The coronavirus crisis has illuminated how poorly the United States compares with other major industrialized nations in providing workers across all industries with equal access to paid sick and family leave, employee-requested flexible scheduling, and reasonable work hours.

Ellen Ernst Kossek, Purdue University’s Basil S. Turner Professor of Management, focuses her research on organizational and leader support of work-life and gender diversity, flexibility and boundary management, and interventions. She has published more than 90 refereed journal articles, 10 books, 30 book chapters, and numerous technical reports and teaching aides.

“We propose three evidence-based national initiatives that would improve U.S. work-life policy: Ensure employees have access to and the ability to use paid sick leave and family leave; mandate that employers create emergency backup staffing infrastructures; and give employees the right to request flexible and reasonable work hours. These work-life policies are based on principles of balanced flexibility that benefit employers, employees and society as a whole.”

Kossek is the co-author of “The Coronavirus & Work–Life Inequality: Three Evidence-Based Initiatives to Update U.S. Work–Life Employment Policies,” which was recently published in a special issue of Behavioral Science & Policy.