According to Working Mother magazine, some corporations are allowing vacation days, sick days, and personal days to be used when needed for any reason, which gives employees increased flexibility. More workers are bringing spouses and children along on business trips, says Jane Hodgetts, whose Newton-based company, Hodgetts Associates, leads support groups within companies. The groups focus on helping parents manage multiple commitments. At conferences and conventions, companies are paying for child care so the whole family can come, Hodgetts said. Some companies will even fly a family to a business trip destination, but Banker says that's usually reserved for senior executives.
Banker knows what it takes to make a long-distance marriage work.
For nine years, she's commuted each weekend from Medfield to New York City, where her husband is a professor of economics at Barnard College and Columbia University. In the spring and fall, she drives to New York every Thursday. In the winter, she takes the train, arriving at Penn Station like clockwork at 9 p.m. On Fridays, Banker works out of a Manhattan apartment, complete with laptop, fax, phone, and Rolodex. But for most of the week, she and her husband communicate over phone lines. It's not always easy, she said.