Title Details

Joan Blades (bottom) is co-founder of MomsRising.org, MoveOn.org, and the software company BerkeleySystems. Nominated one of Time magazine's Most Influential People, she was named 2003 Woman of the Year by Ms. magazine.

Nanette Fondas (top) is author of award-winning articles and research on management, organizations, and work. Featured regularly in The Huffington Post, Yes! Magazine, and her blog, MomsRising.org, she earned a doctorate from Harvard Busi?ness School and a master's from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

1 Work Is Not Working: The Case for The Custom-Fit Workplace.

2 The Custom-Fit Workplace: Business Benefits.

3 Flexibility at Work: The Basics of Custom Fit.

4 Virtually Perfect: The Promises of Remote Work.

5 Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Job and Career Lane Changes.

6 Contract Work and On-Demand Talent: A Fit for Some.

7 When Babies Go to Work: A Simple Solution to a Common Need.

8 A More Perfect Union: The New Face of Labor and Custom Fits.

9 From High Stress to High Commitment: Workplaces Rooted in Respect.

10 The Custom-Fit Future: Moving Forward.

Notes.

Acknowledgments.

About the Authors.

Index.

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)