Monday, August 25, 2008

Women and flexi-working

I heard in Radio IKIM this morning that today is the sambutan Hari Wanita 2008 Peringkat Kebangsaan held in JB. The theme is ‘Wanita Menjana Ekonomi Negara’. So to you ladies out there, Selamat Hari Wanita! We all contribute to the progress of our nation, regardless of what we do – housewives (very important group!), employees, self-employed, entrepreneurs etc.

Last week, I read in the paper about Najib backing women flexi-hours in his speech at the Women Summit 2008, and his statements are, naturally, supported by women groups. Of course, it’ll be good if he could do more than ‘back or support’ this by actively championing for this, starting with the public sector! I still remember the positive move for the extended maternity leave, and options for career breaks for government servants being announced sometimes last year. Is it on or is it still being studied? Anyone can enlighten me on this? Speaking in a Women Summit, I guess he understandably say ‘flexi-hours for women’. But I think, men also would appreciate the same benefits – let’s not exclude our important teammates here.

I’m also pleased to read the article on the example of several companies already on flexi-hours. I hope there’ll be more articles highlighting working practices like flexi-hours, working from home or teleworking, job sharing, etc which are non-traditional way of working. This can help to enhance visibility of such practices, and can help other companies to adopt them when they see their benefits and that other companies have implemented those successfully.

6 comments:

Ummu Auni

when shahrizat proposed the idea (extended maternity leave), it was rejected. i believe this is due to current workforce in malaysia is a 50:50 ratio.

women form majority population in finance departments. rasanya kalau semua dapat extended leave for maternity, tutuplah division sekejap :D

SMM

ummu auni,
kalau ye pun semua/majority dlm department tu women, takkan bersalin sekaligus kot? hehe.. mmg this could be a challenge - that could be turned into positive opportunities to develop/hands-on training utk other people waktu backup/cover her job untuk sementara waktu.. kalau sorg cover sorg, maybe overloaded, tapi kalau her workload diagihkan kpd beberapa org rasanya okay. anggapkan peluang untuk belajar.. i'm really grateful my colleagues had been so supportive to cover me when i'm away :) at the same time, i do try to do some work kat rumah in the third month tu..

Ummu Auni

believe me or not, 4 people in my division is expected to deliver early next year. duh!

when i entered this unit in early 2007, setahun tu tak ada orang bersalin/mengandung pun. then, come August, tahu2, 4 orang dah mengandung. macam pakat2 je.

and my officemates do ask me, when is my turn

my aunt dulu lagi lah, when she was working with one oil company (better not mention the name here), because the department is always overloaded with works, every start of the year, the boss will ask them to plan for their pregnancy, so that the maternity leave won't clash with each other.

Ummu Auni

ops, come August 2008 :). terlepas tadi

SMM

huhu.. sedihnya kalau family/pregnancy planning pun kena tanya boss dulu..

Ummu Auni

sebab tu makcik stress kerja kat situ, sebab masa tu dah lama kawin tapi tak dapat anak. mestilah nak anak...yelah rezeki anak mana kita nak tahu. i never plan when to get pregnant. sekarang pun, kalau nak pregnant, ok je, tapi doctor suruh be careful because i'm on strong medication. tapi belum ada rezeki lagi (mungkin Tuhan suruh naik haji dulu kut *wink*)

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