Contributed by Raj Jeyakumar

Recessions are good times for adjustments and innovation. Since 2008 there has been sector-wide disruption in areas such as finance, law, and consulting. One emergent trend that seems here to stay is that of opting for flexibility, lower full-time headcount and keeping cash on the balance sheet. This has given rise to increasing numbers of part-time employees at all levels of the labor force, from tech talent to seasoned CFOs. Similarly, top professional talent is demonstrating increased interest for flexibility and agility.

More and more, talented business people are seeking combining personal pursuits (travel, family, and social engagement) with the ability to monetize their much sought-after skills as part-time freelancers. This has given rise to what is known as the “fractional worker.”

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures recently told a group of entrepreneurs at Wharton that he likes investing in technology focused on the labor market, specifically marketplaces. He argued the recession has fundamentally shifted the way we work and that there is data to prove it. While the US economy is climbing back uphill, jobs numbers have stagnated. The reason? People are engaging in part-time work that isn’t captured in conventional jobs data. The rise of fractional employment means unemployment numbers are consistently overstated.

Read more

By Nancy Monson

Conventional wisdom holds that thanks to the feminist movement, women are on a more even par with men in today’s business world. After all, in 2007, 40% of managerial positions in the United States were held by women, reported the US General Accounting Office , while in 2012, Catalyst reported that women claimed 51.5% of managerial positions.

Those statistics sound impressive and suggest that overt gender bias may, for the most part, be a thing of the past. Yet when you dig deeper, you realize that hidden, subtle, silent, “second-generation” gender bias persists. Sure, women have gained managerial positions, but they’re still largely excluded from the higher echelons of most major companies: Only 4% of Fortune 1000 company CEOs are women, per Catalyst.

According to a recent blog post entitled “Educate Everyone About Second-Generation Gender Bias” on the Harvard Business Review website, “Second-generation bias does not require an intent to exclude; nor does it necessarily produce direct, immediate harm to any individual. Rather,” write Herminia Ibarra, Robin Ely, and Deborah Kolb, ”it creates a context – akin to ‘something in the water’ – in which women fail to thrive or reach their full potential.”

This bias can manifest as a failure to consider women for leadership or strategic roles, offering women less compensation (typically 78 to 87 cents on the dollar) or not considering them for bonuses, or an organizational culture that subtly disconnects the men from the women in the office. Women often are not even aware of bias against them. That may explain why an August 2013 Gallup Poll of 1,000 men and women nationwide indicated that only 15% of women felt they had experienced workplace bias. Successful women have managed to make their way through the gender inequity gap. Here’s how you can, too.

1. Recognize that hidden or stereotypical gender bias exists in your workplace.
If you begin to look for it, you will probably see it. It’s time to stop accepting that when a man gets promoted over a woman, it’s just because that’s the way it is. “I think the issue is a combination of subtle gender bias and women not having the chutzpah to push for themselves and their ideas,” says career coach Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio, co-founder of SixFigureStart. “It’s the perfect storm when it comes to business, and it can really impede your career.”

Ibarra et al write that “when women recognize the subtle and pervasive effects of second-generation bias, they feel empowered, not victimized, because they can take action to counter those effects.”

Read more

Contributed by Liz Brown

Do you ever wonder whether you should move into a different profession? Do you resist the question because you don’t know how to start answering it? Before I changed careers from litigation to academia, I spent years quashing my own doubts about whether practicing law was right for me. When lawyers struggle with this issue, they often face a flurry of internal objections. Some fear that they’ll never be able to make as much money or enjoy as much status in another field; some wonder whether they’ll be able to succeed doing something different. Most could use help thinking about transitions in a realistic and productive way.

In my experience, the most successful career reinventions happen when women strategically tap into the skills they enjoy using, not just the ones they are most praised or best paid for. In talking with over a hundred former lawyers while writing Life After Law: Finding Work You Love with the J.D. You Have, I developed a three-step process for lawyers and anyone else considering a career transition. The three basic steps are: (1) identifying favorite skills, (2) reframing those skills in terms that employers in other fields value, and (3) advocating for yourself by highlighting how your past successes have prepared you to succeed in the field you want to enter.

Read more

Contributed by Dana Brownlee, President, Professionalism Matters

Recently, I emailed a woman that I often partner with and received an out of office reply indicating that she was “on vacation with family and 100% unplugged from all communication devices.” She was an entrepreneur mom (like me) and we’d often discussed the challenges that working women/entrepreneurs face so her emphatic and somewhat unconventional out of office reply definitely brought a smile to my face.

While my first visceral reaction was “good for her!”, it was almost immediately followed by a second reaction – “sounds good in theory, but not for me.” As someone who prides herself on being the “queen of work/life balance” it seemed odd to me that I had that response, but if I were honest with myself I had to acknowledge that I’m a “95% unplugged during vacation” mom, and that just works best for me.

We hear “work/life balance” all the time, but we tend to think of that concept as only meaning “how can I pull away from work and spend sufficient time with family, etc?” What I’ve found though when considering this “to unplug or not dilemma” is that for me, I also have to consider the other side of that balance – creating just enough space for “work” to keep my business running and avoid the mind numbing avalanche of emails awaiting me after a week of not checking emails.

Of course, while on vacation my primary purpose and focus is on my family, myself, and having fun (as it should be), but the reality is that clients will continue to approach me with new business opportunities, our tenant may have an emergency, or a friend may have a bad break up and really need to talk.

As a result, I’ve found that when I’ve tried to unplug 100% it creates more stress for me and allowing that 5% of check in time relieves that and enables me to really enjoy my time away. For me, that 5% usually looks like checking email for 20-30 minutes every other day – not doing “real work”, and this allows just enough connection with the outside world for me to feel like I’ve got the balance I need.

To be completely honest, I tried to be 100% unplugged for awhile, and it just wasn’t working. Honestly, it felt a bit like I’d imagine a drug withdrawal might feel or the feeling when I realize that I’ve inadvertently left my purse in a restaurant. Furthermore, I had a bit of a jarring incident during one Destin family vacation. My family was lunching at our favorite restaurant – sipping drinks with umbrellas on the outside patio overlooking the bay when my phone rang.

Read more

Contributed by Susan Vitale, Chief Marketing Officer, iCIMS

Women who want to get ahead in their careers often focus on forming alliances at the workplace, making friends who can provide a sympathetic ear in a highly competitive environment and support them as they attempt to navigate the corridors of power. It’s important to have friends – in life and on the job – and it’s crucial to form positive, productive relationships at the workplace. But when it comes to getting ahead at work, it’s far more important to find a great mentor than a BFF.

Mentors and mentees can also be friends, of course, but the mentor-mentee relationship has qualities that are distinct from the typical friendship dynamic. Friendships often arise from shared personal interests and experiences, and friendship connections frequently happen by chance. When you’re looking for a mentor, it’s more effective to pursue that goal deliberately: While you might be fortunate enough to find a great mentor through happenstance, savvy professionals who understand the value of a mentor relationship will proactively look for mentors and enlist their support.

Finding a mentor is important for a woman at any stage in her career, but a mentor relationship is particularly advantageous for younger women who are just starting out. A good mentor can help a newly minted professional identify her key strengths and find ways to use them to get ahead. By offering an objective perspective and, most importantly of all, challenging a mentee and making sure she challenges herself, a great mentor can make the difference between success and failure.

Read more