Sounds of Silence around Working Mother's Top 100

It's the type of topic you'd expect bloggers to well, blog about.

For the 21st time,Working Mothers Magazine released its list of the Top 100 family friendly places to work. The news was greeted with relative silence--at least among bloggers.

To get on the list,companies have to complete a 550 quesion survey. They are ranked on seven criteria:

The application includes detailed questions about the workforce, compensation, child-care and flexibility programs, leave policies and more. The application checks the usage, availability and tracking of programs, as well as the accountability of managers who oversee them. That means it's not enough to have a great program if no one is using it.

WHAT'S MEASURED
Seven areas are measured and scored: workforce profile, compensation, child care, flexibility, time off and leaves, family-friendly programs and company culture.

If bloggers are supportive or opposed to the list, they seem to be keeping it to themselves. You have to do some deep diving to find anyone who has anything substantive about the list.

The one place that does seem to be having a conversation is in the MOMania, a blog on the Atlanta  Journal-Constitution by Theresa Walsh Giarrusso. It's a conversation we've heard before: working moms should not have special work privileges.

From Brian:

My company is not “mother friendly”… and a good thing, too. I’ve got plenty to do without covering for someone else’s job too.

Now, if you want a realistic accommodation of people’s work/life
demands, you could push for a WORKER-friendly company: one that treats
all employees equally and recognizes that we ALL have obligations and
responsibilities outside the office. But a “mother-friendly” company?
Heck no, what a terrible idea.

From Not A Mom

I am a woman who chose not to have children, but I do have a life
outside of the office. Why should mothers get extra flexibility in
their jobs that I don’t? Personally I feel that ALL employees should
have some flexibility in their hours, no matter what their family
situation may be. We all have things we need to do outside of work. Not
just moms.

From StayInvolved

At my company your schedule and flexibility with hours is not determined by your gender but by your position and business needs.

Sorry NoKidz, sounds like you work with some terribly selfish
people. I recently had to balance work, motherhood and caring for a
dying parent. Could not have done it without the help and support of my
coworkers.

 

Here's a link to the top 100

So what's up with all the silence? Is it because women don't care? Do the believe the list is not relevant? Or, is it a more practical issue -- working mothers simply don't have time to weigh in on the significance, gains, surprises and trends listed in the top 100?

This is cross posted at Elana's blog FunnyBusiness .

Comments

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Not impressed with the list

September 28, 2006 - 7:35am

Not this year's list, but the list in general. I work for a company that for the first 2-3 years I was here, the company was on the list. It has not been on the list for the last 2-3 years, including this year. Let me tell you, I have no real idea why my company was on the list in the first place, but maybe it would still be making the list if it chose to fill out the questionnaire? It sounds like companies *choose* to fill out the questionnaire and put themselves out there in order to be evaluated. I'm skeptically as to the stringency and accuracy of the evaluations. Perhaps that is why bloggers ignore it. I think it is pretty meaningless.

I think the commenters saying we all need flexibility are on target. That I don't have kids doesn't mean I don't have other obligations. Aging parents, my own health issues, and my dog. ;) I got a "talking to" b/c I used 1.5 hours of sick time (I get 40 hours per year) to take my dog to the vet for her teeth cleaning. I argued that it was a medical appt for a dependent, but my boss so didn't care.

Cass
Patience is a virtue that takes too long

 

Working Mothers Best Companies List and Other Corporate Rankings

September 28, 2006 - 1:21pm

I blogged about the Working Mothers list last Monday, but I'd recommend that people also read my related post from the previous week about HRC's Corporate Equality Index and the need to look at several different "diversity" lists before making up one's mind about a company. (I also wrote Tuesday about The Advocate's list of companies that support LGBT equality.)

My main take on all these lists is that they can be useful guidelines, but need to be well understood and cross-referenced with care, since each takes a different approach, and may weigh different factors more heavily. Fannie Mae, for example, gets a perfect 100 on HRC's list of LGBT-friendly companies (and appears on Working Mother's list as well), but was kicked off The Advocate's list for donations to some very conservative "family values" organizations. I'd recommend reading the lists that target areas of concern for you, and then talking with current or former employees to get a sense of whether the reality within a company matches its stated policies.

Dana
Mombian: Sustenance for Lesbian Moms
http://www.mombian.com

 
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