Family Friendly Workplace

Every year for the past twenty years, Working Mother Magazine http://www.workingwoman.com/100best.shtml has compiled a report on the family-friendliest companies in America. As a "working mother", I always look forward to receiving this issue in particular.

It is my personal opinion that the best employers for working parents are the ones who are parents themselves. I have worked for many employers who do not have children and there just isn't the same level of understanding with certain issues that arise involving the little ones. This is certainly not to say that childless adults cannot be sensitive to the needs of working parents, but simply to say that they are oftentimes less tolerant of certain issues such as excessive use of sick leave.

When my children were babies, up through around 2nd or 3rd grade, I used every bit of vacation and sick leave on constant ear infections and other childhood illnesses. To make matters worse, I was a single parent and had no family to depend upon for help. I had to work, but at the same time, I was also a parent. Thankfully, I had been with my employer for a number of years and was able to maintain somewhat of a flexible work schedule.

I have tremendous respect for the employers who provide family-friendly environments. Flexible scheduling, time off for new parents, on-site daycare and even elder-care provisions are just a few of the many benefits that these companies provide. The level of morale in companies who provide these types of benefits is simply unmatched.

The following companies have been in the top 100 for 15 years or more:

Allstate Insurance Company
American Express Company
Bank of America
Citigroup
DuPont
Hewlett-Packard Company
IBM Corporation
Johnson & Johnson
Lincoln Financial Group
Marriott International, Inc.
Merck & Co., Inc.
Patagonia, Inc.
The Procter & Gamble Company
Prudential Financial
S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

For a complete list of the top 100 companies from the 2005 issue of Working Mother Magazine, visit the website shown above...and be on the lookout for the October 2006 issue!

"Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful." ~ Buddha