Connecting Career and Life

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Many thanks to Sean Conrad for today’s guest blog post:

One of the things I hear a lot of managers and even HR folks worry about when it comes to flexible work is how to manage both the quality and volume of work produced by an employee who’s not in the office. How do you really know what they’re doing all day and how many hours they’re actually working?

When I think about it, the problem can also exist for an employee who works “in the office”. Over the years I’ve seen lots of people who work in an office and never seem to get anything done or even work a full work week. But I digress…

I think a part of the problem is that many managers and organizations haven’t adopted best practices for managing employee performance. Here are some examples:

First off, you need to set effective, detailed goals that outline expectations, timelines, deliverables and measurements for success, and are aligned with corporate goals. People often refer to these kinds of goals as SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound). If you set goals properly and monitor the employee’s progress on them, you know if you’re getting value from the employee. But if your employees’ goals are little more than a list of job responsibilities, you have no way of measuring if work is getting done, and done effectively.

Next, if your performance appraisals are still a once a year event, you’re not supporting a good working relationship and an ongoing dialogue about performance between managers and employees. More frequent, ‘mini-reviews’, held once a quarter make it easier for managers and employees to sync up on goals and accomplishments, address performance gaps in a timely way, and deal with development requirements.

But it’s more about the culture you create around performance management. Performance management really should be an everyday thing. Employees and managers need to be in touch regularly and talk about performance. Managers need to monitor progress; and employees need to report on it. Employees need feedback on how they’re doing. You can do all this over the phone or using email, instant messaging, wikis, or performance journals just as effectively as you do in the office. In some ways, flexible work arrangements incent managers and employees to do this more often; they don’t take their physical proximity and coordinated working hours for granted and assume the other knows what’s going on. This kind of cultural focus on performance makes it easy to manage all employees and ensure their focus, commitment and productivity.

And finally, everything you do should really be rooted in employee performance. Development plans, promotions, rewards, compensation – all should be tied to employee performance. That really puts the focus where it should be. Look at the results, not the location or time the work was done.

If your managers adopt these performance management best practices, managing their employees performance and work is easy, whether they have a flexible or a traditional work environment.

Sean Conrad is a Certified Human Capital Strategist and Senior Product Analyst at Halogen Software, one of the leading providers of employee evaluation software. He’s passionate about promoting talent management best practices to help employees improve and succeed. For more of his insights, read his posts on the Halogen Software blog.

I’ve always been a start-up, smaller company kind of gal.  I think the largest organization I’ve ever worked for had about 160 employees – and that was big.  Many more have been along the lines of the 25-75 range.  It suits me.  In small companies and start ups there is no time for  bureaucracy.  Something needs to be done – everybody pitches in and gets it done – not matter your title or official job description.

And that may explain why I like unconferences.  There is less (or no) structure and everyone feels comfortable contributing to the conversation.  At least if it’s done well.

And last week I attended one that was done well – TRU Boston – put on by Bill Boorman at the great Bullhorn Reach offices.  At times it felt more like a meeting of the knights of the roundtable than a conference.  I think Arie Ball of Sodexo summed it up best when she said that you don’t come out of an event like this with a big idea but you get lots of smaller ones that you can implement as soon as you return to your office.  And I agree.

What I really liked:

• It was not a kumbaya event.  There were divergent opinions and you got to air them out.
• People listened to each other and thought about what was said and then participated.  Truly!  That just doesn’t happen often enough anymore
• I’ve always felt marketing & recruiting shared many of the same skill set.  Confirmed by many at this conference for me.  But none more than Johnny Campbell and his brilliant take on how to use a webinar to get candidate leads…not sales leads.
• Every vendor there had recruiting issues and every recruiter there had vendor issues…we helped each other out with both – albeit warily. Which is why the session who came first customer or candidate was spot on.  The answer in my opinion – who cares?  We’re all customers and we’re all candidates and both need to be respected and paid attention to if you’d like your business to thrive.

What I took away:

• There are those who believe as passionately as I that marketing branding & employer branding can work together and share leads and resources and should do so more often
• That there is a science to going viral…and I’m still not sure anyone has it all figured out, but got some good pointers
• That workplace flexibility seems to be a no brainer for start ups, burdensome  for large companies and that employment laws that vary from state to state here are a difficult concept for international peeps to grasp.
• That Facebook communities should absolutely have a recruiting tab to convert those who already love your brand into workers who can help improve your brand and product.
• That there is no substitute for old fashioned skills like research, good communication, and the courage to pick up the phone and talk to someone (or maybe even “stalk” them through foursquare to show up at their local Starbucks to talk face to face)
• That apparently way more people are much more open on social media than I am…and I probably won’t be recruited as easily as they will be…and I am very much okay with that.
• That some people are actually measuring social…and it happens to be in HR at UPS.  Nicely done Mike Vangel!
• That working in an office might be fun again…I’d actually been heading in this direction for a bit, but some conversations I had at TRUBoston made me believe it may be time to head back into highly-evolved cubeland.

What  I didn’t quite buy into:

• That an unconference means disorganization.  It wasn’t my conference and I am in marketing.  But I would have had more information out earlier and promoted more about the conference, who was attending, and maybe built a community aspect for it.  I heard about how to build Facebook communities to recruit for the HardRock Cafe…I think a FB community could have been similarly used  to inform about this and all the TRU Events.
• That Facebook is a great recruiting tool for all.  We learned about 3 companies using it…all hiring hourly workers.  I’m not saying it can’t be used for higher-end, I just am not seeing the same kinds of success stories there as with hourly workers.
• That LinkedIn recommendations are all that.  Hearing some recruiters in the room say that they checked LinkedIn first and if the candidate didn’t have any recommendations they treat them as lesser of a candidate.  My take – friends ask friends to put recommendations on LinkedIn knowing they will be friendly and happy ones.
• That a passive candidate is better than an active one…c’mon, enough now on this one.  Finding the right person for the job is all that counts.  Who cares what they did yesterday…instead recruiters should care about what they’ve done long term and if they are a good fit for the company.

