The Work-From-Home Status Quo Is Stress-Inducing for Working Mothers. 3 Ways to Make It Less So

By: Terri Rhodes | October 16, 2020

Terri L. Rhodes is CEO of the Disability Management Employer Coalition. Terri was an Absence and Disability Management Consultant for Mercer, and also served as Director of Absence and Disability for Health Net and Corporate IDM Program Manager for Abbott Laboratories.

The separation of work and life, or what we used to call “work/life balance,” is blurred today. Working from home has doubled or tripled in some cases, and it appears on the surface to be a gain as commuting time is reduced and interactions and dress codes are more relaxed. Many employees report they would like to continue working remotely all, or at least most, of the time.

There are also advantages for employers. For example, Heidrick & Struggles, a leading executive-search firm, recently announced it will reduce its U.S. real estate footprint of about 230,000 square feet across 15 offices. The company is looking to combine offices, downsize, or shutter certain locations in a bid to save millions and boost efficiency. Similar stories from other companies indicate this same trend.

But there can also be downsides for both employers and employees.

For employers, training can be more difficult without the proper technology, and it’s still not clear what impact remote work will have on innovation and long-term productivity.

For employees, most surveys indicate that remote workers are generally putting in more hours. Whatever time has been gained in reduced commuting is “lost” in additional work time — often on evenings and weekends.

Even more challenging for remote workers is childcare. According to the Center for American Progress, 1 in 4 childcare providers have lost their jobs since January, and as many as half of all childcare slots could be lost with centers closing.

That means parents — and especially women — are juggling work and caring for children at home. When home schooling activities and varying school schedules/procedures are tossed into the mix, the situation is even more stressful. This challenge looms especially large for women.

The reality is that most childcare and school activities —and its attendant worries — still fall primarily on women in most situations.

In a 2020 Northwestern University study, economists found, among married parents who both work full time, that women are spending 40% more time on childcare than men during the pandemic. Studies also indicate women spend more time caring for aging parents. Both of these trends create real concern about the long-term effects of remote work on women and equity.

This could lead to at least a partial return to more “traditional” gender roles, which could be a step back for women, and ultimately, for employers and the global economy. There is evidence that confirms female workplace participation is a key determinant of economic development and social progress.

Businesses need to be aware of the pandemic’s disruptions to work-life balance for women and ensure there are not long-term setbacks to standards of living and social progress.

There is no blueprint for how to do this, and organizations are working through it as they go along. However, there are some steps that can help to address this evolving situation.

1) Flexible Schedules

Work is not where you go, but what you do. This means that the traditional work schedule — designed for factories and applied to offices — makes less sense in a world in which most of an organization’s employees are working at home.

Most employees want to do good work, and more freedom to perform that work when they are undistracted and focused is good for everyone.

This may mean working earlier or later in a normal day, depending on customer demands and other variables. Flexible scheduling is the first step toward maintaining a talented, engaged, and productive workforce.

2) Childcare Assistance

Prior to the pandemic, many organizations were introducing some type of childcare benefits. This included onsite care.

As that option is no longer feasible in the near-term, employers are substituting assistance to help employees find in-home caregiving services — including services for aging parents.

Employers are also experimenting with benefits focused around education. For example, some companies offer services that help parents find tutors for children. One could foresee similar assistance focused on physical activity and other recreation not currently provided by schools.

3) Networking

One of the main reason cities have boomed over the past few decades is the “network effect.” People interact in both planned and random ways. This spurs ideas and innovation and opens avenues for collaboration. This results in higher productivity, growth, and business creation. More people move to dynamic areas, which leads to more new ideas, productivity, and growth.

Large-scale remote work could short-circuit this “networking effect.” Working at home can be isolating, and it can take on an added dimension when 24/7 childcare is thrown into the mix.

Layer on reduced or even eliminated business travel, and an employee’s world can dramatically shrink. No one wins when employees aren’t engaged in learning through the life-broadening, innovation-driving daily interactions that have defined normal work life.

To counterbalance this shrinking environment, employers can proactively provide suggestions to “get out of the house.”

Whether that looks like something as simple as taking walks during scheduled one-on-one meetings or widening employees’ horizons through creative substitutes for business travel, employers need to spur new ideas and raise questions about better ways to get work done.

Given their caregiving roles, it’s especially important for female employees to have these opportunities, which play a large role in career advancement.

Increased remote work is likely here to stay. It would be tragic if its potential upsides were diminished by the downside risks, especially for women.

Public policy will play the key role in ensuring that women’s economic and social gains continue. However, employers can also do their part to help female employees balance work and home life. &

How a Carrier Partner Can Help Navigate a Challenging Management and Professional Liability Market

A combination of a choppy economy with increased claims frequency and severity could lead to rate increases in the Management & Professional Liability market.

By: Risk & Insurance | April 3, 2024

Rates in the management & professional liability (M&PL) markets were on the rise from 2020 to early 2023 and are now falling rapidly.

M&PL divisions manage a number of different insurance products including management liability (D&O), professional liability (E&O), employment practices liability (EPL), fiduciary liability policies, cyber, etc. In 2023 and into 2024, a big influence on the marketplace has been the extremely aggressive and softening public company D&O market.

