Uncle Sam tends to federal families' well-being

Editor's note: This story is part of a special report on work-life balance. Click here to view the full report.

Employees usually are encouraged to leave their personal lives at home when they go to the office. But these days it's unrealistic to expect employees to lead perfectly bifurcated lives, particularly given the challenges associated with raising a family, caring for aging parents or coping with disease.

It's much less taboo now for employees to ask for help in balancing the demands of home and office. While the needs of American workers haven't changed, expectations have. Employees increasingly expect their employers to help provide for the physical, mental, financial and even spiritual well-being of themselves and their loved ones. And employers, including the federal government, are offering more of those services.

For many young workers, the first step toward balancing work and family is finding an appropriate, safe and comfortable place for their children to stay during the workday. The government has tried to fill this need for convenient and well-run day care facilities, and the Triangle Tots child care center in downtown Washington is one example. It's hard not to notice the contrast between the center and the imposing Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center it occupies. The Reagan building's gigantic, modern-looking atrium is gray and imposing, while the child care center, accessible by security code, boasts small, well-lit rooms lined with the cozy hallways and tiny lockers found in preschools.

During one visit, a group of kids nap on plastic mattresses. In another room, children recite the planets while lounging on a world-shaped mattress. Meanwhile, in the same building, their parents, who work in the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Agency for International Development, and Customs and Border Protection bureau, deal with some of the world's most pressing issues.

The government oversees its child care facilities but with a few exceptions, private organizations administer the programs. Operators include for-profit child care businesses such as Bright Horizons, which runs Triangle Tots, and nonprofit groups like U.S. Kids.

Dan Stoll, a human resources official at USAID, decided to place his son in Triangle Tots because it seemed less "chaotic" than other child care centers he visited in the Washington area. Triangle Tots also has the advantage of being located in Stoll's workplace, giving him added comfort. If there is an emergency, or he wants to take his 4-year-old son to lunch, Stoll already is on the premise.

"It's just that extra peace of mind," he said. "As first-time parents, we didn't know what we were looking for."

Stoll now has enrolled a second child in the program and is a parent representative on the day care center's board. The center's dedication to the children is one of its strongest selling points. "Here, they really fall in love with the kids," he said.

Kid Friendly

The federal government long has led the way for employer-sponsored child care benefits. In some small towns, government-run child care centers could be the only option. The facilities often boast high participation and accreditation rates. But quality comes with a steep price and can be too costly for the very employees it is designed to serve.

"Especially when we started, we drove the market in some places," said Eileen Stern, director of the child care division at the General Services Administration, noting that the federal government was the first to build a child care center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. "In many cases, there was not any child care and not any high-quality child care. In other instances, it was not conveniently located where our employees were living or working."

GSA began its nationwide Division of Child Care in 1988, to oversee facilities in GSA-owned or leased buildings. At the time, agencies viewed day care as a benefit to attract and retain employees, especially younger workers and those starting families, Stern said. For employees to be able to keep their children near or at the place they work, and in a program they trust, can be invaluable. "That's really significant where offices are competitive," she added.

The agency now oversees more than 100 centers across the country, including 28 in the Washington area. Other agencies maintain their own child care centers, but Stern estimated that GSA oversees roughly half of all government-maintained centers. According to its 2009 Annual Profile, GSA's child care centers watch over 5,074 children from families of federal employees, and 3,298 from families outside the federal community. Most of the kids -- nearly one quarter -- are 3 to 4 years old.

"We provide a lot of the standards, and guidance and resources," Stern said. "We have become the de facto expert in the field."

Many of GSA's child care centers have well-recognized education programs, such as the Montessori and Reggio Emilia curricula, that emphasize learning through interactive experiences. GSA requires its programs to be accredited with the National Association for the Education of Young Children. That accounts for its astounding accreditation rate -- 86 percent, according to its 2009 profile, compared with a less than 10 percent accreditation rate in the private sector.

But that quality care can come at a high price for federal employees. As day care facilities provide more amenities, they've become too expensive for some employees. "We have a state-of-the-art day care center right at our property," said Jim McDermott, chief human capital officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, which among large federal agencies was rated as the best place to work for work-life balance and second best for family-friendly culture by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. "It's very high end. It's also very expensive."

According to the agency's 2008 annual report, the average cost of care for a preschool age child in a GSA facility ranges from $5,200 to $15,184 annually, compared to $4,055 to $11,680 annually for all day care in the United States, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

Several factors can play into the price difference between public and private care. For instance, according to NACCRRA, urban centers -- where many federal facilities are located -- are more expensive than rural ones; the high level of accreditation also drives up cost. According to the national association, accredited day care centers can be as much as 30 percent more expensive than nonaccredited facilities.

