Baby bias: Setting policies that are fair for workers

Managing a practice that is family-friendly but still equitable to non-parents can be a tough balancing act. But it can be done.

By Pamela Lewis Dolan, AMNews staff. Jan. 1/8, 2007.

During her career as a family physician, Dineen Greer, MD, has spent time on both sides of the battle between parents and non-parents in the workplace.

Dr. Greer spent her first five post-residency years as the only childless physician in a busy private practice in Seattle where she often scheduled time off around school vacations, took less-desirable on-call shifts and covered for co-workers called away for family emergencies.

Now a family doctor and faculty member of a family medicine residency program in Sacramento, Calif. and the mother of a 3-year-old son and 6-month-old twin daughters, Dr. Greer is the one who is juggling home and work responsibilities, while her childless co-workers help fill the gaps she is sometimes forced to create.

"I expected to someday have children, so was I conscious of being good about when you do have kids, things happen," Dr. Greer said of her childless days. And her co-workers were also cognizant of the fact that she didn't have kids but still had a life, so they didn't just dump things on her, she said.

Most of Dr. Greer's colleagues now are non-parents or parents of adult children, and their understanding of her hectic schedule also comes from their own experiences. But others have learned that trying to recognize the needs of parents without burdening those without kids can become a balancing act.

Experts say that kind of flexibility is key if you want to have a practice that is family-friendly, but not unfriendly to those without families. Practices can be flexible with scheduling and time off, as long as what is good for the mother or father also is good for the childless employee. Otherwise, experts say, a family-friendly office can foment just as much resentment as one that chains employees to the practice no matter what is going on in the outside world.