Monthly Memos

Work And Family: Who Should Answer?

Charles I. Mundale
Executive Director of MCCR

June 1994

Members of the MCCR Work & Family Task Force do not believe in sugar coating. The guidelines they are developing constitute a sobering challenge to any company that would call itself "family friendly." Of course, there is always some risk in clear statement. The difference between the art of diplomacy and the artifice of equivocation is often subtle. And it is difficult to convert or even neutralize someone you have first offended. Surely that is the first -- or second -- axiom of Minnesota Nice. Nonetheless, when someone on the Task Force has passed the sugar, others have reached for the salt.

This challenge to business is rightly placed. We have too long assumed that the job is always "job one," and that all other claims on our time and energies must always defer to the demands of whomever signs the paycheck. For men, this ordering of things went virtually unchallenged, except perhaps when it came time to ask, "Is that all there is?". But women entering the workforce in the past three decades have felt the conflict with a special sensitivity -- and very little power to resolve it.

Yet, despite the late and faltering start, despite the distance still to go, business may well be ahead of other institutions in society in addressing the work-and-family dilemma and, with it, the values crisis that is now upon us. And this is hardly a mystery. Business, more than any other institution, must pay close and constant attention to what's going on around it.

Thanks to the power of the market, monitoring and adjusting become second nature to business, so when something -- be it customer whim, employee productivity or social turmoil -- disrupts the flow of profits, business takes note. And the more direct the link between the disruption and the profits, the quicker the adjustment. Thus, another set of priorities emerges: 1) customer, 2) employee, and 3) community.

Most business people have now seen that something must be done about balancing work and family obligations, and many are conscientiously struggling to develop fair and effective policies. The MCCR Work & Family Task Force will make a practical contribution to their efforts and, at the same time, challenge them to do more and do it better.

But what about society's other major institutions? Businesses are asked to loosen scheduling so employees can attend parent-teacher conferences, but shouldn't we expect as much from the schools? Businesses are urged to accept -- even promote -- telecommuting. Shouldn't clergy and teachers be available on E-mail?

For all institutions, it is ultimately the same question: Who is being served? The MCCR Work & Family Task Force is asking it. No sugar added.

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