N atalie Gluck and Mark Rosker, both 37, are senior scientists at Rockwell's Science Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the advanced research-and-development arm of the $8 billion electronics company. Mark, who additionally serves as one of the center's research program managers, works closely on development projects with Rockwell's Avionics and Communications business unit. Natalie develops advanced thin-film optical devices, predominant-ly for military applications.

Married for eight years, Natalie and Mark have worked at the Science Center for 10 and eight years, respectively. Both have bachelor's degrees (with honors) from Caltech in physics, and master's degrees and doctorates from Cornell University in applied physics. They have a 3-year-old daughter and a nine-month-old son. Here, Natalie describes how the two of them manage the pressures of work and family life.

It's no surprise to readers of EE Times that the rapid pace of technology and business can impose significant time constraints on the personal lives of scientists and engineers. To cope with these strains, we have always used available company resources and programs, even before our children were born.

One important method of coping has been flexible work hours as a means of meeting both work and personal needs. It's possible to develop flexible hours that meet the employees' needs in balancing work and family, as well as the needs of the company in allowing employees to work more efficiently.

For example, many years ago, I was involved with a series of very long experiments, often lasting 12 hours or more. My partner on the experiments would arrive early in the morning to start the procedure; then I would arrive later and stay until the experiment was completed, which often was quite late at night. Other times, the experiments would be completed late in the afternoon, but several hours of cool-down time would be necessary before a new experiment cou ld be set up.

Flexible hours allowed me to return to work in the evening and prepare an experiment to be carried out the next day. This way, with semi-split shifts, my lab partner and I could accomplish more work than if we both were present only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The person who stayed late wasn't exhausted and inattentive from already working a full day. That would have invited mistakes and been counterproductive.

Now that we have children, the Science Center's willingness to provide flexible hours when needed is even more important to us. We live near our workplace, so making extra trips to work outside of normal working hours is not a hardship.

I make use of flexible hours somewhat more than Mark does because more of my day-to-day work is independent of other people. Mark has more management responsibilities, and therefore, more constraints on the hours that he must be present. Nonetheless, he is called on to work odd hours when necessary, such as when I am traveling.

Typically, we stagger the start of our workdays by an hour or two in order to minimize absence from the children. When my work allows, I will often go home to eat lunch with the children and get them settled for their afternoon naps. Mark travels frequently (about every two weeks) and flexible hours make life so much less stressful for the children and me on these occasions.

For example, when Mark has an upcoming trip planned, I can work the preceding weekend when the children are napping, or at night after they go to bed. An extra few hours worked inthis way make a big difference during the week-there is then no need to adhere to a rigid schedule or run everyone's life with split-second timing.

Flexible hours are especially important when a child is sick or has a special activity, such as a doctor's appointment or a preschool field trip.

One drawback to this arrangement is that we don't see each other that much.

Very often, one of us will go back to work at night or on a weekend. Sometimes a we ek or two will pass without both of us being home together for an entire evening. However, this is an arrangement that we have freely chosen in order to maximize the time the children spend with a parent, while still allowing both parents to continue their employment.

Rockwell has provided additional assistance for balancing work and family in the form of child-care information.

When we were expecting our first child and considering our future options, we became aware of the au pair program through the company's family-information center.

Au pairs are college-age exchange students who provide child care on a flexible schedule while living for a year as part of the host family. They learn first-hand about American culture, while teaching the host family about their own culture, customs and language.

A key advantage of this option was the flexibility inherent in this type of "extended-family" arrangement.

The au pair could adjust her schedule to provide child care as needed. In re turn, the host parents tried diligently to be as considerate of her needs and desires as she was of theirs.

We have hosted au pairs for a couple of years, and the arrangement has been a very positive one for everybody who's been involved.

In closing, we have tried to present some of the concerns we address in balancing work and family. However, this is only our individual perspective; our personal solutions are not meant to be a rigid prescription for every working family.

Values, goals, needs and circumstances are so unique and personal that only the individuals involved are qualified to decide what works for their own family.

We recommend that you talk with your employers to find out what works best for you.

Editor's note: Some larger corporations have work/life managers in the benefits or human-resources departments.

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