What Work-Life Benefits Are Actually Useful to You?

From the Wall Street Journal | July 21, 2009

Recently, there was a profile of the Obama White House's efforts to be more "family friendly" for staffers. The Obamas, who, of course, have two young daughters themselves, are committed to helping their aides who are parents make their lives more manageable. Unfortunately, many of their best efforts have been overridden by a workaholic culture.

As part of this push, the White House has given out laptops to those aides with kids - before those without children - so parents could work from home, according to the New York Times. White House officials have created some flexible work schedules for staffers, and have let aides take their kids to work when child-care arrangements have fallen through.

Despite these efforts, though, White House workers say they still have trouble spending quality time with their families because the excessive workload wipes out even the most generous work-life perks. Advisers often work "60 to 70 hours a week and bear the scars of missed birthdays and bedtimes, canceled dinners and play dates, strained marriages and disgruntled children, all for prestigious posts that offer a chance to make an impact and unparalleled access to the president," according to the Times.

That article and last week's discussions on "workaholicism" got me thinking about what work-life benefits are really valuable to allow us to actually keep our lives manageable and spend quality, non-stressed-out time with our families. In my case, I found that the stress level and grind of daily journalism didn't gel with how I wanted my family life to be, so I went part time with my employer after I had my son, taking a cut in pay, benefits and visibility.

And then there are companies like Google, which very much wants to blur work and family lines in order to have a highly productive work-force, according to the Sloan Work and Family Research Network. Google's Silicon Valley headquarters offer free food and drinks to employees, guests and family members all week and weekend. There is also a complimentary gym, as well as laundry and dry cleaning services. Workers can even bring their dogs to work. The upshot of this generous "blend and blur" strategy, at least according to friends who work there: Employees end up working really, really hard, and often for long hours.

Readers, what work-life benefits from your employers are the most useful to you to help maintain quality time with your family? Is it, say, the option to work part-time, or flexible hours, or working from home? Does your office offer Google-like perks, in which the workplace essentially turns into home? Or does a workaholic mentality make even the most generous perks a moot point?