Voice of Experience: Anne Weisberg, Director, Talent, Deloitte

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I have to say I love my job,” said Anne Weisberg, a Director in Talent at Deloitte. “It’s a big part of why I feel good about my work/life fit. You have to love what you do, or the sacrifices don’t feel worth it.”

Weisberg, having worked as a lawyer and a consultant, as well as having authored two books and several studies, is an expert on the issue of work/life fit. A frequent and passionate speaker on work/life issues, the importance of gender diversity in the workplace, and other talent issues, Weisberg is working to shift the structural norms that make it difficult for women and men to achieve their full potential in the workplace.

Her career and expertise is built around her own personal experiences. She explains, “I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1985 – when I was five months pregnant. I’ve been a working mom for my entire professional life.”

Her Personal Career Lattice

Beginning her career with a clerkship for a federal judge, Weisberg went on to work for a small law firm. Two years later, she gave birth to her second child. “I worked part time – 60 percent. I would come into the office every day from twelve to six. It wasn’t standard, but it worked well for me,” she explained.

“I started a family way before my peers” said Weisberg. With that experience, she decided to write a book and took a sabbatical. Everything a Working Mother Needs to Know was published in 1994. In fact, she said, “I had my third child while the manuscript was being delivered to me from the publisher.”

Having discovered an emerging space regarding gender and work/life strategy, Weisberg says, “I ended up working at Catalyst.” There, she directed “Women in Law: Making the Case,” which examined the career experiences of men and women in the law field and was published in 2001. Then, she moved over to Catalyst’s Advisory Services practice, doing gender strategy consulting for law and professional services firms.

Five years ago, Weisberg moved to Deloitte into its Women’s Initiative. She explained, “I am the poster child for the concept of the corporate lattice, because my career has been anything but linear. I’ve moved up and down and across sectors, from non-profit, to law, to consulting.” Today she is part of the Talent Strategy, Marketplace, and Eminence team, working for Cathy Benko, the Chief Talent Officer of Deloitte. Weisberg says, “our job is to promote the Deloitte talent experience both internally and externally, thereby strengthening Deloitte’s talent brand. A big part of our brand is an inclusive work environment.”

Looking ahead, Weisberg says, “I like to think in two to three year increments. In addition to what I do at Deloitte, I am interested in expanding and getting out the message in different ways. I’m on the board of the Forte Foundation, whose mission it is to inspire women to business leadership, and we’re interested in the idea of trying to reach women earlier in the process.”

She continued, “My dream three years from now is to be teaching a class at a major business school called ‘Men and Women in the Workplace.'”

Changing the Norm – Mass Career Customization™

“I actually don’t think there’s any such thing as work/life balance. It’s an unfortunate word choice. Balance implies static opposing forces, and that there’s a ‘perfect’ equilibrium. I think that is a mirage. Holding ourselves to some ideal that just doesn’t exist makes women feel they are failing. It’s liberating to let go [of balance].” Instead, Weisberg prefers the term “career-life fit.”

Weisberg says the achievement she’s most proud of is the publication of her second book, Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace With Today’s Nontraditional Workforce. “It’s the product of years of thinking of the issue of work/life as a structural one, as opposed to an individual struggle.”

She continued, “It’s a big issue everyone deals with every day, but there’s a bigger systematic issue that was not getting the attention it deserved.” The problem: “the way careers are built in organizations, and the norms around that.”

For example, she said, most law firms have a rigid career path – up or out in ten or so years. “Everything else is an exception. And this is a problem for lots of people, including women, whose career paths are generally not linear. The idea behind Mass Career Customization is that the norm has to change to reflect the reality that most knowledge workers do not have linear careers.”

“The incredible reception this concept has had is really what I’m just so proud to see. It’s exciting to see business leaders realizing that the model has to change. Suddenly everyone is listening.” Weisberg pointed out that even the White House is taking the issue of work/life fit seriously, having hosted a forum on the topic in March. “This Administration really understands the link between stronger workplaces and healthy families. It’s tremendously exciting,” she said.

In fact, it was recently announced that Deloitte is working with the federal government on workplace flexibility pilots. “It’s a tremendous opportunity in terms of the need and the benefits that will flow from this initiative. It’s about making the government run better from a tax-payer perspective.”

Weisberg hopes that the federal government’s effort will create a “ripple effect,” encouraging workplace flexibility in the private sector as well.

In the gender diversity sphere, she says, “Our biggest challenge is involving men in the conversation. Often, we are leaving out half of the equation. It’s very problematic, and it’s one big reason we haven’t made as much of a change as we thought we would.”

She continued, “Younger men in dual career couples feel they have very little permission to speak up – they are left out of the conversation. Our biggest allies and champions often tend to be senior men who have wives or daughters who are entering the workforce or starting to deal with these issues. For example, one of Deloitte’s senior male partners was speaking on a panel on the issue of gender diversity, and asked the audience, ‘would you want to see your daughter working here? If the answer is no, then you should own part of the solution.’” That statement made such an impact, Weisberg said, that people are still mentioning it to her a year later.

Advice: Love Your Job and Plan What’s Right for You

Weisberg said she’s often asked when the right time is to have a baby. “The right time is when it’s right for you,” she explained. “We all make decisions and trade-offs and this is true regardless of when you start your career – and when you start your family.”

She also encourages women to consider “the consequences and trade-offs of moving out of the city and into the suburbs. You’re separating by distance the center of your family life and the center of your work life. Most couples are not thinking in terms of the impact on their careers or work/life. They make the decision for their kids or for ‘us.’ But there is a real trade-off in terms of work/life fit anytime you create a lot of distance.”

She continued, “It takes all of that marginal flexibility out of your system. If you get a call from school because your child is sick and you’re an hour and a half away, it’s really hard to respond.”

“These days with technology a lot of people can manage to work from home – but I would say, think about location, location, location – from the point of view of providing the maximum flexibility in your own life.”

Weisberg’s career advice to women: “Raise your hand. Don’t wait for them to come tap you on the shoulder. It doesn’t work that way. Let them know what you’re interested in.” She continued, “Women tend to believe that success means doing a job well, being technically excellent. It’s necessary, but not sufficient. Women don’t invest in the relationship piece as well as men do and it limits their ability to advance. I encourage women to think about relationship building as part of their job.”

For women seeking to improve their work/life fit, she says, “You really have to think about it from the long term perspective. I say this from the vantage point of an almost-empty-nester – my oldest daughter has graduated from college, my son is in college, and my youngest is in eleventh grade. When your kids are young, often you feel you’re going to fall off the edge. But from my perspective on the other end, my kids don’t remember the fact that I came home late or had to travel the day of a big test. They remember someone who is fully engaged at work, and really values her career.” She continued, “Now I’m serving as a career counselor to my daughter and all of her friends. Today she’s so proud of me and looks to me as a role model, and that’s tremendously gratifying to me that I can be that for her.”

“Remember the end game, it’s important to be a role model for your kids.” She continued, “My mom always said, ‘I love my work.’ I guess I internalized that as ‘you need to love what you do.’ It’s not easy. Somedays, it’s really hard. Are you going to give up, though? It will all work out, and it’s worth it if you love what you do.”

Ultimately, Weisberg says, “It’s about learning to define success for yourself. I feel like a really successful person because I have made the choices that I have wanted to make.”