•

AO

f ik 40.1

oa;

rot '4\144L.1411\1

e•

The

1-4igh Wire

ike most parents who work,
Cheryl Berlin, a benefits
analyst for Electronic Data
Systems, Inc. in Southfield,
worries that her 6-month-
old daughter, Hanna,
spends too much time with
adults other than her moth-
er and father.
"It's difficult to do all the

things you used to do like
exercising and networking
when a child comes into
your life," said Ms. Berlin,
whose husband, Arnie, is a
computer engineer for EDS
at a General Motors plant
in Romulus.
"But we were lucky. EDS
had a referral service for

and Ameritech are sponsor-
ing a comprehensive forum
— "Walking The High Wire:
Balancing Work and Family
Responsibilities" — on Sept.
9, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The program is part of a
national public awareness
campaign called "The Day
of the Working Parent."

More and more Americans
are learning to juggle careers
with family responsibilities.

THE D ETRO I T J E WIS H NE WS

R.J. KING SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

34

Single father
Michael Layne
with his son,
Joshua

local day-care centers and
I'm able to work 30 hours a
week for as long as I wish.
It means slowing down your
career, but I'm able to spend
more time with my daugh-
ter."
After decades of telling
employees to leave their
troubles at the front door,
corporate America is discov-
ering the welcome mat.
Already a number of compa-
nies have found turning a
cold shoulder to family con-
cerns can lead to slumps in
productivity, costly absen-
teeism and switchboard
jams — often between 3 and
4 p.m. — when children
return home from school.
Indeed, for a growing col-
lection of firms, boosting the
bottom line means caring
for workers and their fami-
lies.
To help address the con-
cerns and demands facing
area firms and their
employees who double as
parents, the Greater Detroit
Section of the National
Council of Jewish Women

The free seminar, to be
held at the Birmingham
Community House, will
include a panel of leading
experts in family care and
workplace issues as well as
printed material addressing
the challenges facing work-
ing families and their
employers.
As it stands, parents
without access to quality
child-care services, whether
in-house or off-site, often
will spend several hours a
week on the phone settling
disputes or worrying about
the type of crowd their chil-
dren are running with.
What's more, these same
parents may find them-
selves among the sandwich
generation — while one
hand sees to the needs of
children, the other provides
for aging relatives. Without
a progressive company to
understand and assist in
family matters, an employ-
ee is often left physically
drained and mentally
detached.
"When I was a school-