A Suitable Schedule

It’s only 3 p.m. but Mariel Devesa, an auditor with Deloitte & Touche, has already knocked off work for the day and is powering her colorful windsurfing board near the Huntington Beach Pier.

Most of her colleagues are still poring over spreadsheets in their offices, but thanks to a flexible schedule, Devesa, the U.S. women’s windsurfing champion, has completed her eight-hour workday. As she glides past flocks of surfers and sea gulls, the 23-year-old Devesa has her sights set on making the U.S. Olympic squad bound for Sydney, Australia, in 2000.

Like Devesa, more Americans than ever are discarding the traditional 9-to-5 habit and varying the time they begin and end work.

According to a recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 25 million full-time workers--or 27.6% of the work force--enjoyed flexible hours in May 1997, up sharply from the 15.1% in 1991, when the data were last collected.

The increase in flextime was widespread across demographic groups, occupations and industries, according to Tom Beers, a BLS economist.

Workplace authorities say the numbers have almost certainly increased since the latest BLS study. In this tight job market, more companies are trying to lure--and retain--employees by dangling flextime and other arrangements including compressed workweeks, job sharing and telecommuting.

“Working 9 to 5 is a concept that for the large part has outlived its usefulness,” said Lynne Sarikas of Boston-based consulting group WFD, formerly known as Work/Family Directions.

“Employers are realizing that their [business] and their [workers] are better off with some flexibility.”

Experts say the latest BLS statistics show that many employers are changing with the times. With the gradual decline in manufacturing jobs, workers no longer need to be handcuffed to rigid factory schedules, said Daniel J.B. Mitchell, a UCLA labor economist.

Instead, many workers now demand personalized work hours for a variety of reasons--to go back to school, to work around a spouse’s shift or to care for children or aging parents.

Many employees demand flexible hours to pursue hobbies and a life outside work--like Devesa, who needs to train about two hours a day.

Flextime is hardly new. Hewlett-Packard helped to pioneer it in 1971. Today 85% of the firm’s 70,000 employees in the United States work a flexible schedule, according to a company spokeswoman.

In many companies, employees’ positions on the corporate ladder often determine whether they qualify for flextime. About 42% of executives, administrators and managers were able to vary their work hours, according to the BLS report.

But lower-level employees were less likely to enjoy the same benefit, according to another report from the Conference Board, a research group in New York.

Devesa’s employer, Deloitte & Touche, adopted flextime and other flexible work arrangements in 1993 after discovering that it was having difficulty attracting and retaining women. Since then, the number of female partners has doubled, said Janis MacRae, the accounting firm’s human resources director.

Kit Lim, a senior manager at one of Deloitte’s competitors, Ernst & Young in Irvine, said she was about to quit her job to care for her two school-age children when her boss suggested that she consider working flexible hours.

“It’s wonderful,” she said. “You can tailor your work to fit your family’s needs.”

But flextime is not only for mothers anymore. Men were somewhat more likely to be working flexible schedules than women--28.7% to 26.2% respectively, according to the BLS report.

They include Devesa’s colleague, 35-year-old Ray Bouvier, who helps to care for his two daughters, ages 3 and 2.

“I want to spend some time with my kids when they’re awake,” said Bouvier, a pension consultant. “I’m a night person, so working after they go to bed, between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., is good, productive time for me.”

Sarikas, the WFD consultant, said studies upon studies have shown that workers who utilize flextime arrangements are more loyal, productive and content.

Just ask Devesa.

“It’s important for workers to have balanced lives,” she said. “Because Deloitte has been good to me, it makes me want to pay them back for it with hard work.”