Cali Becomes Monthly Guest Blogger, Success Magazine’s “Work/Life Balance” Blog

The Work+Life Fit Blog is one-year old! And, oh, what a year it’s been! What better way to celebrate than by announcing that I’ve been asked to contribute a monthly posting to the newly launched work/life balance blog for Success Magazine. While my own Work+Life Fit blog will continue to follow work+life issues from a wide variety of perspectives, my postings for Success Magazine will focus specifically on how our personal definitions of success related to money, prestige, advancement, and caregiving impact our ability to effectively manage our work and life. Click here for my first posting and join me around the 15th of every month for an update.

Work+Life Stereotype #5—I will make less money

Our fears and misperceptions related to money and flexibility have a direct impact on our ability, or more accurately, inability to manage our work and life. According to the Work+Life Fit Reality Check, the survey conducted for us by the Opinion Research Corporation, when asked why they hadn’t improved their work-life “balance,” 45% of respondents said it was because they’d make less money. Continue Reading…

What are the top two reasons people give for not pursuing work+life flexibility? Number one is, “They will say no.” And, coming in a close second is, “It will hurt my career.” These fears are so pervasive that they’ve actually kept people from seeking creative solutions to their work+life challenges. And the worst part is they aren’t true.

Here’s the Proof

When respondents to the 2006 Work+Life Fit Reality Check were asked why they didn’t improve their work-life balance, 32% said it was because they thought their boss would say no. 29% said, “Others will think I don’t work as hard,” which is another way of saying, “It will hurt my career.”

But over a decade of research and work with both individuals and organizations to develop innovative flexibility strategies has convinced me otherwise. Continue Reading…

We start the off the new year by examining the belief that work+life challenges are a “mothers’ issue.” If a stereotype is a “standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion,” then this is a perfect example. It’s true that working mothers can struggle with how to combine work and motherhood (I know, because I am one), but that is only one piece of a much bigger, and more complex reality. Continue Reading…