A new poll conducted for an organization called Take Back Your Time found that “69% of Americans support a paid vacation law with a large percentage favoring a law guaranteeing three weeks vacation or more.” The poll also found that “among Americans, 28% took no vacation time at all last year and half took a week or less…the median time off was 8.2 days.” There is no doubt that finding time to disconnect from work and to reenergize and reconnect with our loved ones is difficult in a 24/7, high-tech, global reality. A law might be a good, but I’m not sure it’s going to solve the problem.

I’ve blogged about the vacation challenge both from a personal perspective and an expert perspective on a number of occasions over the years. My postings usually coincide with my own vacation struggles (click here and here for links). And, as I read the findings of the new poll, I was reminded that the challenges related to vacation are actually three separate issues:

1) People don’t get paid vacation (according to 2006 Bureau of Labor Statistics, that represented about 25% of workers)

2) People don’t take the vacation they have (according to a 2006 Steelcase study 61% of employees took their allocated vacation)

3) People take vacation, but work while they are on it (in 2006, 55% of men and 43% of women took work on vacation)

The paid vacation law proposed by Take Back Your Time (www.right2vacation.org), would definitely help the 25% of workers who don’t have paid vacation. But what about the other two groups? How is a law going to help the people who don’t take the vacation allocated to them, or the people who work on their vacations? (more…)

Last week I asked a friend who doesn’t have children her thoughts on Lisa Belkin’s article in The New York Times about equal parenting. She responded, “It made it look so hard, I can see why women choose to stay home. It seems easier” Then she asked what I thought, and I was somewhat surprised by my response, “I guess I wonder whoever told us this would be easy. The couples in the article are trying.”

A week later I found myself in a similar situation. This time an individual was asking me what she should do because her company’s CEO had outlawed all types of flexibility (short-sighted CEOs is a subject for a whole other blog) and her manager could no longer accommodate her need to work from home. I suggested she should try to work something out with her manager, because she’d be surprised how much flexibility continues to happen under the official corporate radar-screen. And then, I explained, if that didn’t work out she may have to make another decision. I found out later she was disappointed with my advice because she wanted to know “What I should do?” I found myself thinking, “There’s no easy answer, and you may have to quit. But at least you should try to work something out before walking out the door because you might be surprised.”

Twice in two weeks, I’d had the same response—“It’s not easy,” and “You need to try.” Being actively engaged in how you manage your work and life is not always easy. It requires time, attention, conscious thought, decision-making, redefining success and patience. But, really, in today’s 24/7, high-tech, global work reality, do we have any other choice? (more…)

One of the most entrenched mindset shifts we need to make about work and life in the 21st century is that it’s no longer a dichotomous choice between working or not working. The truth is that there are countless work+life fit possibilities from which to choose, and there’s no right answer.

You would think this realization would be a source of celebration and liberation, but I often find confusion. “What do you mean? What do these possibilities look like? How do I do it?” People want examples. They need new models of the work+life fit possibilities that they can adapt to their own lives. This is why I love “Shared Care” the model of shared parenting developed by Jessica DeGroot and the ThirdPath Institute. It is work+life fit in action.

The “Shared Care” model and the work of ThirdPath got a big boost last weekend when it was showcased in Lisa Belkin’s cover story, “When Mom and Dad Share it All,” in The New York Times magazine section. In the article, you get to see how a number of couples worked together to creatively manage their work+life fit to share the care of their children.

A couple of important takeaways from the article that will hopefully help parents make the mindset shift and allow shared care to work for them and their children:
(more…)

Ohio state government employees are learning the hard way that workplace flexibility must work for them personally and for the business, or it won’t continue. Their flex-gone-wrong scenario is a cautionary tale for all organizations. For flexibility to succeed, it must be a process-based strategy that considers each person’s unique work and personal realities, not a one-size-fits-all policy or benefit.

