The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

20 OCTOBER 2012 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL your child care or elder care provider is unavailable. Many State employees are unaware this resource even exists; but even if they did know, IQ’s service is limited and cannot guarantee a caregiver or a spot in a day care center. In contrast, our colleagues in the Office of Manage- ment and Budget, the White House and the D.C. courts all have access to the “Cadillac” version of InfoQuest, which does guarantee emergency backup care. The cost of having employees miss work due to not having a backup for their child care or elder care provider would be useful to know in evaluating the merit of this expanded program. The government agencies cited above clearly believe that it makes sense for both the institution and individual employees to spring for the higher version of Info- Quest. Balancing Act at State Frustrated by all these challenges, a group of Foreign Service and Civil Service colleagues, both male and female, started a group in the department last year called “Balancing Act at State.” Its goal is to address these work-life challenges, encourage more consistent implementa- tion of our existing policies, and advocate for greater attention to a host of related issues such as telework, child care, alternative work schedules, job-sharing and parental leave policies. Members of the group view focusing on these issues as an investment in employees and the organization. After conducting a comprehensive survey of our nearly 200 members to dis- cover the above priority areas, we began working with the Bureau of Human Resources’ Work-Life Division to address these concerns. WLD is a small office of about five full-time employees (in addi- tion to three current vacancies) tasked with handling all of the above work-life issues, along with everything from the Combined Federal Campaign to the Stu- dent Loan Repayment Program. We’ve recruited a number of senior advocates like Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs Dana Shell Smith, who recently wrote an insightful article in the Atlantic Monthly about her experience with work-life balance in the Foreign Service and the need for both personal responsibility and institutional policy to encourage all managers to sup- port a healthy work-life balance. Balancing Act at State is working from the bottom up and from the top down to urge State’s most senior leaders to ensure greater consistency in the implementa- tion of these policies and encourage managers to pay greater attention to them. The State Department we envision would seek to educate employees (espe- cially managers) about work-life balance policies by, for example, including them in all mandatory leadership training. It would also use awards to recognize Attention to these issues will enable the Foreign Service to recruit and retain a 21st-century work force— without relying on luck. AFSA Insurance Plans hirshorn.com/afsa AFSPA www.afspa.org AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com American Red Cross RedCross.org Churchill Corporate Services, Inc. ChurchillCorp.com Clements Worldwide clements.com Embassy Risk Management Embassyrisk.com Middle East Journal tmej.mideasti.org National Peace Corps Association http://www.peacecorpsconnect. org/ St Timothy’s School Stt.org Strategic Studies Quarterly Au.af.mil/au/SSQ Tetratech Tetratech.com Vinson Hall Vinsonhall.org WJD wjdpm.com