Corporate America and the work life balance

The US is one of the few countries that do not offer paid parental leave. The US considers such a leave as time wastage. The push to have this leave has been intense. Promoting a healthy work-life balance is essential for a father. Parents should ensure that they acquire their children a healthy livelihood by getting themselves a regular job and adhering by the rules that come with their jobs. They should, however, create time for their children, ensuring regular contact with their families. The US corporate sector is continuously promoting a more and more diversified work life. Parents are unable to ensure this form of regular contact with their families. Travelling and working long hours is one cause of this problem.

I intend to ensure that I maintain regular contact with the family. While I may not be in a position to obtain paid parental leave in the US, I will negotiate with my employer for an unpaid leave. This will help promote my participation in the upbringing of my children. I will also be able to ensure that my children are brought up decently and that they grow up to know and respect me for my participation in the US. Moreover, I need to get myself a job that allows me more time to be with my family.  The best option is to get a business opportunity so that I can choose when and when not to work. This will enable me to spend more time with my family and friends.

Parental Leave in the US

I think the US should promote parental leave. Parents with families are more likely to be productive as they attempt to ensure that their families live well. By promoting parental leaves, the US will be promoting a more productive workforce that will help see to the growth of the economy in the long run. Moreover, the US will help in endorsing more disciplined children owing to their parents’ contribution.

I think the idea of promoting parental leave is a very positive one. The government of America should participate in the efforts of ensuring there are enough funds to compensate employees during parental leave. Contribution with funds will see to the promotion of a healthy family and better living standards among such families. Children will also be brought up under reasonable living conditions during the first few months of their lives.

I feel the government can do more than it is currently doing to promote a healthy work-life balance. Parents should also be provided with more time to spend with their families in the first year of their birth. This can be done by promoting a policy that sees to it that employees work fewer hours or are not sent to work away from their families. This will enable such parents to promote healthy and better bonded families. Families that do this are likely to be productive in every way.

Paternity leave is as important as maternity leave. Both parents should participate in a child’s upbringing. It may however be difficult if such parents have to keep a work schedule. A paternity leave would serve to enable both parents to be together in serving this role. Rather than just being with the newborn child, the employee also gets some to spend with the rest of the family. Often, this is the time when families get together and seek a form of understanding. The bonding obtained this way means that employees try to eliminate various forms of conflict that may previously exist in the family. Employees will also obtain sufficient rest and resume the working schedule in a positive mood.

Specialized Family Arrangements

It is indeed important that organizations make special arrangements for parents who want to balance their families with their work. Employers who do this are likely to attract a variety of quality employees who want to have a family. The majority of the population has intentions of raising a family in the future if they do not already have one. If a job becomes a threat to such arrangements it is likely that the job will be rejected at the expense of the family. Most families are also going to be more capable to perform if they feel that their organizations have contributed to their children’s upbringing.

There are various methods that organizations can create such arrangements. First, they should promote the health of entire families if they have health plans for the employee. This will reduce absent days and reduce the stress mounted on the employee when diseases come. Second, the organization can develop family events in the organization. This is one thing that can promote the bonding between various employees and their families. Employees with such bonds may find leaving their place of work a necessity.

To promote such arrangements, the organization should take a number of steps. These are:

1. Require families to provide their family records as appropriate. In this regard, they would be required to provide information such as their marital status, names and number of children and birth information for each of the family members and level of education as well as the respective schools they are attending.
2. Use this information in developing programs that are appropriate for the different family members. Family members who have young children would be accommodated in programs that are different from older children.
3. Provide the opinions to employees and ask for input. Employees also have ideas they would want to be included in the program. Such programs may be obtained from creativity or from previous experience with other organizations. Such programs should be considered as well as their input to the welfare of the organization.
4. Finally, the organization should implement the new measures of ensuring a good family-work balance.

Employee Flexibility

The needs of various families are diverse. It is not possible for organizations to deal with each different organization differently. In this regard, employees are provided with the terms of the organization so that they choose whether or not to accept them. Other than morals programs that stand being used by every family, other programs would be inappropriate in the workforce. Allowing flexibility in the place of work would tend to be unfair in certain settings, especially for younger employees who have not engaged in family lives. Another group that may suffer from such arrangements is the group of older workers. If all employees who have a young family are allowed to pick their children from school at four in the evening, others may feel that the work situation is unfair. It is indeed not the company’s role to enable families a flexible schedule so that they may accommodate their families. Instead, each individual should make his own arrangements to create time for their family and work.