What happened in Ohio? According to a recent New York Times article, fifteen years ago the state of Ohio implemented a “flextime” policy to reduce rush-hour traffic in Columbus. But today, according to, Ron Sylvester, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, “There are some offices downtown where on Fridays you could roll a grenade down the central aisle where the cubicles are and you would have no casualties because the place is empty…We are simply trying to ensure that from 8:00 to 5:00 pm we are appropriately staffed to take care of the public’s needs and the needs of other state agencies.”

And he’s right. It’s not okay that, “too often departments were closed, phones went unanswered and customer service windows were left unattended, especially on Fridays, as state workers worked only four days a week.”

That’s what can happen when flex is a standardized policy or benefit. It is seen by employees as an entitlement, rather than a strategy for managing their work+life fit in a way that meets their personal needs as well as the needs of the business. Individuals check a box on a form for “compressed workweek” without ever having to step back and think about whether or not working four, ten-hour days with one day a week off would be compatible with their job. No one sits down with his or her manager to determine the best day not to be in the office given the other types of flexibility in the group. Not everyone can be out on Friday. (more…)

A British medical journal, a Canadian magazine and the medical blogosphere have ignited a controversial debate around the following premise:

There are too many women doctors who want to work part-time, which is contributing to a lack of capacity in the medical system. Therefore, we should reconsider the amount of resources devoted to the education of women doctors and focus more of them on men.

This debate was the subject of a interesting post a couple of weeks ago, “Women Doctors: Waste of Money?” in BusinessWeek’s Working Parents blog. Not surprisingly it resulted in many emotional comments on both sides of the issue.

I asked a 40-something, male doctor I know to weigh in, and he brought up an another angle: “Certainly my anecdotal experience is that more women work part time and those that work full time take more time off for family reasons. But, many MEN entering medicine are not willing to work the way men did 30 years ago. And this is commonly called a “poor work ethic.”

This got me thinking. Is the problem simply about more women than men wanting to work a reduced schedule? Or is it also about doctors resisting fundamentally rethinking some of the ways they do their jobs so there is more work+life flexibility for everyone, not just women?

I recently met a doctor who had tried to innovate the way medicine was practiced in his specialty to give people more work+life flexibility and failed. (more…)

BusinessWeek’s Working Parents Blog — How to Keep Your Job (And Flexibility!) in a Recession

For BusinessWeek’s Working Parents Blog, blogger Lauren Young asked me to provide advice to working parents about how to keep the flexibility they have during a recession. Here’s an excerpt and link:

“Today’s news that U.S. payrolls declined by 80,000 jobs in March left a sinking feeling in my stomach. BusinessWeek’s chief economist is predicting job cuts in sectors such as financial services, real estate, as well as some consumer areas like hotels and restaurants.

How can you keep your head off the chopping block? Career experts say this is the time to shine at work, but plenty of the working parents I know already have a tough time juggling the demands of their professional life with their personal life.

So that’s why I turned to Cali Williams Yost, president and founder of Work+Life Fit and author of Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You (Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2005). Her tips for keeping your job afloat during a recession are geared to working parents, but this advice applies to anyone who wants to stay gainfully employed: (Click here to more)”

SmartMoney.com — Small Business and Flexibility as a Competitive Advantage

For Smart Money.com, the focus was on how small business owners can use the inherent flexibility they offer to compete with larger employers for talent. At the end of the article I discuss the “floodgates fear” and the fear that the work won’t get done that partially-paralyze most managers no matter the size of the company within which they work. Here’s an excerpt and a link:

“Any arrangement, of course, has to benefit the company and its bottom line. It’s important for a small-business owner to ask for accountability when giving an employee the freedom to set their own hours or schedule. They should discuss with the employee how work will get done, how deadlines will be met and how flexibility can improve business results.