Leo Bonner, GSA's regional child care coordinator, said the government has tried to keep down costs. For instance, because they are using buildings the government already maintains, federal child care programs don't have to pass maintenance costs on to parents.

A provision in the 2002 Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act allows agencies to provide child care subsidies for low-income employees from their annual budgets. Donors also can help fund child care assistance through organizations such as the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund or the Combined Federal Campaign. According to OPM, 33 agencies currently provide subsidies for qualifying employees. Those qualifications typically include a maximum household income requirement, which ranges from $40,000 to $75,000 annually.

According to GSA, 1,915 families currently receive some form of federal assistance to use GSA-owned child care facilities.

"This assistance provides parents an opportunity to work knowing that their children are well-placed in a licensed facility," said Dale Kemery, spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency, which provided $310,000 in assistance during the past two years for 145 families.

Exact figures vary, but subsidies can range from 30 percent to 90 percent of the total program cost. For instance, the Health and Human Services Department provides subsidies of 75 percent for employees in certain offices, while the Agriculture Department provides assistance of up to $415 per month, according to First Financial Associates, which oversees several child care centers.

McDermott said his agency uses the money it makes through selling recycled office paper to help fund day care tuition assistance for its employees. The money that the Census Bureau makes through recycling hundreds of forms also goes toward federal child care subsidies at the Commerce Department.

Stern noted that the demand for the child care programs -- most facilities have long waiting lists to get in -- is a sign of their success. In fact, demand often comes not only from federal government employees, but also from families in the community. "Government employees have first priority, but we open it to the community," Stern said. "And we like the community, it adds a different dimension."

McDermott noted that his facility is popular among those seeking privacy for their children. "If you are at all familiar with our location, it's as protected as Fort Knox," he said. "Certain outsiders find this a very attractive possibility, especially diplomats."

Current rules make it difficult for two agencies to pool resources to create a single child care facility between them, an issue Stern said she hopes Congress will address soon. She said her organization would lobby to give GSA more authority to coordinate agencies' child care efforts. Because it takes about 60 children to get a day care center up and running, Stern said many smaller offices can't establish such programs. With better organization, they could pool their resources or use public-private partnerships to provide day care centers in less dense areas of the country.

"We have some pockets of need that we haven't been able to satisfy," she said.

Helping Hand

Child care is a valuable benefit, but it's not the only one the government offers to help employees during trying times.

HHS' Federal Occupational Health agency has been tending to the needs of government employees for more than 60 years. But it's only during the past decade that the program has extended its reach to include work-life balance as part of its Employee Assistance Program.

All government agencies are required to have an Employee Assistance Program to provide short-term counseling and referrals for issues related to mental and emotional well-being. Through contracts with other government agencies, HHS' Employee Assistance Program provides the EAP services to about 30 percent of the federal workforce, according to Gene Migliaccio, director of Federal Occupational Health. The EAP's core mission is to help those dealing with debilitating personal issues, such as alcohol and substance abuse, divorce, grief and other conditions that can put an employee's productivity and job at risk. Traditionally, the EAP has worked as a way for federal employers to work with a troubled employee before considering disciplinary action. Now employees are able to reach out directly for services if their agency has a contract with Federal Occupational Health. But the program has broadened its focus, becoming a professional problem solver for many other aspects of employees' lives, from helping to relocate government workers in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina to finding reliable pet sitters for feds.

But the majority of cases involve helping employees find care for children or elderly relatives, according to Jeffrey Mintzer, work-life program manager for FOH. "With the complexity of the modern family, sometimes people just need an extra set of hands for support," he said.

As the economy has weakened, financial counseling has become more popular. The Federal Occupational Health program has provided referrals to workers for free financial counseling services.

Managers at FOH believe a healthy work-life balance program is good business for employers. Agencies are in a constant battle with "presenteeism" -- when employees show up at the office, but aren't focused on their job because of a health or personal issue -- so a discreet outlet for those who need a helping hand can have a great return on its investment.

"A significant amount of leave that workers take is to address personal issues, not medical issues," Mintzer said. "It's about personal need, and if we can help address those personal needs, we can end up with a worker spending more time at work."

Many agencies prefer to keep several degrees of separation between themselves and counselors to ensure that employees aren't worried about revealing personal details to their bosses. Agencies can outsource those services, either to private contractors or to the FOH program, rather than employ counselors on-site.

"It puts the employee and the agency in a precarious position," said Jeff Dunlap, director of the FOH Employee Assistance Program. "I think it's important that we have people who are at arms length away, and do not have a formal employment connection with the agency."