses, and they will remain the norm for many years. Half of new mothers either get a new job or return to their old job before their child's first birthday, and an even larger share of fathers barely skip a beat at the workplace when they become parents. Four in ten preschool children live with two parents who work, according to the Census Bureau, and 18 percent live with a single parent who works.

Any parent knows that children and work do not mix well. The little ones are disruptive to most office environments, and they are unthinkable in many manufacturing or service firms. Millions of parents have learned how to manage both jobs and kids, but it is a complex task. Although a sizable portion of working parents turn to grandparents, other family members, or paid caregivers, they also look to their employers for help.

Employers are slowly getting the message. In almost three-fourths of very large companies, workers can set aside day-care expenses as nontaxable income, according to a 1993 survey by Hewitt Associates of Lincolnshire, Illinois. About one-third of workers in medium-sized firms and 14 percent in small outfits are eligible for this benefit, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It's still unusual for employers to provide actual child-care services, but the proportion who do it is growing. In 1991, 8 percent of workers in establishments employing 100 or more people had access to employer-provided child care, according to the BLS. One-third of employees in very large companies can also get assistance locating suitable child care through referral services, says Hewitt.

Offering child-care assistance is a way to keep valued workers on the job more often and keep them focused on their work. Ignoring the issue is a recipe for increased work absence, increased turnover, and stressed-out workers worrying about kids who are alone at home.