“The big fear amongst naysayers is ‘if we give it to one person, then everyone will want it, and no one will be there,’” says Cali Williams Yost, a consultant on flexibility strategies in Madison, N.J. “That almost never happens.” Another concern is that flexible scheduling can hamper productivity. However, “most people don’t want to work less,” Yost says. “They just want to work differently.” (Click here to read the entire article)

(Check my most recent Fast Company blog posting: CIOs Decide: Is Flexibility “Naïve” or a Reality That Can’t Be Ignored?)

About the same time I had this realization, I came across a newspaper article and a website that reinforced two of the main insights from my eldercare experience that I’d blogged about here and for the New York Times. First, is plan! The second is that eldercare is incredibly hard and you need support.

First, planning. The article entitled, “Facing aging: Families avoid crucial conversations,” was from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and talked about the “40-70 Rule.” The rule is that you need to have an honest conversation with your parents about how they want to be cared for, and what their financial situation is when you are at least 40 years old and your parent is 70 years old.

Even though I am over 40, my father and stepmother aren’t yet 70 years old. However, that has not stopped me over the past year from starting to talk with them about what they want. Knock on wood, they are both healthy. But as I know too well, that can change overnight. And when you are in crisis is not the time to have those important discussions. DON’T WAIT…Talk to your aging parents now. (more…)

“Unfortunately, too many leaders and organizations will default to a shortsighted fall back position, “Forget flexibility. People are just lucky to have jobs.”

Indeed, some leaders I’ve observed over the past month are having that reaction. I can understand it. Incorporating more flexibility into the way you operate your business, and manage your work+life fit even during the best of times can be scary because it’s new. Throw some bad economic forecasts onto that natural fear, and the next thing you know all innovation comes to a screeching halt as we hold on tighter to what we know. Even if what we know isn’t ultimately going to help us succeed.

But there is good news! As I’d hoped, “But…smart leaders and organizations…will continue to move forward integrating flexibility into the way they do business because they understand that there is no turning back.” And, thankfully, this is happening as well. In the last month, I’ve met a number of forward-thinking leaders who see flexibility as the way they need to do business and help people manage their work+life fit, especially in tougher economic times.

They may be in the minority, but these leaders understand that the trends requiring businesses to rethink how, when and where work is done, and individuals to more effectively manage their work and life aren’t going away. And, in fact, are only going to become more pronounced in our 24/7, high tech, global work reality. For a powerful presentation these trends and what they mean, check out a video that one of my clients brought to my attention last week called “Shift Happens”.

Wanting to circle-the-wagons is an understandable reaction to a recession, but let’s recognize and support the few who are trying to be innovative, flexible thought-leaders. Maybe their example will inspire their peers to do the same.

Do you have any examples of forward-thinking leaders who aren’t letting the recession stop them from rethinking how we all could work better, smarter and more flexibly manage our resources, talent, workflow and work+life fit?

(Check out my Fast Company Blog: Prediction–Meditation Becomes a Core Competency)

I think two things will happen. Unfortunately, too many leaders and organizations will default to a shortsighted fall back position, “Forget flexibility. People are just lucky to have jobs.” But the smart leaders and organizations won’t. They will continue to move forward integrating flexibility into the way they do business because they understand that there is no turning back. To use a recession as an excuse to stop developing news ways of flexibly managing work and life will only put them further behind in terms of growth potential when a recession ends.

What do these smart leaders and organizations know that the less enlightened overlook? They understand that flexibility is key to their businesses success in a 24/7, high tech, global work reality. They know that: (Click here to read more)

According to two separate year-end surveys, over 50% of professionals say finding a better work+life fit is their top goal in 2008 (57% from Beyond.com’s, and 53% from Office Depot’s surveys). What will 2008 year-end survey results look like if everyone achieves this resolution? The Work+Life Fit Reality Check will have 75% of respondents saying they’ve found their fit, up from 25% in 2007. But what’s the likelihood of bridging that 50% gap over the next year? Let’s look at the positive trends identified in the this past year-end’s Work+Life Fit Reality Check. (more…)