by Elizabeth Harrin (London)
Social networking is big business: Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Twitter, Viadeo – there are plenty of sites waiting for you to upload your photos and tell all about your escapades on a Friday night. But how do you separate work life from personal life, especially when you do socialise with work colleagues as friends? It is possible, and if you don’t pay attention to what you say online, you could find it career-limiting.
by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
According to the groundbreaking 2005 article, Off Ramps and On Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success, authored by Sylvia Ann Hewlett of the Center for Work-Life Policy, nearly four in ten highly qualified women report that they have left work voluntarily at some point in their careers. Among women who have children, that statistic rises to 43%.
“What we found most compelling [from the Sylvia Ann Hewlett data] was that 90% of the women leaving for personal reasons, such as to raise a family, intended to come back,” said Jennifer Allyn, Managing Director of Gender Retention & Advancement at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC).
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Contributed by Alicia Anderson of AttacheServices.com
The key to work-life balance for female professionals is a holistic, comprehensive, trustworthy, and reliable support system.
As a woman in a key leadership role you must remain alert and sober minded, capable of making good decisions for your organization and clients. People are depending on you. Maybe you are the primary provider of income for your family, or single and therefore the sole provider. You may be juggling a career and the care of small children, teenagers, and aging parents. Your family is depending on you. Your organization is depending on you. Our economy is depending on you. YOU are depending on you. You have no choice but to take charge of your life and construct the type of support system you will need during this critical time.
by Elizabeth Harrin (London)
Think you work a long week? Spare a thought for the Koreans, who work the longest hours, around 2357 a year: that’s over 45 hours a week, every week. The UK and Ireland have the longest working week of the EU states and the Japanese only take an average of 8 days holiday a year. Those long French lunch breaks? I spent two years working in Paris and I promise they are a myth. If we’re so chained to our desks, how do we fit in our personal lives?
by Heather Chapman (New York City)
The hot topic these days is the quest for work/life balance. It’s something that everyone – man or woman – struggles with, more so now that technology has gotten us to the point where we are eternally connected to our work obligations.
When people talk about work/life balance, they generally talk about how to decide when to take the conference call versus when to attend the school play or have a romantic dinner with the spouse. In other words, more often than not, the discussion is framed in terms of family versus work.
But what if you don’t have a family or committed partner? Does that make the competing demands of work and life any less difficult to navigate? Just because single women don’t have a soccer game to get to or an anniversary to celebrate, does that make their out-of-office commitments any less important? Clearly, the answer to both these questions is no.
Contributed by Sylvia Warren of SimplytheBestCoaching.com
Are you wondering if a balanced work/life is even possible? Does it feel like balance is just another thing you have to achieve? If you have answered yes to either of these questions, you are not alone.
What you are experiencing is part of a phenomena that exists in a much larger context. In today’s ever-present world of work, the challenges of work/life balance are global.
Surveys in Great Britain, Canada and Australia reveal that balance in work and life is a leading 21st century challenge. Which of the 3 global work/life balance trends – culled from research conducted between 2000 and 2007 – relate to your experience?
by Erin Abrams (New York City)
The question on everyone’s lips this week is about Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska (formerly mayor of the town of Wasilla, AK), who was recently chosen as Senator John McCain’s vice presidential running mate on the Republican ticket.
by S. W. Bari (New York City)
Sarah Palin’s nomination to the vice presidential spot on the Republican ticket has provoked emotional reactions from almost everyone I’ve spoken to. Regardless of people’s political affiliations, she’s certainly rekindled interest in the electoral process in a way other better known politicians could not.
by Caroline Shannon (Pittsburg)
Joyce DeLucca is a mom of two living in the Big Apple, where she works as the managing principal of Kingsland Capital Management LLC . When she first started out, she struggled on a daily basis with balancing the competing demands of her family life and work life until finding a creative way to avoid missing out on the once-in-a-lifetime moments with her children.
DeAnne Merey is a single mom and founder of a public relations firm, DM Public Relations. But despite the success of her Manhattan-based firm, Merey’s biggest and most important client is a five-year-old. And that’s because he’s her son.
Contributed by Sylvia Warren of SimplytheBestCoaching.com
Busy professionals and executives execute complex strategies, lead wildly divergent teams, meet ambitious goals, and deliver on their commitment to the success of their organizations. Yet often they feel like professional and personal success still eludes them.
Why? It’s not just because the pace of work and life keeps accelerating. Smart women like you want to perform at their best. Driven by their own expectations of perfection and performance, they want to achieve all the lofty goals thrust upon them. Even when those goals are unrealistic, they feel compelled to accomplish them. So they try to get more and more done, faster and faster.