Flexibility matters. You know it, and so do we. But when we got the
results of a recent comprehensive work/life survey of our Smart Mom
Council, sponsored by Eli Lilly & Co. pharmaceuticals, we were
reminded just how much it matters—a lot. And flex has come a long way,
baby, although still not far enough.

While 51 percent of our 521 respondents felt that their companies'
work/life benefits suited their needs, that still leaves 49 percent who
didn't feel that way. In other words, flextime remains a work in
progress.

What do women want? More! A full 71 percent of our survey moms
expressed a desire for a better menu of flex options. Bring on
compressed workweeks, job-shares, telecommuting and office hoteling (a
new trend in desk-sharing), they said.

It's a simple fact: Working moms value flextime over all other
workplace benefits. The ability to work part-time while transitioning
back from a maternity leave? Fabulous, said 75 percent of our moms. An
on-site fitness center? Great, said 57 percent. But the most
crowd-pleasing benefit of all was the ability to start and end workdays
at flexible times, valued by 90 percent of our moms.

How to give your life more flex appeal? Here are the four big work/life
improvements you're looking for, and real ways moms and companies are
making them happen.

Don't just talk the talk—walk the walk. It's all well and good for your
company to have an intranet site that touts flex benefits, but if
gossip tends to fly when a mom "skips out" on Friday at 3:00 p.m. and
managers themselves don't work part-time, women are afraid to access
their flex benefits.

Indeed, 34 percent of our survey respondents said they felt there
was a stigma attached to working flex hours, while 44 percent felt that
managers might perceive a desire for flextime as a lack of dedication
to their jobs. Even scarier: A third of our moms told us they felt
switching to flex work would affect their job security.

These statistics don't surprise Maureen Corcoran, vice president of
diversity for the corporate human resources department at Prudential
Financial. Back in 1998, when her company issued its first flex
policies, the benefits "just sat," she says, because Prudential didn't
work to change the office culture. Then in September 2001, just as the
company was gearing up to push for flex participation, the Twin Towers
fell. Though Prudential's New Jersey headquarters weren't so directly
affected, computers in Manhattan went down. "We had a small team of our
New York employees working in the apartment of a woman who had remote
access to the system," says Corcoran. "After that, we looked around and
realized telecommuting was not just a 'nice thing' for our employees.
It was now critical for our business continuation plan."

How they do it
Since 9/11, Prudential has waged an all-out campaign, complete with
posters, Web articles and online training for managers, to maximize its
flex participation. The company views job-sharing, telecommuting and
compressing the workweek as essential ways to retain talent and, above
all, stay competitive. "Almost half our employees are overseas, which
means that meetings happen at some very interesting times," says
Corcoran. "They need to be able to work when the work needs to be done."

Enlighten your manager.
Working moms in our survey said they want managers to know that
flextime not only makes good business sense, it also makes them better
employees. "Working from home, I rearranged the computer system of the
dental office where I work and increased billings by fifty thousand
dollars a month," explained Honesty Norman, a dental scheduling
coordinator in Sherwood, OR. Not that she was compensated when her
review came up—her managers felt a raise wasn't necessary because they
were already "bending over backward" for her. Since she was grateful to
have the job, she didn't make waves.

How they do it
To combat the lingering feeling that flex work is a favor, cutting-edge
companies like Booz Allen Hamilton are training managers to rethink
office culture and value productivity over face time. They're also
stocking their websites with detailed information on how employees can
approach a work/life discussion with a manager. Another
forward-thinking company, Motorola, has even designated "ombudspeople"
to field questions like "My boss is old school. What should I do?"

When talking to a manager about a flex job, our survey moms offer
this advice: Be prepared. Think of all the business advantages a flex
schedule offers and write out a formal proposal for the job you want.
To get ideas of what to include, "network with other women," suggests a
Boston-area mom who works for a pharmaceutical company. "Search the Web
and read books such as Breaking Out of 9 to 5, by Maria Lacqueur and
Donna Dickinson." Figure out who will handle your work when you're not
in the office. Which meetings do you need to attend? How often will you
check your email and your voicemail? Can you take on new tasks such as
making international calls after your kids are asleep?

To combat manager worries of "Is she really working?" use past
performance evaluations to demonstrate your work ethic. Then seal the
deal by offering to try out flex work on a temporary basis. After 30 or
60 days, sit down with your boss and evaluate your arrangement. "Making
the initial request can be tough," says one survey mom, "but I've
always found managers far more receptive than I expected them to be."

Go for a promotion.
Though many of our working moms have received promotions while on a
flex or part-time schedule, 43 percent worried that flexible
arrangements would affect their ability to rise in their professions.
As one mom explained, "In my review, my manager told me that my flex
schedule diminishes my 'visibility' in the office and, even though I'm
full-time, gives the appearance that I'm not working as hard as my
coworkers."

How they do it
IBM has worked around this problem by having managers and employees
create individual performance commitments, detailed accounts of what
achievements are expected in the course of a year. "We're not focused
on the hours you work or where you are," says Maria Ferris, director of
IBM's workforce diversity programs. "We've had women promoted to
executive positions while working part-time."

But Kelly Semrau, vice president of global public affairs and
communications at S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., cautions that
companies need to be forthright in discussing the trade-offs that flex
workers can encounter. "If you work part-time, you may not be able to
move up as fast or get the exposure that full-time work affords," she
says. "There may be a trade-off, or there may not be. But you need to
set clear expectations about what you can accomplish and where that
will lead." When you think about flex work, Semrau advises, project
what your next job will look like. At SC Johnson, employees are
encouraged to make a three-year plan and list the skills they have, the
areas in which they want to grow and the training they'd like to
receive. "When you have clear and direct dialogues between a manager
and employee, you create a high trust environment," she explains. "And
we've found that in order to have a great flex policy, you have to have
a high trust environment."

Let your coworkers know you're not home eating bonbons.
We're past the pioneer stage as working mothers—only 14 percent of our
survey respondents felt their colleagues were "not accepting" of moms
who worked. But being understood is another issue entirely. Almost half
of our respondents felt their coworkers were "not very sensitive" to
working moms' needs. "I kind of chuckle that my company is on the 100
Best list," says a woman who holds a job-share position as a customer
service rep for a large company. "They survey who's working flex, but
not how the office dynamics change when you switch to part-time." After
seven years of part-time work, she says that her coworkers still make
comments like "Isn't she lucky? She can go home."

How they do it
To help figure out how to balance company and personal needs, workers
at General Mills approached HR and asked to create a forum for
part-timers. For the last three years, these flex workers have been
networking, brainstorming and serving as role models to wannabe
part-timers. "They've proposed changes to make health-care costs more
equitable for flex workers," says Sandy Ohlsson, vice president of
human resources. What makes the forum's work easy is that at General
Mills, directors job-share and vice presidents work part-time. "People
at every level take advantage of alternative work arrangements," says
Ohlsson. "That says more than words. People need to be able to look
around and know: They did it—I can, too."