Do your workplace policies support both your 23-year-old, single salesman and your 43-year-old designer, who happens to be a single mom? A group of experts at a public meeting in Washington, D.C., recently claimed that, for most businesses, the answer is no.

Experts at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission meeting in April said that "workers are struggling to achieve work/life balance but often find themselves pitted against employers whose policies tend to favor employees who have some control over their schedules, white women over women of color, mothers over fathers, and non-mothers over pregnant and new mothers," according to HR News.

The experts noted women of color feel particular pressure from "excessive workloads and an unspoken message to work long hours but also of work/life conflicts, unsupportive managers and uncomfortable work environments," Jennifer Tucker, vice president for the Center for Women Policy Studies, a multiethnic and multicultural feminist policy organization that conducted a National Women of Color Work/Life survey in 16 Fortune 1,000 companies, said to HR News.

At the same time, men are not immune from work/balance issues. For example, unlike their female colleagues, "men are not getting time to leave early to pick up their kids from child care," said Elizabeth Grossman, regional attorney for the EEOC's New York District Office.  "I'm very concerned that pregnancy discrimination [also] is getting more subtle [overall]."

--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org

 

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