Work/Life Balance

Does “When Worlds Collide” describe how you feel about your life? Are you desperately seeking a personal life without losing your job? Then you may be experiencing a need for work/life balance. Please join us for this two-day e-forum on work/life balance. Let us know what your organization is doing to help employees maintain this delicate balance. We welcome comments from employers as well as employees. What programs and solutions are your employers providing? We would love to hear stories and strategies of how you personally manage to keep work responsibilities and life in balance. Please describe personal strategies and stories that you have used to achieve a work/life balance, whether supported by your organization or not.

We will be discussing the following topics:

  • Does your workplace have programs (flex-time, maternity leave, child care) and a culture supporting work/life balance?
  • What would you like to see your employer support that they currently do not support?
  • As the employer, has there been a down side to supporting work/life balance programs?
  • Do you think that libraries lead or follow when it comes to national work/life balance trends?
  • How can organizations support work/life balance programs when some staff are union employees while others are not?
  • Can managers benefit from work/life balance programs too?
  • What happened to working 8–4 or 9–5? When did we move to being at work 9 hours with a 1 hour lunch? Does that help or hinder work/life balance?
  • Has anyone successfully implemented job sharing? What were the hurdles and how were they overcome?
  • Do your organizations offer health-related/wellness programs? How do they work? Are wellness programs and work/life balance programs the same?
  • What are your organizations’ expectations regarding phone and email outside of your traditional work hours?
  • Are you expected to participate in events that occur outside of your normal working hours?
  • How does your employer handle the need to take care of family issues (e.g. children sick or snow days, elder care, partner care)?

Who Should Attend?

Anyone with an interest in the topic can benefit from this session and is welcome to participate.

Course Level & Prerequisites

none

Hosts

Leslie Burke is Collection Development and Digital Integration Librarian at Kalamazoo College (K). She has worked at Kalamazoo College since January 2012 handling serials, acquisitions, collection development and e-resources. Prior to working at K, Leslie was an Account Services Manager (a librarian-on-the-road) for EBSCO Information Services for eleven-and-a-half years. Leslie was a corporate librarian for over a decade at Amway Corporation, and a serials/acquisitions librarian at Western Theological Seminary. Leslie has been active in SLA, Michigan Health Sciences Library Association, and other state and regional library groups.

Robert Roose is the Support Services Manager at Spokane Public Library in Spokane, Washington. He has worked in public services at Renton Public Library (WA), Hobbs Public Library (NM) and both technical services and public services at Jefferson County Library (WA). He is active in the Washington Library Association.

Dates & Times

Wednesday and Thursday, March 13 and 14, 2013
Each day, discussion begins and ends at:
Pacific: 6am – 5pm
Mountain: 7am – 6pm
Central: 8am – 7pm
Eastern: 9am – 8pm

Credits

none

Fee

free

Technical Requirements

Internet connection with an email address.

How to Register

You must register your email address to subscribe to or access an electronic discussion list on ALA's Mailing List Service. Find instructions for subscribing online.

Once you have registered for one e-forum, you do not need to register again, unless you choose to leave the list.

Contact

If you have trouble subscribing to the discussion list or have questions, please contact the e-Forum Coordinator at eforumcoord@ala.org.