Connecting Career and Life

The quest for flexibility in a rigid world

Role Changes in the World of Work

February 9th, 2012 | by Leanne Chase

When I started this blog it was out of frustration. Frustration that I was a smart, well-educated, independent person whose career had come to a crossroads. Not because I needed to update my skills, not because I didn’t do my assigned tasks well, but instead because I also chose to care about my family and be sure they were also taken care of as needed. I found the corporate world of work too rigid and quite frankly too discriminatory.

I wanted to change that world…especially for my little girl. I didn’t want her to have the kind of workplace experiences I had. And of course I was not alone in my frustration or my desire. And I’m happy to say that I do believe the work world my daughter will be part of will look very little like the one I started out in.

One reason is purely demographics. We well-educated, independent women are making our mark:

And the role of work is changing, too. According to the great article “The End of a Job as We Know It, ” careers are no longer a ladder straight up. Instead workers are filling a role not a job and that role will change and morph over time sending workers sideways, forwards and backwards throughout their careers. HR and leadership have not yet entirely caught up with this concept, or how to manage it. But with the way social networking and internal and external communities in the workplace have expanded such that employees can connect over skills/projects allowing them to work cross-functionally and interact with other leaders within and outside of their companies, organizations will need to adapt and figure it out or employees will move to those that do.

This is all very exciting! Because it allows for work not being about filling a chair 9-5 but being about the ability to achieve results which also allows for parenting your children during after school hours, and being there for aging parents as needed while still having a career . How nice.

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Posted in General, HR/Recruiting, Practical Info | No Comments »

Blogging and Working and Not Blogging

February 3rd, 2012 | by Leanne

Nothing like a great honor to get me back to blogging here. SHRM was nice enough to add this blog to their list of Top 10 Workplace Flexibility blogs worth reading and wow am I feeling guilty. Not because of the honor, but because I had some tough choices to make.

In October I started a new job and with every new job there is a learning curve and it takes a while to feel like you have your feet under you. And as part of that new job I’m responsible for their blog…and while that one is going well. This one fell off a cliff.

There is some consolation in knowing I am not alone. I think my friend Cindy Meltzer says it so well in her post on this subject. And like her I’m finding it tough to write about juggling work and life, while I’m juggling work and life!

but hey, this is part of my journey through it all. So please stay with me and trust me. I have a lot to say…I just need a few more hours in my day. Sound familiar?

How about you…are there some tough choices you’re making? Things that you really enjoy that you haven’t been able to work on as much as you’d like?

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Posted in Entreprenurial Life, Parenting, Practical Info | 1 Comment »

Thankful

November 23rd, 2011 | by Leanne Chase

I’m doing the traditional Thanksgiving post…with a twist. Because while I am always thankful for my friends and family. I know I can count on them. I have long standing relationships with all of them and they have had my back my whole life. They are a given. And I hope they already know and understand how thankful I am to them (and I’ll be able to tell most of them in person this weekend). But this has not always been the case with past employers.

Today I wanted to make a point to say how thankful I am to my employer. After all I am not your typical employee. I won’t fill a chair, I do not ask for but expect flexibility from them (as they do from me), I take far too long to analyze and decide when a good thing is offered to me, and as past bosses will tell you I like to learn and grow in my role, constantly. So I am no cake walk as an employee.

But I have landed in the right place. When hired I learned one of the reasons they thought I was the right fit was their hope to really build a company that can be successful but also allows employees to lead a more stress-free, balanced life and with my work in the work/life field, they hoped I would keep them true to that. Second, this recent article on their blog about the human experience tells me they get it and want to spread it around. And even more recently they walked the talk when a colleague had a family conflict during the work day. They know they hired conscience workers, they know we take our responsibilities seriously and they do not flinch if something comes up during the traditional work day. No counting hours, no face time.

So thank you for:

Work that is engaging and interesting
Allowing my life to be without work related stress (except that which I self-impose)
Being human and understanding how important that is to being successful in business

And here’s wishing everyone as happy a Thanksgiving as I am having this year.

Are you also thankful for your employer? Or are they less-human oriented? I’d love to hear from you.

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Posted in General, HR/Recruiting, Question of the Week | 1 Comment »

When HR Met Workplace Flexibility

November 9th, 2011 | by Leanne Chase

I’ve got to say it’s a good day! Yes, the sunshine and spring-like temperatures are adding a bounce to my step but really it’s that two of my worlds are colliding today. The HR world that I have marketed in, gotten to know well, have made great friends from and will always consider a large part of my life and the work/life folks that I have had great conversations with, made friends with and fought hard with for this day.

Yes there have been other conferences, but I feel they were either very academic or focused on HR departments that had people specifically assigned to work/life. Now I’ve never worked for a company that big and the majority of workers in the US don’t either. This one is for everyone. Small, medium, large. And it is co-run by the Society for Human Resources Management who know HR folks and how to speak their language.

The fact that this conference exists means the last 3 years of my life have been a success. I was but one voice, but one voice of many who felt life was crazy and needed to change. Who felt too much control in life had shifted to the corporations people worked for and tried to wrestle some of that back. Who felt overworked, overtired and under appreciated.

I have taken steps to gain that control over my life. It comes with some tough choices, like knowing that as my two worlds collide I am needed and wanted somewhere else. So I am not there for this momentous event. But I have many friends who are. And they will tell me all about it and I will follow along virtually. And that seems just right.

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What’s not working in work/life

October 31st, 2011 | by Leanne Chase

My hackles are up. And that’s probably a good thing as they haven’t been in a long time.

It’s probably because it’s the end of National Work and Family month. You know that time of year when those in the work/life field who keep saying that workplace flexibility isn’t about moms and families, write about moms and families.

