State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Can Flextime Help Working Families Have It All?

Stateline: For 16 years, Dena Adams investigated child abuse cases for Covenant House, a Manhattan nonprofit. But when the agency put her on the overnight shift in 2011, the single mother found herself scrambling to find child care for her 11-year-old daughter.

Adams didn’t feel comfortable leaving the girl alone at night in her Brooklyn neighborhood, which could be dangerous, so she asked Covenant House for an evening shift instead. The agency refused—and then fired her. (Covenant House declined to comment on Adams’ specific case, but said it has “a strong commitment to working with each of our employees to provide the flexibility that is so vital in today’s workplace” and that it must balance employees’ needs “with the critical needs of a 24-hour crisis shelter.”)

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