Julie Bauke, Founder and Chief Career Strategist, The Bauke Group, joins Cheddar News to discuss the new workplace trend of offering part-time workers the option to choose and set their own hours, how it's helping to attract and retain talent, and why women are especially benefitting from flexible work.


Opening Bell

In-Person Jobs Offering More Flexibility at Work

joining us now is julie balky, founder and chief career strategist at the balky group. Thank you so much for joining us, but I need you to break this down for us. You know, what does it really mean? And who is benefiting the most? Only 37% of people are actually in the type of jobs where you can work from anywhere. So that leaves an awful lot of people who have been missing out on this trend of giving people more flexibility and really more control not only over their work life but their whole lives. And what's interesting is this has actually been something workers have wanted for decades, but we are now in a situation where workers have the leverage to ask for it And companies are being forced to respond because there aren't enough people to do the jobs that are open. And so, believe me back in 2008 when we were in a full recession, this wasn't even I mean, companies would have laughed at this idea, we're in a completely different place now, even if we move into a bigger, greater recession, there still aren't enough people to do the jobs that need to be done. And so companies have had to get flexible and offer a variety of options to actually get people in the door and keep them. Yeah, it's definitely changed forever. It's hard to go back to what we used to know because everyone knows now we know the secret, but how common are these flexible positions becoming and how soon do you think that they could become the standard. I think they will become the standard. We're seeing more and more companies who hire people like anything from hotel, clean, clean, the cleaning staff at a hotel to package delivery to retail, to restaurants. All of those hard to fill positions are moving toward and progressive companies are out there leading the way, which is what it takes for people to be able to say, you know what given my life this week, here are the hours I wanna work, I wanna work midnight to 83 days a week, then maybe next week I want to pick up an extra shift, so what they're doing and the smart companies are actually even building an app where their workers can go online and say or go on the app and say, here's the hours I want to work this week. It's a way of giving people control, but also allowing people to expand their work week or retract their work hours or bring them back given what's going on in their lives. So it really is another way of this trend we're seeing, which is plan your life, plan your work around your life instead of your life around your work. And when we look at the youngest generations, millennials are fully in the workforce, gen z is not gen z right now is aged 10 to 25. And so only a small portion of gen z is actually in the workforce. So as we move forward, year to year, this sort of thinking about, I want my work to complement my life, not the other way around is going to become a lot more prevalent and we're going to see by 20 30 only 1% of the workforce is going to be boomers. And so if you run an organization where you are insistent that things go back to the way they were and darn it, you're gonna pound your fist on the desk until it does, you're going to be very lonely. Yeah, you got that right. And you mentioned these apps that some of these larger companies are using for their part time workers, do you think that will ever extend towards more of their full time workers as well? Absolutely. So what some people are doing is they're saying, okay, I might have two companies I work for, I might have a career portfolio instead of just one company and so I'm going to maybe work three days here, two days here, gonna pick up a weekend shift when it gets closer to the holidays. So if you think about like Uber, you know, think about Uber drivers, they get to decide when they work where they work what she they take and so we're moving to more of that model where it would have been thought to be ridiculous in the past, More and more employers are figuring out that not only is it doable, but we don't have a choice and so you know, it's, it's really the natural evolution of the labor market. And I think it's really painful for some organizations and some leaders to fully embrace it, but they have to, you know, this is, this is where we're moving, so get on board or be left behind. Well, you know, I know women in particular have reported a positive impact from the flexible offerings that people are offering with their jobs, But how important is it to keep women and mothers in particular in the workforce? And how could this really help level that gender gap going forward? Absolutely. So women are generally the majority do the majority of the work when it comes to child care, but also elder care, also taking care of their parents, their in laws. And so, you know, we heard the term sandwich generation for a while where we're being squeezed between taking care of our kids and taking care of the elders and covid, we really really decimated the childcare industry for a lot of reasons and it really hasn't fully come back. Some of those folks who were in that field went and did other things. And so the, that the our child care model was not a great one anyway, it was so expensive. But when you look at, you know, just gender dynamics or gender proportion, there are more women in the workplace and will continue to be in the workplace, Women who've gone to college than men. And so we, if we do not come up with programs that help women manage their whole lives instead of just saying, hey, it's eight o'clock, you know, you were supposed to be here at 7 30 You know what gives and, and and punish them for that. We are, they are going to simply drop out or the companies who are addressing the needs of women and it's not just women, it's also think about it. People in rural areas who don't have a lot of the same options, who don't have that 8-5 option, they can manage their lives better. So in a lot of ways, companies that do this are not only on trend and progressive, but they're also lead The way and they're going to be the ones that people who aren't traditional workers haven't done traditional 8-5 type jobs in the past. They're going to grab those people well Julie retain them and the rest of people are gonna be left out. And I know a lot of people want to be included in that opportunity. So can you give us only about 30 seconds left, what should we do if we want to try to negotiate a more flexible schedule, especially for some people that are already, unfortunately going back to work. So if you are the first thing you have to do is understand, what are your skills and what do employers value about you, the better you are at those things, the more valuable you are as an employee, the more leverage you have and so what you want to do is prepare a business case, go to your employer with a proposal that helps meet their needs as well as yours. And you have more leverage the better worker you are, but you have to start and go in and do a proposal and read job descriptions very carefully. A lot of times it will say flexible, but before you get fully into the interview process, you want to get an what that actually means, how much flexibility you actually have. It is a good thing to ask as many questions as possible before you take a job. But if you're in a job, it's also okay, especially if you are valued to go in and renegotiate your role well real quick because we're out of time. But I want to talk about the fear that some people have of, you know, being fired because of this or that they won't get that promotion because out of sight, out of mind that work from home, they're not seen as much so they can't smooth with the boss. Yeah, and that is a risk. You know, I think with every choice we make their upsides and downside potential. And so for some of us we aren't in the promotion mode anymore. But if we are, you have to come up with a strategy whether it is setting up weekly coffees, making an effort to go into the office once a while to connect with your boss and your collar. Leagues on projects, it can be done, but you have to take the lead. I think it's really important. It's your career, nobody cares about your career more than you do. And so you have to find those ways not only to make it work for you, but balance that and make sure that your presence is also working for the company. If it isn't, then you may find yourself on the layoff list. Alright. All great advice. Great tips. Thank you so much, julie, founder of Chief and career strategist at Balky Group. Thank you.