SHARE has been actively discussing the stories we are hearing from SHARE members about their struggles to work and care for children with the school schedules this fall. SHARE is involved in the Child Care Task Force that UMass Memorial management set up, and having additional discussions about how to help SHARE members.
SHARE has emphasized flexibility and innovation, urging senior management to tell department level managers that it’s OK to try new things in order to help SHARE members in this complicated COVID situation.
Carol Hehir, a Staff Organizer who has been representing SHARE on the child care task force with the hospital, has this to say about the process so far, “I’ve been impressed. We are all on the same page, trying to figure out how we can support employees. Of course, we have to keep the hospital running, but we are trying to come up with as many options to help people balance child care and work as possible.”
Here are some of the ideas SHARE has been promoting:
Goals to be Balanced
Let’s be clear about the goals that we are trying to take into account, though how to balance them may not be easy in some situations:
Operational needs of the department – getting the work done
Work security – keeping SHARE members working in spite of the COVID challenges
Safety – social distancing, preventing the spread of the virus
Fairness – Balancing needs of all employees in the department.
Guiding Principles for How to Approach a Problem
Flexibility: The more we can empower departments to offer flexibility, the more likely we are to find solutions that work for individuals and the whole department. (See ideas below.)
Creativity is encouraged: If your department can come up with an unusual solution that works for everyone and gets the work done, more power to you!
Transparency: When everyone understands what the problem is and what the limitations are, they are more likely to be able to come up with a solution, to understand why a change is a good idea. We’re urging management to communicate early and often.
SHARE members having a say is key. Working things out together as a department allows people to volunteer to help in ways that work for them. Two heads (or twelve) are better than one when looking for ideas and suggestions.
Not One Size Fits All: Different people may need different kinds of help or flexibility. Every department is different. Solutions for lower income employees may be different than those for higher income employees.
Getting help: SHARE Organizers and Reps are happy to help, and can escalate the department’s issues when needed.
Innovating Ideas that Might Help
This is a list of possible items that could be changed to help an employee and department deal with a problem related to COVID and/or Child Care. It is not meant to be an exhaustive list.
Decreasing or increasing hours: Could be permanent or temporary. Others in the department may want to pick up extra time, or decrease time in a way that adds up to a solution for the department.
Work from Home: We encourage departments to look with a fresh eye at what tasks can be done from home. Work from Home is functioning quite well in a variety of departments already. Perhaps 2 SHARE members could split the week so that each could work from home on the days their child is learning remotely.
Change of working days or hours: It could be moving from days to evenings to accommodate schooling needs, or changing start and end times. If someone is working from home, perhaps the flexibility to accomplish 8 hours of work across 10 hours would help, if the work does not need to be done at a certain time. Or some employees may want to work more on the weekend.
Juggling tasks: Co-workers could swap tasks, to make the timing or work from home possible. Everyone needs to be involved in that conversation, so no one feels “dumped on.”
Bringing (older) kids to work is usually not possible, but has worked in some areas in a pinch.
Technological Solutions: IS has been asked to help where technology is limiting flexibility, such as with phone systems that allow working from home. Please escalate these issues so that we can find a solution if at all possible.
Job Sharing: See page 60 in the SHARE-UMass Memorial contract for guidelines.
Extra staff: Float pool or temporary staff could help.