Though these rates have been softening for management liability, that may change over the next few years as companies continue to adjust their business models motivated by economic uncertainty. Layoffs were up nearly 200% last year, Forbes reported, even as other recession indicators, like the inflation rate, improved. A recession could lead to an increased claim activity and force carriers to raise rates.

“Whenever there is a meaningful downturn in the economy, we tend to see claim frequency pop up,” said George Schalick, Jr., senior vice president of the Management and Professional Liability Division at Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY).

With continued fiscal uncertainty, businesses potentially already burdened with pandemic-related claims should seek a carrier with a long history in M&PL products. They will provide much-needed risk management guidance and be better positioned to support their insureds during market fluctuations.

Why Insureds Might See an Uptick in M&PL Claims

George Schalick, Jr., Senior Vice President of the Management and Professional Liability Division, Philadelphia Insurance Companies

The current soft market might come as a bit of a surprise as it does not track with previous underwriting cycles and economic conditions. Afterall, many privately held and non-profit organizations struggled during the early days of the pandemic with shutdowns and rapidly declining revenues. But the Government assistance programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program loans, helped keep many afloat during the tough times.

“During COVID many organizations stopped doing business until they were able to sort out all of the health and safety challenges,” Schalick said. “They were forced to lock down, but then all the government assistance programs allowed them to keep people employed. The increased volume of claims we anticipated we would see coming from the lockdowns and restrictions that were imposed upon businesses in the U.S. didn’t manifest at first.”

“Just because there wasn’t an onslaught of reported claims at the beginning of the pandemic, doesn’t mean the circumstances that would give rise to a claim being reported didn’t occur. Courts and the judicial system were closed or slowed and now that they are back open, we’re starting to see the circumstances that occurred during the COVID lockdowns becoming claims today,” Schalick said. “Litigation is progressing.”

Added to the delayed pandemic litigation is a concern over newer claims that might be filed as the country inches toward an economic downturn. Though a recession was avoided in 2023, experts think a soft dip could occur in 2024, with 76% of economists saying there’s a 50% or less chance of an economic downturn this year — that almost always results in more management liability claims.

“During the Great Recession in 2008, we saw an almost immediate spike in claims because of the economic conditions and the pressure it placed on organizations. They were making personnel changes with significant belt tightening almost immediately.” Schalick said.

What’s in Store for M&PL Policy Rates in 2024?

Despite an uptick in claims and increased economic uncertainty, management liability rates haven’t increased, resulting in market-wide pricing levels that may not meet the increased pressure of rising settlements and jury verdicts.

“Rates are going the other direction and settlement values are not falling,” Schalick said.

The mismatch between rates, claim frequency and severity is, in part, because carriers experiencing the dramatic soft market in the public D&O market are seeking premium gain in the private and non-profit market.

“In the public company market, the rates have been decreasing significantly. The rates were increasing in the private, not-for-profit market, and rightfully so, but there’s a desire to supplement overall mid-size D&O for carriers who also write private not-for-profit, and they see that as an opportunity to aggregate premium,” Schalick said. “So the always competitive landscape in the private, not-for-profit market has dramatically increased in the last 18 to 24 months.”

Still, companies of all sizes and types should be concerned about management liability rates in the future. Legal system abuse is resulting in increases in both the amount of litigation and the size of verdicts plaintiffs are receiving.

Certain areas of the country are particularly vulnerable to this type of legal system abuse. As a result, insureds in these localities are likely to be vulnerable to rate increases.

“The environment is so positive for the plaintiff that forces premium increases so carriers are able to stay in that market long term,” Schalick said.

Why a Tenured Carrier Partner Can Help Insureds Navigate An Uncertain Market

It’s clear that insureds are facing an uncertain M&PL market over the next few years. Fortunately, carriers with a long history in the M&PL space will be there to offer stability.

Philadelphia Insurance Companies has been supporting this market for 35 years. PHLY is committed to offering long-term rate stability, even as economic and claims trends start to push premiums upwards. They have an appetite for all sorts of companies, large and small, for-profit and nonprofit alike.

“We’ve been at this game for a long time and are one of the most tenured underwriters in this space,” Schalick said. “We like to stay very consistent.”

PHLY has worked with both for-profit and non-profit on management liability policies. With dedicated M&PL teams throughout the company’s 13 regions, PHLY provides the support agents and brokers are looking for on behalf of their clients. The teams know their regions well and can respond to local trends. They’re also dedicated to making the renewal process as easy as possible for their partners and policyholders.

“We have real confidence in our results, so we focus a lot on making the renewal experience as painless as possible for all agents and insureds,” Schalick said.

The company is also investing in tools to help insureds avoid losses. Earlier this year, they launched a new online risk management platform, PHLYGateway, which offers resources for insureds on how to create an employee handbook and trainings on issues such as recognizing workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.

If insureds have questions, they can consult a Best Practices Help Line, provided via the platform. That way, they can get on the spot risk management guidance to help them prevent claims.

To learn more, visit: https://www.phly.com/mplDivision/managementLiability/default.aspx.

This article was produced by the R&I Brand Studio, a unit of the advertising department of Risk & Insurance, in collaboration with Philadelphia Insurance Companies. The editorial staff of Risk & Insurance had no role in its preparation.