Not that long ago, flexibility and balance were the hot words in the business world.

Even old-school companies latched onto the trend. Perks like flexible work hours and the occasional telecommute were used to lure and then retain top employees - especially young, family-centered employees.

Unfortunately, it appears the recession is threatening to make flexibility as unfashionable as the bolo tie. Rigidity is in, according to a story last week in the Washington Post.

Some observers have noticed more workers being pressured to give up their telecommutes and other custom work arrangements. Middle managers spread the word that workers are "lucky to have a job" at all. Even when it's unspoken, employees feel compelled to maximize hours and minimize special requests so they remain in bosses' good graces.

Businesses should be proactive by reassuring those workers that their work-life balance won't be their undoing. After all, companies didn't implement those policies out of sheer kindness. They're designed for something that's always in fashion: the bottom line.

Studies have borne out the obvious, that happy workers are more productive. When allowed to structure jobs around their lives, they get more done in less time and soak up fewer overtime hours. They even use less gas, a big consideration in companies that pay for mileage.

Some businesses might need extra face-to-face time to hash out strategies for surviving this financial drought. To them, telecommuting and other examples of work-life balance may indeed be luxuries they can't afford.

But resentful managers shouldn't use the economy as a convenient excuse, as one worker reportedly overheard, "to take back the company." That's an old-school reflex, a drab, gray mindset when bright yellow would better fit the occasion.

Most businesses became successful because of innovative thinking. That includes innovative ways of managing valuable workers.

The ones that lock workers in the building for endless shifts until the markets improve in no way utilize their value. When the economic storm finally passes, the most desirable employees will be quick to strut their stuff on someone else's runway.