Work Life Balance

I volunteered to join my company's work life balance committee and I was looking for ideas on what works.

Does anyone work or have worked for a company that had successful "work life balance" benefits. If so, please share the details. If you don't mind including the company name or at least size that would be helpful.

THANKS!

(e.g. telecommuting, flexible scheduling, no meetings after 1pm on a Friday, summer hours, etc.)

Re: Work Life Balance

We do a summer flextime that is very popular.

How much detail do you want? I can forward you our policy statements.

Re: Work Life Balance

My parents both worked for Pfizer and they used to be soooooooooooooo family friendly. I especially loved the summer because my parents would come home early on Friday. Also the company would rent out Great Adventure one saturday or maybe sunday a summer!

But in the long run the company both $hitcanned both my parents into early retirement/laid off to get more money to rush Viagra on the market after a combined 50 years with the company. So I guess my only advice is to tell him don't fake it and then hurt your families in the long run.

Re: Work Life Balance

I applied for a job at a company that had either summer fridays leave at 2 or you could choose 5 fridays off in the summer.
Also, if you stayed late, those hours would accumulate into extra comp days.

I'm not sure if that's what you're asking for, but I liked those benefits

Re: Work Life Balance

I would say that Telecommuting, in house child care, and all around flexibility are the most important things. Many companies lose wonderful people (mostly women) because they are not flexible.

ETA: A great maternity leave policy, that would entice women to come back P/T or telecommute would be awesome for the company as well as the employee.

Message edited 4/26/2006 12:32:43 PM.

Re: Work Life Balance

DH and I work for Booz Allen Hamilton. They win all kinds of awards for top company to work for, including one of the top companies for working mothers to work for.

We have flexible schedules; as long as you get your work done, they really don't care what hours you work. You can work from home too if you need to.

We have TONS of company events; when DH and I worked at the company headquarters in VA, they had HUGE parties during the winter holidays and also summer picnics in the parking lot, complete with carnival games and awesome catering. They also rent out Six Flags in Maryland every year for just the employees.

My office here in Colorado has free 15 minute chair massages every Wednesday and Friday. I think I might sign up for one today
I also won a raffle that we just had - a $100 gift card to a restaurant.
We also have casual Friday.

Message edited 4/26/2006 12:37:00 PM.

Re: Work Life Balance

My DH is a car salesman with a GREAT company. They're VERY family oriented - family run, etc.
For retail based environment you rarely if ever find these hours....

Monday-Thursday: 9-8
Friday: 9-6
Saturday: 9-5
Sunday: CLOSED

Re: Work Life Balance

These are all great! Keep em coming!!!!

Re: Work Life Balance

I work for Viacom and they are wonderful...
they have an entire department devoted to Work/Life Balance and send out frequent e-mails re: meetings and speakers that come to talk about various topics.

In the summer we have "Summer Fridays"
People can either work 9-1 pm or work an arrangement out to be off every other Friday in the summer...I love it.

They do telecommuting and Flextime, but I work on the TV side and could never take advantage of that...but other departments do a 3-4 day workweeks for those that participate.

The reimburse up to $5000 for Adoptions and all new parents get 2 weeks paid parental leave (for new mom's that's in addition to the 6-8 weeks maternity leave)

They have a special duane reade kiosk to fill prescriptions through work...

They have back-up childcare programs on-site and available to come to your home on little to no notice!

There is so much more...It really is a wonderful place to be "Staff" at...I freelanced here for 6 years before I was luckily converted and learned about all of these amazing things!

Message edited 4/26/2006 12:58:59 PM.

Re: Work Life Balance

How about Brown Bag discussions? We have those too; there's a Parents forum that has discussions on parenting-related topics. There are also Brown Bags on stress management and other health-related topics.
And for those that want to get in shape, there's an early morning Boot Camp class.

Re: Work Life Balance

I don't know if this would fall under this category, but I would love it if my workplace gave a discount for a gym membership!

Re: Work Life Balance

Things that I would be interested in are:
-Shorter Fridays in the summer or some extra Fridays off
-affordable daycare on site
-if you work late, get comp hours
-flexable hours, not meaning any hours you want ecause I think people would take advantage, but say within the hours of 7-7 work the 8 hour shift you choose but stay between those hours.
-extra vacation purchase option... my job has this and I always take advantage. You can buy 1 extra week of vacation per year. YOu pay back the acutal amount you make for 1 week, but somehow you save money. I forgot how, but I think it has something to do with not paying taxes. I love going from 2 to 3 weeks