Gen-X employee retention

The vanishing corporate necessity: 7 strategies to retain Gen-X women so your company thrives
By Deanne DeMarco

There are a couple of typos in this article, but its overall analysis of Gen-X's attitudes toward work is right on. While so far missing the worst of sexual harassment, I share my generation's frustrations over unmet expectations for pay equality, exciting work, and the desire to have a family as well as a work life.

It's especially frustrating that many of the Gen-X friendly workplace policies suggested by DeMarco have only been partially realized in the past couple decades. Advocates for women's employment have been calling for "[f]amily leave polices, job sharing, telecommuting, on-site child care, mentoring and flexible work schedules" since at least the 1990's. For larger companies, family leave is now federally mandated. But the other policies vary widely by company.

Due to the lack of part-time opportunities for women with my education level and skill-set, I am considering full-time employment. Telecommuting and flexible work schedules are assumed to be possibilities here in Silicon Valley, but often aren't advertised in advance for full-time positions. If I am lucky enough to land a full-time job, my young children would have to spend 11 hours a day in childcare.

In job ads I have yet to run across language that would suggest that an employer would consider reorganizing a full-time job into two part-time jobs for the right candidates. Restructuring a position as part-time could save an employer money by eliminating benefits and would guarantee that all my hours at work are productive. But having been out of the labor market for four years and with the economy on a downturn, I don't feel like I am in a position of strength to ask for a job to be reorganized for me.