In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

337 CONCLUSIONS Solving the Workplace/Workforce Mismatch Kathleen Christensen and Barbara Schneider Most U.S. workers are employed in rigidly structured work environments where they have to make difficult and, oftentimes, undesirable choices between meeting the demands of work and the needs of their families. Being expected to work long hours, with minimal control over when and where to work and few opportunities for any type of leave from work, results in a situation in which workers often, and unwillingly, privilege work over family. This situation is one that applies to all types of workers, including low-income, hourly workers and high-income, salaried professionals, as well as all family types, most notably single working mothers and dual-earner parents. As the chapters in this book show, the tensions between work and family that so many Americans experience emanate from a serious mismatch between the way that the U.S. workplace is organized in time and space and the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce. Over the last seventy years, while the workplace largely has retained the structure of full-time,full-year work,with no time off for family or personal needs,the lives of American workers have become more complicated. The majority of women did not work for pay in the late 1930s, whereas today mothers of infants and young children not only join the workforce but stay in it. Over 60 percent of families with children under the age of eighteen have two employed parents or an employed single parent. With women’s deep engagement with paid work, both men and women now are shouldering more responsibility for the care of sick and aging parents and relatives. One in four employed men and women have eldercare responsibilities (American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care 2002). As the responsibility for paid work has shifted from only men’s work to men’s and women’s work, the arithmetic of the family has changed from a two-job–two- 338 KATHLEEN CHRISTENSEN AND BARBARA SCHNEIDER parent family to a three-job–two-parent one. In the traditional two-job–two parent households, the demands of the one paid and one unpaid job are sufficiently met by the resources of two adults. In a three-job–two-parent family, the demands of the three jobs (two paid, one unpaid) outstrip the resources of the two adults. Even if there is complete gender equity with the third job being equally shared by the man and woman, each ends up with 1.5 jobs. An obvious solution to the workplace/workforce mismatch is for one of the workers to give up paid work and return to the two-job–two-parent family structure of the past. But the solution is unlikely and, for many, undesirable. The economic realities of American life are such that in most dual-earner families both parents have to work to keep their combined incomes in line with inflation and other additional costs of modern living, including their children’s college tuition, which has far outpaced inflation (Immerwahr and Johnson 2007). Economists show that in adjusted dollars, the average family income has barely increased over the past twenty years. It is important to point out that if women did not work, most family incomes would not have risen at all in the 1980s and 1990s. For many male workers there has been a persistent erosion of income since the 1970s. Although the workplace can be draconian, work remains an enjoyable, intellectually engaging activity for many, if not most, workers. In addition to issues of maintaining a reasonable lifestyle, work has been shown to increase self-esteem, independence, social contacts, and new experiences. For many people there is a cognitive challenge and sense of fulfillment when working at one’s job that does not occur at other times in their lives.While working parents enjoy being at home, when at work both mothers and fathers experience a different and rewarding psychic satisfaction unparalleled in other instances such as during quality time with children or in leisure activities (Koh 2005; Sexton 2005). For those adults who need and want to work, but who also have significant family responsibilities, flexibility in the time, timing, and location of work provides one way to realign the structure of work to their needs. Workplace flexibility involves a commitment to organizing work in time and space in ways that give employees greater control over when and where they work, while at the same time helping...

Share