Polls are taken, surveys completed and women are looked at as not as ambitious, not wanting promotions, not wanting to work as hard as their male counterparts.

But I see it so differently. The corporate world is broken. There is no room for anything other than working traditionally in an office and being at your company’s disposal when they want you to – with little or no regard for your time and commitments. And honestly, that sort of one-sided relationship doesn’t work for me.

It has nothing to do with my ambition, my drive, how much satisfaction I derive from my job. Nope, it’s all about the fact that corporate America doesn’t work for me and for so many. And honestly it never did work for me long before I was a mom. As we enter into a knowledge-based workplace the demographics of those working and the challenges surrounding that kind of work have changed. But the workplace has not.

Opting out does not mean anyone (male or female) isn’t ambitious. What it means is the system doesn’t work for them. And with demographics of the workforce evolving and becoming more female, perhaps that is what needs to be studied more – not the women who are opting out.

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A funny thing happened this summer

October 11th, 2011 | by Leanne

I got a job.

You may not have noticed, but I took a good chunk of the summer off. Well not off exactly, but unplugged and working more inside my head than on this blog or on consulting work. Lots of opportunities converged at once and it was a wonderful and confusing and take-a-breath kind of summer.

First – I was recommended for an high-level marketing job at an HR vendor. My wheelhouse. What I did before I started this adventure. While I had not been looking for it, it found me and I went along for a ride to see where it may lead and if it was a fit.

Second – I was a lady who lunches. And as such, a friend and I started talking about some growth her company was experiencing and the challenges that come with that growth and how I might just be a fit to help overcome some of those challenges.

Third – it was my first real summer as a mom. My little one had been new to school, now she was new to summer vacation as was I. And while we added a few summer camp weeks to the mix it really was more about sleeping a bit later, learning to swim and slowing down.

Finally – for the first time in a year and a half it looked like my husband was without a client. As his industry says he was about to be “on the beach.” In his line of work that doesn’t happen often and when it does you take full advantage of it. To reconnect as a family, to head out on vacation and enjoy it. Because before you know it another client will come along and off he goes on an airplane.

So all those things were happening and I was wrapping my head around most of them while hanging out with my family and friends. I unplugged….a lot. I sought advice – you know who you are and thank you!

Being unplugged was wonderful. It gave me the time and distance I needed to really look at all that was in front of me. And it helped me reach some decisions. I was unplugged most of August and for 2 straight weeks. Not at all what most Americans do and certainly not something I had done in a long time…but I recommend it. You know why? Nothing fell down, toppled over, disappeared forever or was lost during those two weeks. I’m just not that important to anyone but me and my family. Understanding that helped me make more decisions.

The marketing gig did not work out – for many reasons. On my side, the more I thought about it, the more I could see what I was giving up. Yes I would easily slide right back into a familiar and comfortable role. And they were willing to be somewhat flexible.

But who would pick my daughter up from school 3 times a week?
How would I reconnect with my husband when he found himself between clients suddenly?
How would we have family dinner 3-4 times a week?
Who would be there for my mom on the occasions she could use an extra pair of hands?

It took me that time to be unplugged to realize that although changing industries was a bit frightening it was also very exciting. I could work with people I really enjoyed and chose to spend time with. I could do something I’m good at…marketing…while also learning and growing in an industry that I understand but do not know inside and out. I could share a similar work philosophy – work when you need to, get the work done and communicate early & often. And most of all, I could answer all the questions I posed above easily and without further juggling or stress.

So it is with great excitement that I announce I have started working with The Community Roundtable on their marketing efforts.

This doesn’t mean I will stop blogging, or taking clients in the human resources and work/life space. I will just choose which assignments I take and when I take them more carefully. And as I have yet to change the way the work world works I’ll continue shouting about it from rooftops, speaking at and attending conferences, and providing you my opinions whether you want them or not.

Some things may never change

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Of 9/11 and Hiring Humans

September 12th, 2011 | by Leanne Chase

When talk turns to 9/11 my mind turns to those who watched as others who worked for them lost their lives that day. The people like the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO who’s kid had their first day of school on 9/11/2001 so he was late for work that day, while so many he employed were sadly not. Or to TJX who had 7 employees on planes headed from Boston to LA for business that day.

You see in 2001 my husband owned a retail business – it was headquartered in Boston with stores in 12 states. And retail is a tough industry. It’s operates almost 24/7. And as I insisted on having some semblance of a life without his work engulfing it entirely, he hired people to help him run it. On that fateful day I was working in Salt Lake City and my husband was there with me, splitting his time between his business in Boston and our temporary home in Utah. As the drama unfolded I did not know then that 2 of the planes were from Boston or of a routine conversation my husband had had the day before.

American Airlines flight 11 was a great flight. You could leave Boston at a reasonable hour (not the crack of dawn) and get to LA well before lunch and have a full day of work. As we had stores in LA my husband and his staff took that flight often. On 9/11 one of our employees was ticketed for that flight, was supposed to be on that flight. But thankfully (understatement) was not.

He’s one of those employees that not matter how hard you push him, he’ll push himself even harder. And so the day before with my husband absent from the office he had been pushing himself hard. My husband talked with him and could hear stress, or how tired he was or something and told him to go to LA later the next day. No need to get there first thing. Don’t worry about it, get some rest he suggested.

It was one of those conversations that you don’t really think about. The kind that happens thousands of times a year.

So when I think of 9/11, I think of the what ifs. And I start to feel sick to my stomach. What if he had gotten on that plane for our company. I’m very sure my life would be quite different today (giant understatement). And then my thoughts turn to all of those whose lives were forever changed 9/11/2001.

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