I don’t get out much with my current work/life fit but I’m glad this conference came to me…and I’m glad I was able to juggle my way into attending.

Yep I got that email yesterday.  You know the one, the one from Netflix.  In it I was told the service I now get for $9.99 a month will go up to more than $16 per month starting on Sept. 1st.  Was I furious like others are?  No.  Am I going to write them a note to complain? No.  I am simply going to take my business elsewhere.  I knew it was underpriced…but hey I rode that wave.  They allowed me to.  They told me I could have lots of content for not a lot of money.  And I partook.  They didn’t lie exactly.  They simply decided it was better to increase their customer base first, before actually charging what it costs for their service.  You know the old bait ‘n switch.

And it worked, right?  After all with the cheap price for both streaming & DVD they increased their customers from 6 million in 2007 to 23 million now.  And after yesterday’s announcement the stock price went up .53 per share.  So maybe they were right.

We’ll see.

I’m interested to see if the ire that the email has generated – 5000 comments on yesterday’s Netflix blog – will actually lead to a loss of customers.  So many of us just don’t walk the talk and the internet makes it easy to talk without anyone even knowing who you are.

But I think the long-term damage may be more substantial.  And not just for their customer base.  But also their employer brand.  I don’t know about you, but I feel:

1) Lied to – I think they knew all along they couldn’t sustain the price, but figured we’d get hooked and then where would we go as customers.

2) Brushed off – the email simply said we’re changing our pricing model.  It didn’t say why.  I happen to know their content costs are rising as it’s been in the news but wouldn’t explaining a little of the business reason why and giving me more than a couple of paragraphs made me feel a bit more valued?  I think so.

3) Not sure I can trust them in the future.  If I agree to this, what next?

4) Honestly I think the value of what I got for the streaming portion of Netflix was worth about what I was paying for it.  Not a penny more.  It’s not like they’ve got the hottest new releases.  Much of what they have is on Hulu for free (for now)

Now how does this relate to work/life and HR?  How do you think Netflix employees and potential employees are feeling about the company they work for right about now?  They probably are feeling some of the same concerns as I am as a customer.  And that’s the rub with employer branding.  Everyone is a potential customer and everyone is a potential employee.  What  happens to one affects the other.

We live in such a weird country.  On the one hand we must eliminate illegal immigrants as they are everything that is wrong with our economy.  On the other god forbid we pay more for groceries.

You can’t have it both ways.

And while reading a great article last night about how work life fit is not something to be subtle about, I realized I agree, but am pretty sure I am in the minority.  You see I can afford to fight for it.  I became debt free at age 25.  How?  I went to a college that I could afford (that 99.9% of you have never heard of) and came out with a reasonable amount of student loans.  I bought a car I could afford, not overly cheap but definitely not flashy or above my head.  I at a lot of ramen noodles.  And most of my entertainment came from free events throughout my city.

Now I’m not looking for a pat on the back.  I don’t need one. I am able to fight for my work life fit.  Because I don’t financially need a job desperately.  I like to work.  I have bills to pay.  But I also am a saver.  My husband and I have a very nice income thanks to a job he loves.  But we live below it.  And that gives us control over our work and home lives.  It is not the American way.  I mean after all, I don’t even have cable or a smart phone – unAmerican, right?

I agree we need to fight for our own work life fit.  I wish everyone would do so.  I truly don’t believe real change will happen in the workplace on this issue without pain for those at the top.  And it is we workers who can cause that pain.  But we are a country of over spenders and I just don’t see people who live mostly paycheck to paycheck, fighting for anything in their workplace in this current climate.  And quite frankly, I don’t see our spending habits in this country changing.

So I will continue to fight and be vocal about my work life fit.  But me thinks I will be in the minority.

The workforce has changed dramatically.  I recently saw this demonstrated in the New Dad Study by the Boston College Center for Work & Family.  In the study they showed how many households are now dual income (more than 80%), and how more than 50% of those earning college and advanced degrees are now women.

I also recently went to a workplace flexibility event focused on flex in higher education.  After that event I was talking with another attendee who said the current problem for some colleges attracting  great workers is that they not only need to have an opening for the great worker they want, there also needs to be an interesting job opening nearby for that worker’s spouse.  If you have a college in a traditional college town, that’s not so easy.  In an urban setting like Boston where the conference was held – much easier.  So many more rural colleges are losing out on talent.

Which leads to an article I read today by Dr. John Sullivan.  In it he contends that your company cannot possibly hire the best  talent if you limit it to those who are willing to commute to your office.

After all it’s not just one worker you need to find a place for, it’s more often 2.  And if you’re not offering remote work options, and their spouse’s company isn’t offering remote work options that’s a big risk for families to take – possibly sacrificing a tried & true workplace to experiment with one that hasn’t yet proven itself.  Not to mention moving costs, school disruptions, etc.

Interestingly I’m in this debate myself.  I’m in the initial phase of interviewing with a company.  But me working there needs to work not just for me – it also must work for my already-happily-employed spouse and our family dynamic.  As I’m in the first date phase of this workplace relationship we haven’t gotten to the who lives where conversation yet.  But you know it will come up…and I already live in a major metro area.