Obama on women employees and workplace flexibility

During the recent White House Summit on Working Families, American President Barack Obama shared his personal beliefs on the current working environment of the country. He shared that as working individuals, it is of utmost importance that we shouldn’t have to choose between family and work.

Obama went on to say that paid leave for child-care and elder-care along with working flexibility “are not frills, they are basic needs.” He added that families that work extremely hard are unable to get anywhere because of work policies that are completely unsupportive of familial requirements of employees. The American President also showed concern regarding the gender-based policies at work.

As an avid supporter of workplace policies such as the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the Affordable Care Act and raising minimum wage; Obama passionately talked about his upbringing by strong women in the family. He admired his wife for managing both the family and her work when he had to be away on tours. He also went on to praise his wife’s employers for being supportive and understanding towards a competent and working mother.

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As a father of two daughters, he shared his vision for a healthy and encouraging workspace for women in the near future. He said, “I want them to be able to have families, and I want them to be able to have careers, and I want them to go as far as their dreams will take them… I want a society that supports that.”

While the Congress has not been very active in implementing most of these policies, Obama announced during the Summit, “Today I’m going to sign a presidential memorandum requiring every federal agency to address flexible work schedules and give employees the right to request flexible work schedules.”

In the end he mentioned how companies like Jetblue, Google and Cisco, who have adopted policies that allow more flexibility, have succeeded in saving a great amount of money and employee loyalty.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2014/06/24/at-summit-obama-pushes-for-paid-parental-leave-workplace-flexibility/