Striking A Balance
UMass Medical School hires work-life manager to take the hurriedness out of the office
By Taryrn Plumb
Special to the Worcester Business Journal
It’s a waltz we’ve all danced: With often stifling work pressures it can seem like there’s never enough time for family, fitness, recreation or relaxation.
“People are working everywhere, all the time,” said Rita Ghilani, founder of Programs for Working People, an Ashland-based company that offers corporate work-life training. “People are working longer and harder than they ever have in the past.”
To respond to the pressures facing employees, many companies began adopting work-life programs some 25 years ago, Ghilani explained. Now, “the field continues to grow.”
Joining the movement for more balance is UMass Medical Center in Worcester, which has hired Janet Hirsh, a “work-life manager.”
“The balancing act is daily and ever-present,” said Hirsch. “We’re trying to make life easier for employees. The more they can be their whole selves at work, the better employees they can be.”
Indeed, many of the area’s largest employers — including Fallon Community Health Plan and Unum — offer some manner of work-life benefits in the way of seminars, discounts or specialty services. Up until a year ago, UMass offered limited programs as well, including adoption assistance and dry cleaning drop-off.
But it takes considerable effort to ensure employees actually take advantage of such services, according to Joanne Derr, associate vice chancellor of human resources at the medical school. Officials discovered that after performing an employee diversity study in 2004, the results of which found that workers often weren’t aware of work-life initiatives because they were too scattered.
With that in mind, administrators decided to designate an entire department to the cause staffed with Hirsch as a full-time manager. The intent, according to Derr, was to create an environment in which the school’s 6,400 employees, students and residents would be informed of benefits before they had to ask.
Chief among those new perks are flexible work options. Qualifying employees can tweak their work schedules by taking extended lunches, telecommuting or compressing their work weeks. And as Hirsch noted, “The reason really isn’t important.”
Do Not Enter
A lab shelf lined with containers of green fluorescent protein is probably the last place you’d ever expect to find bottles of breast milk.
But back when Corrie Painter was still nursing her first daughter, there they’d be, mingled among the test tubes and beakers.
Needing to pump at least once a shift, the 34-year-old mother of two would shut herself into a “quasi-private” room in her lab at UMass Medical School in Worcester and tape a hand-written “Do Not Enter” sign on the door.
Other female employees would find themselves hunkering with the devices in even more cramped quarters — including broom closets or unsanitary bathroom stalls.
But nursing moms at UMass don’t have to get quite so creative anymore. They now have access to dedicated rooms complete with comfy seats and hospital-grade pumps.
The medical school unveiled the nursing stations earlier this year, one in a series of new work-life initiatives that strive to accommodate employees and keep them from getting dizzied by the personal/professional merry-go-round.
Workers also now have access to two off-site, UMass-run day care centers; lunchtime seminars; a meals-to-go program that delivers microwavable containers of food; three dry cleaning drop-off sites; and specialty events such as summer camp fairs.
In the future, officials would similarly like to open a fitness center offering exercise classes and stress management programs.
“These are the kinds of things you would normally have to seek out outside of work,” Derr noted.
Taking It For Granted
Overall, the school is investing roughly $200,000 annually into the program — that covers resources and Hirsch’s salary. For now, that will be rolled into the institution’s budget, Derr, said, but the hope is to eventually subsidize it with grants.
Although it may initially cost money, officials assert that the long-term gains will be substantial. For starters, the school will be able to more easily attract and retain workers, Derr said. She explained that recruiting and training just one employee can cost between $50,000 and $150,000.
There will also be significant boosts to productivity. “People won’t be worrying as much about outside activities,” said Hirsch. “They’ll be able to focus more on work while they’re at work.”
Painter affirmed that. The fifth-year grad student, who is now breastfeeding her 3-month-old daughter, said life has been less hectic since she started using the nursing rooms.
Taryn Plumb is a freelance writer based in Worcester.
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