This past Sunday was Mother’s Day in the U.S. and I was on an airplane heading out for a business trip, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about the ongoing juggle of work and family.  There was an interesting discussion over on the Wall Street Journal’s The Juggle column a couple of months ago that really stuck with me.  It was about a question they received from a working mom who was clearly struggling with how to balance it all.  In the comments, readers debated over the mom’s concern that she had missed 5 major pre-school events, as an example of the challenges she was facing.  You can read that debate here: http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2010/03/08/on-the-tradeoffs-and-choices-we-make-to-juggle/

In my experience, the solution to any work-life challenge sits in two places: the employee (and by extension, the family), and the company.  And it all comes down to one basic principle: flexibility.

Companies need to be more flexible

While companies have made huge strides in flexibility over the years, there’s still significant reluctance to offer the kind of flexibility that would enable more moms to combine families with successful careers.  Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, and others have highlighted flexible work places, but it’s still more the exception than the rule.  While some companies are going full scale on flexibility and moving to ROWE – Results Only Work Environments – others resist any kind of deviation from a standard work day and place.

I’d rate HP better than most.  I’ve seen a wide range of flex, depending on things like the business and the job, from roles that require a very specific work schedule and location, to teams that are distributed across the world and flex their schedules and work place as needed.

Recently I had a fascinating discussion with a senior HR leader whose company (not HP) had recently put a “prohibition” on any kind of flexible work schedule.  He said they had tried allowing a few people to come in later or leave earlier than the standard time, and it hadn’t worked, they put a stop to it.  He went on to say that one of the things they needed to change in their culture was to get employees to understand that they need to be available to the company pretty much 24/7, because the company was becoming more global, and they need to improve their productivity and speed.  It’s a family owned company and in their market the consumer buying decision for the products the company makes and sells is typically made by women.  Does anyone else see the problem here?  When I talked to a friend who works at the company – high performing senior manager, female, no kids – and I asked her how she likes her job, she said she’d like to find something else because they’re old school on flexibility.  She loved everything else about the company but she still hopes to leave.

Employees need to be more flexible

In return for flexibility on things like schedule and location of work, employees have to make trade-offs.  Do you go into the office later than most people so you can get your kids on the bus?  Return that favor to the company by ending the work day later, or getting started on your work before the kids get up, or after everyone else goes to bed.  Willingly take on those late night calls to the region across the world from yours and take the business trip when you need to.  Do you have flexibility in where you work?  Repay that by being accessible and easy to find.  Technology is your friend – make sure you’re easy to reach and responsive.  With smart use of instant messaging, my team has shared information across multiple sites and countries faster than you could walk down a hallway or place the phone calls.

As a working parent, you learn that you need to compromise.  The mom from the WSJ article may need to decide if a different job would be better for her, or if she can be ok with missing a few school events or cover them in a different way (this is part of why I choose to make tradeoffs to live close to grandparents).  Mother’s Day on the airplane was ok with me, because I chose that flight as part of my balancing act.

The payoff

The tradeoffs are not always easy choices, and balance doesn’t mean that work and family are in complete equilibrium at all times.  The person who feels good overall about their work-life balance has enough flexibility on both sides to make it all work.  What’s the benefit to the flexible company?  Employees who are more engaged and committed to their companies, willing to go the extra mile and give their discretionary effort.

Companies that offer flexibility are going to have the competitive advantage in talent.  How do you go about turning old school into new school on flexibility?  I’ll save that for a future post.

In the meantime, what do you think?    Share in the comments.

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It's time for the last section of our beginner training for a 5K race.  If you've been training so far, you're almost ready for a race day.

As with the earlier parts of the schedule, all Tuesdays and Thursdays are "rest or cross train" - all Sundays are rest.  You can flex the days if you need to - I've been traveling on business for the past couple of weeks and found it pretty challenging to keep the exact schedule. 

How do you stay on track when you're traveling?  Add to the comments.

Here's the rest of the plan:

Week 6:

Monday - run 20 mins

Wednesday - run 12 mins/ walk 2 mins, 3 times, for a total of 42 mins

Friday - walk 30 mins

Saturday - run 15 mins

Week 7:

Monday - run 25 mins

Weds - run 30 mins

Fri - walk 30 mins

Week 8:  (The final week before your 5K)

Monday - Run 25 mins

Weds - run 30 mins

Fri - rest of walk 30 mins

Saturday - race day!

