The Dream Job
Industries outside the teaching field offer jobs with generous vacation plans.
Aug. 28, 2007 — -- It's the working person's fantasy — a full-time job with the promise of summers off to enjoy the sun, the beach and the family.
But for Jackie Pham, it's no fantasy. The Cincinnati mother of two works as a teller for PNC Bank, a job she took on the condition she would have summers off.
She tells ABC's Betsy Stark she never imagined she would find a job to meet that request.
"No, it's pretty fantastic. I never thought that, you know, there were companies out there that would be so flexible as to give employees summers off," Pham said.
PNC began its "summers off" program to keep working parents and retiring staffers — who like to travel during the summer — from leaving and creating a teller shortage. The bank hires college students to fill in the staff gaps during July and August.
"College kids like me can come and work over the summer, where they can't really work during the school year," said Adriene Brozzetti.
Workplace experts say that in the future, more employers will be open to flexible schedules, especially as the baby boomers start retiring in large number, creating shortages of skilled workers.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation workplace director Kathleen Christensen said she is "already seeing" that both small and large employers with the most flexibility have a "competitive advantage in attracting the best and most skilled work force."
It was job flexibility that lured John Johns out of retirement. The New Jersey grandfather returned to his pharmacy career through the CVS "snowbird" program, an arrangement that lets him work winters in Florida, where he loves to boat, and summers on the Jersey shore, where he spends free time with his grandchildren.
"You come back up here, and everything is new again. It's like every six months we have a whole new lifestyle," Johns said.
CVS now employs more than 1,000 snowbirds and expects there will eventually be more.
"If we weren't as flexible, chances are we probably wouldn't be able to retain this experienced talent," said Mike Ferdinandi of CVS.
