Striking the Work-Life Balance Pays Off

Work Wednesday

I supervise a woman who has just returned from maternity leave. I know what she’s going through, having recently returned myself.

And when I hear her discreetly entering the empty office next to me to pump, I feel the empathy in my bones. Continuing to breastfeed after returning to work, and all the logistical obstacles it brings, is one of many things a working parent may do that epitomizes the challenge of striking a work-life "balance." It brings the physical and emotional of mothering smack! into the workplace, pitting it against meetings, deadlines and potentially grossed-out summer interns.

Thankfully, our firm -– though recently purchased by a generally unfriendly international conglomerate -– is culturally and structurally supportive.  There is a lactation room. (It's out of the way, and poorly equipped, but at least there is one!) And, the staff make up for what the structure may lack: There are so many team members who are recently returning mothers that many staff -– parents and non-parents alike -- have approached this colleague with ideas to ease her transition. Having heard that the lactation room is inconvenient, I (and many others) insisted that she use one of the empty offices on our floor.

When she announced to me -- her supervisor -- her very earnest intent to work additional time to make up for her pumping time, I officially accepted her proposed schedule and unofficially told her -– a reliable, ethical, hard-working and valued employee –- to do whatever she needed to do.

Having personally benefited from such a supportive environment, I've often asked myself –- somewhat guiltily –- whether it is fair to allow some employees flexibility that it seems others may not have.

But I always come back to the same answer: I would give this flexibility to any employee who needed it for whatever personal reason. That's who I am, and the policies of the company, not to mention federal law in some cases, call for it. But also, it turns out it makes good business sense.

Which is why when I read an Op/Ed piece by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman in the Washington Post referencing the piles of research showing that companies led by women are more profitable, I smiled a little. Because if women will be increasingly considered integral to a successful enterprise, perhaps, as the Op/Ed piece goes on to say, addressing family issues will, also. (It is a sad fact that while many men –- my fantastic husband included -- are equal partners in parenting, family issues are still considered associated with women.) We  -- all of us – must work together to ensure that comes to be.

Comments

[Terry Neese]

This is a great entry. More offices should have as supportive of an environment as the one you have created in your office. It is important that companies realize that just because some employees would like more flexible hours, or need to be accommodated in a special way, does not mean that they are not as productive as someone who sticks with the status-quo forty hours a week job. In fact, because of job satisfaction, they are typically more productive. Flexibility is a fantastic approach to solving productivity issues, complaints about unhappiness in the work place, and constant demands for time off. Unfortunately, strict labor laws prevent employers from being as flexible as possible. The private sector is not allowed to offer comp time in lieu of overtime pay for hourly workers, even though the federal government began offering this option to their employees way back in 1978! What’s wrong with that picture? Before private companies can fulfill all the needs of their employees, it is important that the government fill the needs of private companies. www.familycenter.ncpa.org