Work-Life Balance: Flextime, Telecommuting, and Workplace Stress

Posted on Jan 31, 2025 in Public Administration, Management, and Governance

Class 3-10-2015

Video About Time

Key Dimensions of Flextime

  • Core hours (number of hours they have to work)
  • Bandwidth
  • Flexible hours (number of hours employee can control)
  • Length of work week (how many hours people work in the week)
  • Banking hours
  • Variability of employee schedules (key issue: do you have control over the size, how many hours you work)
  • Supervisor’s role (are they comfortable with that)
  • Choice of starting/quitting times
  • Variable vs. constant length of day
  • Core time (differs from core hours, this is you have to deal.)

Make Flexible Schedules Work

  • Tie flexibility to business needs.
  • Make flexible scheduling more widely available.
  • Set up a system for screening requests.
  • Hold the employee responsible for making the new schedule work.

Telecommuting

  • Types
  • Work at home
  • Satellite office
  • Neighborhood work center
  • Benefits
  • Recruiting
  • Employee retention
  • Office space cost
  • Productivity
  • Absenteeism (goes down because
  • Air quality legislation, regulations, ordinances (no feel people on the road)
  • Drawbacks
  • Isolation
  • Distractions (food…)
  • Decreased involvement
  • Integration of work
  • Characteristics of Effective Telecommuters
  • Results-oriented
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Independent, adaptable
  • Well-organized
  • Strong focus on goals
  • Can establish priorities and manage time well.
  • Co-working

Telecommuting (Sun corporate bnet.com, Yahoo and new policy sparks controversy CNN new)

School of continuing education, University of Wisconsin uwmilwaukee Center (video 1 person sitting talking)

Work-life Balance Nigel Marsh Ted Sydney 2010

  1. Serious discussion understands some jobs. Some jobs
  2. Government and corporation, you want to the benefit you get from but it also
  3. Time frame in which you judge balance. Something. One thing is good, but it

Organizational Prevention

  • Job
  • Work and time
  • Social support

Provision of Social Support by Organization

  • Emotional support (People listen and
  • Appraisal support
  • Informational support (giving you information, kind of data required
  • Instrumental support (does the organization provide
  • Availability of social interaction
  • Design of physical settings

Specific Issues Regarding the Physical Environment

  • Facility design
  • Is it: Supportive?

Adaptable? (Example: some people finish the test, and they sit at the middle of the table)

Accessible?

Safe?

  • Furniture
  • Ergonomic (e.g., adjustable)
  • Mobile
  • Designed with technology and tools in mind
  • Promotion of activity
  • Problem of prolonged sitting (back pain, foot swelling, spinal shrinkage)
  • Increased efficiency in standing position
  • Lighting
  • Availability of windows
  • Lensed-indirect vs. parabolic down lighting)
  • Noise
  • Distraction
  • Mechanisms to control noise (e.g., “white” noise, acoustically – efficient ceiling tiles, panels and floors
  • Employee control
  • Involvement in design (green building
  • Flexibility if design (
  • Integration of new technology

Possible Alterations of the Physical Setting

  • Structural changes
  • Points of entry and exit (1 door it’s difficult to walk)
  • Wall placement and height
  • Ceiling height and angle
  • Openings for vistas and lighting
  • Floor angles and elevations
  • Furniture, fixtures and placements
  • Acoustical Changes
  • Wall coverings, finishing and insulation
  • Cushions and draperies
  • Floor coverings and finishings
  • Ceiling coverings and finishings
  • Plants and natural additions
  • Lighting changes
  • Natural openings
  • Placement of artificial lights
  • Intensity of lighting (never change)
  • Color of interior furnishings
  • Plants and natural additions (Mid-20th century: office no cubicles, 1980s-1990s:, around 2000s:, today: ; Offices design for introvert)

New office designs: Pixar, UH College of Architecture, Airport (chair), Starbucks …..

Video: a lady has 3 options: call hotel for finding babysit, take a baby to her, and

Other Demands of Work: Commuting

Video: Cost to commute (khou 11 news)

Influences on the Commuting Experience

  • Impedance: actual
  • Distance
  • Speed
  • Weather
  • Noise
  • Traffic congestion
  • Number of stages (more issues in NY)
  • Crowding
  • Complexity (the more complexity, the more difficult to communicate)
  • Impedance: Perceived
  • Perceived constraints
  • Predictability
  • Lack of control

How to Avoid Being the Victim of “Road Rage”

  • Don’t offend by avoiding
  • Cutting others off
  • Driving slowly in the left lane
  • Tailgating
  • Gestures
  • Don’t engage:
  • Steer clear
  • Avoid eye contact
  • Get help

Video: medical cause for road rage (NBC news LA)

Other Demands of Work: Business Travel

The Air Travel Experience (not tested on it)
  • Cost
  • Security Checks:
  • Limit on what you bring
  • Tarmac
  • Flights struck on the tarmac –new rules
  • When is a flight on time? If they close the door on time
  • Baggage
  • Last year, airlines
  • Gates
  • Airline routinely overbook
  • Control tower
  • Many of these expected to be retiring soon
  • Airplane cabin
  • About 3.3 billion passengers in the world in 2014
  • Up 31% from 2003
  • But 13% fewer airplanes
  • Average coach seat has less than 32 inches of legroom today, down from 35 inches

Organizational Travel Stress Interventions

  • Work Scheduling
  • Family Plans (spouse and children)
  • Travel Arrangements
  • Hotel accommodations
  • Jet-Lag Seminars
  • Travel Stretching Exercises
  • Communication Links
  • Safety and crime Prevention Workshops
  • Anti-Terrorist Training
  • Food and Water Precautions
  • General Travel Training Programs
  • Procedures for Obtaining Medical Help
  • “Concierge” Programs (someone at nice hotel)

Individual Travel Stress Interventions

  • Personal Jet-Lag Reduction Program
Combating Jet Lag
  • Get plenty of sleep before the trip
  • Get a good “night’s” sleep on the plane
  • Don’t nap
  • Avoid alcohol
  • Use sleeping drugs carefully
  • Spend time outside
  • Reset your watch on the plane
  • Set an alarm
  • Eating Plan
  • Exercise
  • Sleep Adjustment
  • Music
  • Massage
  • Relaxation Techniques (e.g., medication)
  • Nutritional Supplements
  • Discussions with Experienced Travelers
  • Effective Packing
  • Improvement of Destination Knowledge
  • Medications (make sure you bring and keep them with you)

Other Demands of Work: Dealing with Technology

General Technology-Related Stressors
  • Learning new technologies
  • Blurring of boundaries
  • Time shortage/pressures
  • Multitasking (definition: doing more than one task purely at one time)
  • Interference with communication (email, messaging…)
  • Expansion of technology in society
Specific Computer-related Stressors in the Workplace
  • Introduction of a new or different computer system (people soft number)
  • Changes in social interaction
  • Electronic performance monitoring
  • Demands of computer work
  • Autonomy and control
Ways to Reduce Technology Stress
  • Stop trying to multitask or work 24/7
  • Establish boundaries between work and home
  • Don’t be “on call” all the time
  • Practice good ergonomics
  • Cultivate tech-savvy habits
  • You can’t do everything immediately; neither can anyone else