First off, I agree with a lot of the writers, flexible work arrangements are not just women's concerns. Nor is it just parents' concerns. You may need FWA if you have elderly parents, an ailing spouse/partner, a horrible bus accident, etc.

In my office, currently we have two workers dealing with critical health issues with their spouses, one worker fighting cancer and another who's grandchild (they are the primary care giver) is fighting leukemia. We also have one person who just came back from a paltry two month parental leave. During this time period, yes, we've all had to suck up some extra work. But these are all people that our company needs, it would a lot more expensive to fire then and try to find replacements and then train those replacements up to their level. And a company that fires people for having cancer and missing some work is probably not going to attract talented and committed workers.

But really I have to laugh at all the people complaining here that they get dumped on with so much work for their non-childless co-workers that what...they don't have time to read/write on Salon.com??? Yes, I agree with the slacker that posted, it is a joke if you think that your typical office worker is "productive" during the entire 8 hour work day! "Face time" is a complete joke. Just because you are here 8 - 5 doesn't mean that you are actually getting anything done. I know a lot of office workers that have to stretch out their work to cover the full 8 hour day or have plenty of time to surf the web. Most of the days I have to stay late is because my coworkers or boss stopped by to chat about something non-work related and distracted me from my real work. I've sat in 4 hour meetings in which nothing gets accomplished other than "face time" (aka arguing). Results-oriented work environments are increasing and make a lot more sense. One poster talked about the cost in telecommuting and several companies have found that telecommuting is cheaper and actually makes their workers more productive since they are hampered by commuting and they can reduce their costs in facility maintenence and real estate.

As a childless worker I do put in a lot of hours because some days it is more interesting for me to puzzle out a piece of messed up code than it is for me to go home and watch T.V. It is a choice that I make to stay at the office, and I certainly don't begrudge any of my coworkers that leave at 5pm. And I do put in a lot of effort now, over and above what is needed for my job so that when I do need to use parental leave or family care time, my boss know that I've "paid my dues." When I think of my coworker that just came from a much too short 2 month parental leave, after putting in 10 years of high quality work into this company, it's just that she only gets the minimum amount of leave. A lot of her work could easily be done from home, but since our company puts a lot of value in people just being here at the office, it's not an option. It makes me worry that my management isn't smart enough to accomodate a highly paid and accomplished worker just because of "the rules". That's the same type of inflexibility and fear of change that puts competitors ahead and you behind.

"Or perhaps they simply need to employ people who will show up every day, work 40-hour weeks and place their career goals ahead of making babies."

So if I just showed up for 40 hours a week, you would consider me a great employee? So what I actually produce and the quality of that work didn't really count...just as long as I sat at my desk 8 - 5/M-F? If you are a manager, you suck. Hours at the office may not correspond to good work and good results. Are you going to reward the employee that takes 4 hours to something instead of the employee that only takes two?

"You know... men.

Seriously, why exactly do employers need to do any of the things listed in this article? I can see why working moms might need them, but if I'm running a company, and there are plenty of other people (yes, mostly men) who can do the job without re-inventing the wheel, why wouldn't I just hire them instead?"

It not just women that are looking for flexible hours or even just a basic 40 hour week, which has become the minimum at a lot of companies. And you cannot assume that only women will be taking leave since men also have children, aging parents or cancer. Why don't you actually hire people based on their qualifications and merit? Then again if you completely exclude half of the workforce you severely diminish your talent pool. And if you can't figure out how to create workable schedules to keep your valuable employees, you probably aren't good at creating new products or finding ways to add value to your services.

Bad terminology! Using the term "victim" connotates that new infections are done on purpose by a known carrier or that someone was acting in bad faith and did not disclose their status to their sexual partner. Since HPV is very frequently asymptomatic and testing almost impossible (There is NO test for HPV for men. There is one for women but it does not differentiate between the types of HPV and it is usually not recommended.) the use of the word victim is not warranted.