Making Work/Life Work Right

A team of Goodwin lawyers and professional staff confronted the problem head on and worked closely with the Massachusetts Office of Children to find a solution. The Goodwin emergency/back-up day-care center would become a “demonstration project,” and the state issued it the first such license. When it opened in January 1990 (in a space formerly occupied by a restaurant in Goodwin’s office tower), the brightly painted center was filled with toys, art supplies, easels, books and tables and chairs. The on-site center was open 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays as well as Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Goodwin pioneered options for life’s unexpected childcare conflicts that working families can take advantage of in Massachusetts today. Since then, Goodwin employees have enjoyed the flexibility of on-site emergency daycare along with other accommodations programs. Parents would even have lunch with their kids over the noon hour. Then director of Goodwin’s legal personnel, Maureen Shea was interviewed in the Boston Globe article, noting, “Everyone wins in a situation like this...With the center, management doesn’t lose a day of work from an employee.  And the employee receives a positive, caring message from management.”