So what do you get when you have a workforce full of talented women who finally understand that what they want is to work differently, a substantial percentage of men who are starting to see they’d like the same thing, a much-in-demand younger generation that won’t be tied down, a looming talent shortage, and, most important, a staggering increase in the value of women in the marketplace? An explosive chain reaction. And what’s so remarkable about the process is that the change isn’t just coming in a slow wave, as savvy businesses start to open up their minds and company policies. It’s also coming in forceful ripples, as individual women everywhere—newly empowered and doggedly determined—negotiate for their New All. Every individual success and every act of confrontation chips away at the antiquated structure and adds to the momentum.
At the top end, there are victories like that of Brenda Barnes, the CEO of Sara Lee Corporation since 2004. Barnes quit her job as President and CEO of PepsiCo’s North America operation in 1998 to raise her three children. At the time she was wildly criticized for hardening the glass ceiling. Now, kids in college, she’s managed to become the nation’s most high-profile, high — achieving on-ramper.
“Today’s business world, where work can be done anywhere at any time, calls for a flexible environment that provides the opportunity for work-life balance,” Barnes explains. “This doesn’t mean employees work less; instead it means empowering employees to do their work on a schedule that works for them. So, if they want to work from their kitchen table at 3 a. m., as long as the work gets done, who cares when or where they are doing it? Companies need to recognize that this kind of flexibility offers employees the ability to manage and balance their own careers and lives, which in turn improves productivity and employee morale.”
And, by the way, Barnes is working hard to be sure others can have the opportunity for fulfillment that she had. Sara Lee offers a multitude of flexible work options, and Barnes has also launched a program called Returnships. It’s aimed at midcareer professionals who’ve been out of the workforce for a number of years, and offers them the chance to retool and retrain, with an eye toward a permanent, and probably flexible, job.
OK—maybe most of us aren’t going to be able to quit a CEO job and then get another, but the fact that it’s been done helps us all. And there are terrific, satisfying, and life-changing battles to be won that are well within reach. Robin Ehlers, now a sales rep for General Mills, works a full-time job based almost entirely out of her home, with only occasional travel. But negotiating this work life that works for her did not happen without a struggle. “After I moved down in status at Pillsbury, so that I could travel less and have a more manageable schedule, I was still working from the office,” she explains. “I was trying to get my office moved to home and there was no way my boss was going to let me, but to me it just didn’t make any sense in the world. I can remember kind of having a breakdown, and just thinking ‘I just have to be at home. I can’t waste the time on my commute when I could be with my new baby.’”
All of her work was by phone and computer with customers in other cities, and she felt she’d be equally, if not more, efficient at home. Her boss wanted everyone together, although “none of us even worked on the same team and we had plenty of opportunities to interact.”
Finally, thanks to Robin’s persistence—and a director who arrived and wanted her office space—her boss changed his mind. She got her deal, and when General Mills bought Pillsbury, managers saw no reason to change it. (Indeed, luckily for her, she’s now at a company that truly encourages flexible work arrangements. General Mills gets high marks from its female employees.) Robin’s negotiation, seemingly random and one — off, and the negotiations of millions of women like her, are having a collective impact by tearing down the old hierarchy brick by brick. But the savviest companies aren’t waiting for disgruntled women to do the work; they are trying to do the demolition themselves.
Creative, manageable work programs are taking root all around the country—even in once-inhospitable corporate climates. Here’s just a taste from the Family and Work Institute’s list of recent award winners—you’ll read about many more throughout the book.
• The Continental Airlines’ reservations department in Houston has managed to keep its annual turnover to 5 percent—in an industry that has a 40 percent turnover rate. How? They let six hundred reservations agents work from home, which the mayor also appreciates as he tries to battle traffic congestion. And a quarter of the staff gets an extra day off a week on a rotating basis.
• Kay/Bassman International, a recruiting firm in Plano, Texas, offers the opposite of standard benefits. Each employee simply asks for what they need—to be home with children in the afternoon; to work via laptop—and in almost every case, the request is granted. CEO Jeff Kayle says humane treatment gets productivity results back to him in spades.
• The KPMG accounting firm offers their staff work- compressed workweeks, flexible hours, telecommuting, job sharing, or even reduced workloads. And workaholics beware: the firm has implemented wellness scorecards to find out whether someone is working too hard, or missing vacation. If so, supervisors are in touch to urge a slowdown! Oh, and how about eight weeks of fully paid maternity leave, even for adoptive parents? And two-thirds pay if you need more time.
• Chapman and Cutler, a midsize law firm in Chicago, started a two-tier pay scale in September. Hard-chargers who bill 2000 hours a year are paid top dollar. For those who prefer to slow down and see their families and friends, they can bill 1800 hours and earn less. More than half of the associates chose the reduced schedule.
Companies everywhere are starting to retool; they have no choice. “The one-size-fits-all workplace doesn’t work,” explains Kathleen Christensen. “The idea that you will work full time year in and year out, that you will be on a career trajectory that is a straight line, is vanishing. Employees increasingly feel more entitled to say ‘I need and I want to work in a certain way.’ ”