The Custom-Fit Workplace Choose When, Where, and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line

Blades (The Motherhood Manifesto) and Fondas explore the latest innovations in flexible work arrangements – from Babies-at-Work to Results-Only Environments - in this guide to the increasingly-customized workforce. The authors do a good job of portraying the multiple, and often conflicting, demands on the modern worker; children, colds, commutes, continuing education, caregiving for elders, and career ladders all compete for workers' energy, time, and attention. They point out common barriers to progress, the traditions, conventions, mistrust, and misunderstandings that prevent workers and employers from arranging a better fit. Blades, who co-founded Moms Rising, and Fondas, an award-winning journalist, come equipped with the usual success stories about novel arrangements improving productivity and profits in the workplace but offer little data to support tangible results, instead relying on stats like "a 400% increase in the number of employees who reported feeling "good" or "great" about their worklife balance." To truly convince the skeptical, more research is required. However, Blades and Fondas present a fine compendium of alternative work arrangements for managers, employees, and human resource professionals to draw from should they find convention not working. (Publishers Weekly Online, September 2010)