Flexible Enough For Family Family-A-Fair Honors Seven Workplaces That Support Careers And Family Lives

Angela Matson, a health policy analyst at Group Health Northwest, loved her job, but worried that having a baby might derail her career. Dr. Henry Berman, Group Health’s CEO, reassured her. “Have a baby based on when you and your husband want a baby, and we will make sure your career does fine,” he said.

Now Matson’s son Michael is 6 months old. Matson takes Mondays off, works part time and relies on Group Health’s flexibility when Michael gets sick or the day-care arrangements fall through.

On President’s Day, a Monday she wasn’t normally scheduled to work, an important piece of legislation demanded a quick response. Matson’s husband was out of town and the day care was closed for the holidays, so Matson scooped up Michael and brought him along for a meeting at Group Health.

It’s an arrangement Berman enthusiastically endorses. “If we don’t treat people in a caring way,” he said, “we won’t attract caring people.”

Next week Group Health will be honored along with six other local businesses as recipients of Family-aFair Workplace Awards. These businesses find innovative ways to support their employees’ family lives while offering them creative opportunities to advance their careers.

“Beacons in a changing world, these organizations serve as role models, able to attend to the bottom line while supporting their employees’ personal lives,” said Adie Goldberg Yates, founder and codirector of Family-a-Fair.

According to Berman, familyfriendly policies actually help Group Health save money. It’s cheaper, he said, to pay for a sick child’s day care than to bring in a replacement worker. In addition, by keeping a good employee, the company avoids costly recruiting and training expenses.

“The more hard-hitting you are, the more soft-hearted you should be,” Berman said. “It’s just dollars and cents.”

Berman believes companies shouldn’t wait for parents to ask for flexible arrangements.

“I think women might be afraid to ask for some things because they’ll feel that will put them in a weaker position,” he said. “It’s that much more important for you to put yourself in the shoes of your employees.”

At Group Health, it helps that the CEO is both a pediatrician and a father. When his daughter, Julia, was young, Berman made all the child-care arrangements while his first wife went back to work.

“I saw how difficult it was to make the kinds of arrangements that made you feel comfortable as a parent,” Berman said.

He wound up working late shifts at the hospital, from 1 to 8 p.m., so he could stay home in the mornings with his daughter. He dropped her off at 12:30 p.m. at day care, and her mother picked her up at 5.

“I did it for family reasons, and it also worked out well for career reasons,” he said. A new hospital program was launching, primarily during the evenings, and he was able to dive in.

Often senior executives either have grown children or no children. It’s difficult for mid- and entry-level employees with families to look to them as role models.

At Sacred Heart Medical Center, Vice President Mary Butler doesn’t have children. Her father, however, lives in a nursing home, and she appreciates having the flexibility to frequently dash over and help him eat a meal.

Sacred Heart will also receive a workplace award.

“When you treat staff as family, they will treat patients in the same way,” Butler said.

Additional recipients will be Wayne Dalton Crawford Door Sales, WomanHealth, Deaconess Diabetic Education Center, Garfield Elementary School, and Telect.

The companies were rated in six categories: pay and benefits, career advancement, child and family care, flexibility, work environment and innovation.

They’ll be honored at an awards luncheon featuring author and columnist Judith Viorst on April 1. The luncheon will be at noon at the Ridpath Hotel. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased by calling Family-a-Fair at 456-3733.

Viorst will also give the Family-a-Fair Spring Lecture at 7 p.m. April 1 in the Ridpath’s Empire Ballroom. Tickets are $6, and will be available at the door or by calling Family-a-Fair. They’re also sold at Children’s Corner Bookshop and Auntie’s Bookstore in downtown Spokane.

Viorst’s lecture, called “Parenting Our Children From Newborn to 30-Year-Old and Beyond,” has been called “a funny and touching trip through all the stages of parenthood.”

Matson, at 29, has just embarked on that journey with the help of Group Health.

“I wasn’t convinced women can have it all,” Matson said. “I’m still not. But I think you can have the best of both worlds.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

MEMO: These sidebars appeared with the story: WORKING TOGETHER Kim Rose steers her school bus through the Spokane Valley to St. John Vianney School each day, but she feels like she’s driving the bus route to paradise. After working for hard-nosed public school districts, she was divinely surprised when the principal at her new school offered not only full medical and dental benefits, but also free day care for her 5-year-old son Jerad Swain. Out of an $800 monthly salary, that saved her more than $300. And when principal Judy Morbeck discovered that Rose was paying a local van service $6 a day to transport Jerad from kindergarten to the school’s day-care program, Morbeck also arranged for free busing. “I thought I was in heaven,” Rose wrote in a letter nominating St. John Vianney School for a Family-a-Fair Workplace Award, “because after 10 years of not having any sensitivity to my children it was like the best feeling in the world to know someone cared about the welfare of my child.” Rose described the school’s familyfriendly policies, which include a compassionate approach to children’s illnesses, as “worth gold.” “As a Catholic school,” Morbeck said, “we really do believe it takes a village to raise a child.” The policies also pay off in reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and incredible employee loyalty, the principal said. “It makes me enjoy getting up in the morning and love what I do every day,” Rose wrote. Every afternoon Jerad hops on the bus with his mother. “He thinks I’m the best bus driver in the world,” Rose said.

WORKER WANTS TO BREAST-FEED The “For Sale” sign went up last week. Donna Cok and her family can no longer afford the mortgage on their Suncrest home. Cok, a respiratory therapist, says she asked her supervisor’s permission last August to breast-feed her new baby during her unpaid lunch break. Cok worked 12-1/2-hour night shifts at a Spokane nursing home for a company called Advanced Lifeline Services. The company, based in Louisville, Ky., contracts with Southcrest to provide respiratory therapy. The company responded by taking Cok off the work schedule. Cok, her family’s primary breadwinner, has not been called back to work since. Her husband was forced to drop out of Whitworth College and has requested that his part-time job become full time. Linda Cox, director of human resources for Advanced Lifeline, disagreed that Cok’s request involved her unpaid lunch hour. “Because of the critical needs of patients on life-care systems, we don’t choose to jeopardize the patients in our care by allowing our employees to leave at undefined and undetermined intervals,” Cox said. Cok, who says the company never extended her medical benefits under the COBRA law or released her $2,500 401-K investment, has called attorneys all over the country. A Florida attorney, a La Leche League member, passed along Cok’s name to Leeza Gibbons’s talk show. Cok’s story is likely to air in April or May. Says Cok: “It’s just been devastating.” Jamie Tobias Neely