Work-Life – The Great Balancing Act People's Association   From left: Mr Steven Chia, Mr Tan Kia Jin and Mrs Adeline Foo Mrs Adeline Foo heads the corporate affairs team at the People’s Association’s (PA) National Community Leadership Institute (NACLI). Though a senior person in the organisation, Mrs Foo managed to work out a flexi-arrangement in order to accommodate her responsibilities at home. The mother of three has opted for a 28-hour work week since 2004. “In 2003, I had my second child, a baby girl, and as I wanted to spend more time with her and my eldest boy, who was just turning four, I chose to work part-time. In 2005, I had baby No.3,” explains Mrs Foo. She briefly went back to full-time work in 2006 and 2007, but will be back working part-time this year. The self-confessed disciplinarian has no problem juggling work and babies and seeing that she gives full attention to both at the appropriate time. “I am a stickler for planning work ahead of schedule. Working fewer hours means I'd have to work faster because I have fewer days a week to finish what I need to do!” says Mrs Foo, who oversees the Public Affairs and Resource Planning Sections of NACLI. This includes handling the full spectrum of PR, human resource development, administrative and front office service support functions. She has two executives and five support staff to aid her in all this. To make sure that everything goes smoothly on days when she is absent from the office, Mrs Foo plans her workload and projects ahead as far as possible. “I plan for what my staff should do when I’m off, so work gets started on when I’m not in the office, but when I’m back in the office, I get a report on how much has been done and I take over from there,” she explains. On her days away from work, she checks on office emails periodically and attends to anything that requires urgent attention; she also makes sure her kids get equal significant time-share. “I am mindful that the off-days are for my kids, so I bring them out. It is always quieter on weekdays at the supermarkets and libraries, so we get more done really,” she says. But while she enjoys the advantages that such a scheme provides, there are trade-offs too. “What is real is the lower take-home pay. Also, there is less time to interact and talk to my staff or colleagues, as I am strictly focused on work when I’m in the office.” Mrs Foo gives her employer and family full credits for her ability to juggle work and home. “Without question, I give my organisation a perfect 10 for their level of support and understanding. My family, too, including my parents and husband, all helped in allowing me to attain work-life harmony. No one can possibly do it alone – working part-time and raising a family all at one go,” says the grateful mother. Her supervisor, Mr Steven Chia, Deputy General Manager of Corporate Affairs at NACLI, is happy to accommodate her work arrangements, even if it means some inconvenience. “In managing a staff on flexi-work arrangement, I have had to work around the days when the staff is in the office. There may be times when I am not able to see the staff, so we just have to be creative in communicating, like using the phone, or e-mailing instructions, or stealing time for working lunches,” he says. Nonetheless, such practical adjustments are far preferable to the alternative – losing a good staff. “If a staff is good and she is someone that we want to retain and groom, it is important to give the emotional support so that she knows the employer is behind her in providing good work-life harmony,” says Mr Chia. The part-time scheme, however, is only one of several on offer at PA, according to Mr Tan Kia Jin, Work-life Advocate and PA’s Group Director (Administration). “We offer a variety of work-life arrangements like employee support scheme, unrecorded family leave, no-pay leave and part-time work. From the variety of work-life arrangements, we look at the staff needs and the purpose behind the request before we recommend a suitable work-life arrangement,” explains Mr Tan. As the People’s Association Work-Life Advocate, Mr Tan feels it was important to create greater awareness of such work-life options so that more staff can opt for what suits them better. “We understand that work-life strategy maximizes our staff productivity and helps make PA more competitive. It helps build a more committed and engaged workforce. We also understand that the new Generation Y workers value flexibility,” says Mr Tan. For their efforts, the PA received the Work-Life Achiever Award in 2006. “Feedback from staff interviews showed that our staff appreciates our work-life options. In fact, we have managed to retain six valued staff who wanted to resign by offering them part-time/no-pay leave option since 2005,” comments Mr Tan.    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was published in the July issue of Challenge magazine.