Part Time and/or Flexible Work Hours - A Growing Trend or Thing of the Past?
Newsday had an interesting article discussing the continuing firestorm surrounding the Nassau County District Attorney's recent mandate that all part time employees either beging working full time or resign. For those of you who have not been following this story, Kathleen Rice, Nassau's recently elected D.A. issued this mandate fairly recently claiming that since criminals don't work part time, her ADA's shouldn't either. She's been taking quite a few pot shots because of this. As a single person with no children, she's been accused of not appreciating the issues concerning working mothers. She also made the decision to change this long standing policy of her predecessor which permitted part time work - a policy that for all intents and purposes seemed to work.
I spoke to Carrie Mason-Draffen at Newsday last week who was writing an article on the subject and shared my views (some of which she kindly quoted at the end of the article). Seems to me that many law firms have adapted quite nicely to the concept of employees working part time. In fact, the article discusses one law firm here on Long Island that recegnizes many of the benefits. Bottom line - flexibility is something that employers will need to provide more of not less!