Good luck with your race - remember, this is a beginner program... it's fine to combine running with walking on race day - it's better to pace yourself, stay injury-free, and enjoy yourself so you'll look forward to signing up for the next race.

Let me know how you do, and how you stay on track when starting - and sticking with - a running program.

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In celebration of International Women's Day recently, the Americas Women's Employee Network Group at HP held a great webcast for HP employees, where women leaders from across the company shared their tips and secrets of success.   They talked about everything from effective networking to balancing work-life responsibilities to taking on even more responsibilities. 

This was such a great session, I've invited the speakers to do a guest blog to share their tips with the readers of this blog, so look for those posts coming soon.  First up: VP of Enterprise Financial Reporting.

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This is the third week of the walk/run program to run a 5K on May 8th.   It's still early in the program, you can still join in.  The running group is virtual -- you're running along with us wherever you live by running on the same schedule and sharing through the comments.  The schedule was developed by a local store by me that sponsors several running clubs.  Be sure to check with a doctor as appropriate to make sure you're ok to run.

Here's the schedule for the next 3 weeks, since I know a lot of you in the U.S. have Spring Break plans this time of year, so I'm .  The best thing about being on a schedule is the obligation to fit it in -- when you're on vacation without a workout schedule, it's really easy to skip days.  If you're following a running schedule, you've got that "assignment" to take care of.

Week 3:

Monday (3/29) - Run 6 mins / walk 2 mins, 4 times = 32 mins

Tuesday - Rest or cross train

Wednesday - Run 6 mins/ walk 2 mins, 4 times = 32 mins

Thursday - Rest or cross train

Friday - Walk 30 mins

Saturday - Run 4 mins / walk 2 mins, 6 times = 36 mins

Sunday - Rest

Week 4 (starts Monday April 5th)

Monday - Run 8 mins/ walk 2 mins, 4 times = 40 mins

Tuesday - Rest or cross train

Wednesday - Run 8 mins / walk 2 mins, 4 times = 40 mins

Thursday - Rest or cross train

Friday - Walk 30 mins

Saturday - Run 6 mins / walk 2 mins, 4 times = 36 mins

Sunday - Rest

Week 5: (week of April 12th)

Monday: Run 10 mins / walk 2 mins, 3 times = 36 mins

Tuesday: Rest or cross train

Wednesday:  Run 12 mins / walk 2 mins, 3 times = 42 mins

Thursday: Rest or cross train

Friday: Walk 30 mins

Saturday: Run 8 mins / walk 2 mins, 4 times = 40 minutes

Sunday: Rest

After this, just 3 weeks of training left, then we'll be ready for the race on May 8th!

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Last week I participated in my first Halo video conference for an internal meeting at HP.  Normally my meetings are by conference call and headset, or in person, and the last video conference I participated in was years ago at a different company when you still had to pause after you spoke to let the audio catch up with you and the video looked like stop-motion.

All I can say is - WOW, has it changed!  Halo rooms are special video conference rooms fully equipped with video, audio, tech hook ups and lighting - it's really amazing how much it's like being in a face to face meeting.  Why is this so important?  It saved me from an overnight trip, giving me more time with my family, and still enabled me to have a very important meeting in a very effective way.

The main difference between the video conference and face to face was this: you know how when you're on a speaker phone and you raise your voice a little more than normal, to make sure they can hear you on the other side of the phone?  Yeah.  One word of advice: in a Halo conference, don't do that.  I learned this the hard way when the person I was talking to started to look at their control panel, and said "I'm looking for how to turn the volume down".  Oops.  When I switched to a normal speaking voice -- the same volume that I would use if the person was in the room with me -- I learned that the person at the other end of the conference could hear me just fine.

So, I learned there's no need to yell.  Other than that, the meeting ran just like it would if we were face to face.  This brings me to our discussion point for this post - as the world of work becomes more global and therefore more virtual, how do you envision getting your work done?  Will it be via more face-to-face (increasing travel), by video conference, or by audio conference?  And what's the impact?

Add your comments below.

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