Flexible Terms: Achieving work-life balance through non-standard employment options (part two)

Occupational hazards
Flexibility, however, does not come without a price.

“While part time jobs have afforded me the luxury of enjoying the time to do other things, I must admit there are trade-offs in terms of social security like the SSS [Social Security System], Philhealth, and medical insurance,” says Bringas. His concerns stem from emerging trends associated with non-standard employment practice in the Philippines: lower compensation, reduced (or in some cases, the absence of) fringe benefits, loss of career mobility, and lack of job security.

In a 2001 study titled Workers Representation Amidst Labor Flexibility: Insight from the Philippine Experience, National Labor Relations Commission chairman Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio, Jr. found that a considerable number of establishments have opted to employ non-standard workers primarily because they require not only lower wages and fewer benefits, but also lower training, clerical, and supervision costs. Citing a 2000 Philippine Labor Flexibility Survey conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment’s Institute for Labor Studies, Bitonio found that about a quarter of firms employing non-regular workers farmed out jobs with nothing more than an oral contract. Furthermore, non-standard workers rarely enjoy the benefits of representation security and the right to bargain collectively since their “intermittent and mobile” nature makes it difficult to unionize. Non-regular jobs, according to Bitonio, also tend to proliferate in small-scale and informal enterprises where union presence is inherently weak.

New employment patterns also involve a distinct set of challenges for organizations and professionals, changing the way the traditional eight-to-five workplace is viewed and completely redefining the nature of professional work. Large organi-zations with well-developed operational management procedures rarely venture into new arrangements to avoid depending on people who may not be there when needed, and managing issues of equity and accountability among the rest of their staff. Some employers argue that work done anywhere other than the office, or any time beyond official business hours, is simply difficult to monitor and verify.

Digital imaging manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, for example, recently cancelled telecommuting for a key division of the company, a move that some analysts found jolting but not so surprising.  HP believes that bringing its information-technology employees together in the office will make them swifter and smarter, a complete turnaround from what made the company an industry pioneer. Some government institutions, which turn to flexible work arrangements as a non-monetary incentive in hiring high-level technical experts they would otherwise be unable to afford, experience the same difficulty in determining the extent to which non-standard work routines increase the institution’s efficiency.

“Management can be quite difficult when you don’t see your people,” explains Civil Service Commission National Capital Region Legal Office division chief Atty. Claudette Agatep. If people are allowed to enjoy flexiplace and do ad hoc telework,  there also ought to be hard and fast guidelines for monitoring and evaluating their productivity. “We should have measurable objectives and a way to gauge output every so often,” she says. 

Professionals in alternative work arrangements themselves face challenges both in terms of managing tasks and projects, and of managing career advancement, professional image, and identity. For UP College of Mass Communication journalism alumnus Benjamin Cabrera III, who works as Technical Support manager with one of the country’s top business process outsourcing companies, there is the emotional pressure to create a professional image. Like most senior managers, he makes it a point to work a few hours beyond his regular four-hour schedule, even though he gets nothing for the extra hours. “I think being there and being more available is a central element in my professional work and shows that I am neither less committed nor less serious than my full-time colleagues,” Cabrera explains.

Work-life balance
The absence of clear-cut policies to ensure the productivity of flexible work arrangements, however, does not seem to discourage Filipino managers from pursuing such options in personnel management. Three of four local managers who responded to the recent Asia-Pacific Business Mobility Survey, for instance, were in favor of  allowing their subordinates to telecommute, believing that it will boost their creativity and productivity. The telephone-based survey commissioned by global business applications provider Avaya Philippines found that a large majority of Filipino senior executives believe that workplace flexibility can lead to a more balanced professional and personal lifestyle.

Cabrera agrees. Recently hired by the Department of Science and Technology’s Advanced Science and Technology Institute as network maintenance consultant, he admits to enjoying the freedom which the part-time arrangement provides. “Frankly speaking, it does not pay as much as my other job but there is less pressure and I can come and go anytime I want as long as I get the job done,” he says.

Bringas likes flexible work arrangements so much that he sees working part-time not as a supplement to, but as a replacement of, working full-time. “It certainly allows me to arrive at some sort of compromise between professional pursuits, personal fulfillment and family concerns,” he says. In fact, he would rather work simultaneously on several part-time engagements that pay decently than take on a single full-time job that pays generously.

That Bringas is well educated, multi-skilled, and male, also says a lot about changing attitudes toward employment and the quest for work-life balance. Their reasons may vary, but nowadays, there are more trained and talented people who actively pursue employment opportunities that allow them to work fewer hours and outside the confines of the conventional workplace. Furthermore, regardless of age, gender, civil status, or educational background, more and more employees seek other changes in the workplace to accommodate their personal needs. For example, an employee who wants to leave early for volunteer work feels that he or she should be entitled to a similar consideration given a parent requesting a shortened workday to attend a child’s school play.

Although flexible work is not a one-size-fits-all prescription, it certainly makes achieving a balanced lifestyle more feasible. In the case of Bringas, teaching his infant son to recognize objects and colors is as much a priority as teaching a roomful of college students to manipulate the same objects and colors in digital design. It is precisely his flexible work schedule that allows him to invest quality time at home and at work. “That I get to do both makes me feel doubly rewarded,” he says.