by Natalie Sabia (New York City)
Her journey started immediately after business school when she landed a much-coveted job at Disney. Over twenty years, she worked her way up in the company, holding various leadership positions in finance, operations and technology with studio entertainment, as well as corporate and consumer products divisions.
The imminent birth of her first child was a turning point. About to go on maternity leave with her first child, she was debating whether to take time off to be a stay-at-home mother. Her boss at the time talked her into coming back to work part-time. She was concerned, not sure how to manage the competing demands of work and motherhood. “I was nervous for the change, but I tried not to second guess my decision,” Glaser said. “If he hadn’t invited me back, I would never be in the position I am now.” By accepting the offer, she was able to raise her kids but also keep her foot in the door.
Read more
Movers and Shakers: Internet and Retail
Movers and ShakersWhen you think cutting edge, you think Silicon Valley. Within the Valley, there’s a smaller community of internet companies, and, regrettably, these companies can hardly be called cutting–or leading–edge on gender equity.
So why the dearth of women? Quoted in a 2007 article in the Guardian UK, Jenny Slade, the communications director of the National Center for Women and Information Technology [UK] said “There were fewer women in 2006 getting computer degrees than in 1985. Women’s participation in computer-related occupations is low overall and it decreases as women climb the corporate ladder.”
That said, the following women are proof that there are some exceptionally qualified women who are blazing trails along the high tech highway:
Read more
Crisis on Wall Street – The Investment Banking Giants Are No More
NewsThis Glass Hammer financial reporter went on vacation last week, and returned to find the financial landscape in New York utterly transformed into something practically unrecognizable. Walking down Wall Street this morning, I felt like an astronaut doing a moon landing. Sure, the buildings physically looked the same, but the financial terrain seemed alien in light of the recent news on the Street.
Read more
The Seven Biggest Opportunity Blockers in Career Development
Expert AnswersJust as superheroes have their arch enemies, opportunity makers have their career blockers. Individuals motivated by possibility and inspired by their peers can be stifled in their efforts, whether they are related to business or career development, by a few key characteristics that have varying degrees of influence. Purge them at the right times and success will be much easier to capture and maintain.
Read more
Ask-A-Recruiter: What happens to job offers after an acquisition?
Ask A RecruiterI accepted a job at a company where I was supposed to start next June. Now this company is being acquired and they have not said definitely what is happening to the offers they extended. How long do I wait for them to get back to me? Can I continue looking for a job or will people look askance if they find out I accepted another offer?
This is a tricky situation because normally it’s bad form to continue interviewing after you have already accepted an offer. However, there is a chance that your offer is void due to the acquisition, and the fact that the prospective employer can’t give you a definitive answer suggests that you should move on.
Read more
Building a Support Network to Create Work-Life Balance
Work-LifeThe 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.
Read more
Work/life Balance Around the World
Work-LifeThink 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?
Read more
In Limbo Land at Lehman
Office PoliticsWhen your coworker goes into quit-and-stay mode, it’s a drag but you can work around it. Your job gets a little harder when your boss does it. But when your company gets stuck in a holding pattern like that, even for a day or two, well, that’s when people start carrying their wedding pictures, potted orchids and Lucite deal tombstones out the door in cardboard boxes. We can’t stand the not knowing.
Read more
Voices of Experience: Rachel Glaser, COO/CFO at Reunion.com
Voices of Experienceby Natalie Sabia (New York City)
Her journey started immediately after business school when she landed a much-coveted job at Disney. Over twenty years, she worked her way up in the company, holding various leadership positions in finance, operations and technology with studio entertainment, as well as corporate and consumer products divisions.
The imminent birth of her first child was a turning point. About to go on maternity leave with her first child, she was debating whether to take time off to be a stay-at-home mother. Her boss at the time talked her into coming back to work part-time. She was concerned, not sure how to manage the competing demands of work and motherhood. “I was nervous for the change, but I tried not to second guess my decision,” Glaser said. “If he hadn’t invited me back, I would never be in the position I am now.” By accepting the offer, she was able to raise her kids but also keep her foot in the door.
Read more
Intrepid Women: My Life on the Street, Part II
Intrepid Women Seriesby Paige Churchman (New York City)
The next morning, Genro and Paco marveled that we hadn’t been chased out, and we set off for breakfast at the St. Francis Mission, more than 50 blocks north. Outside a church on some midtown street, we joined a long line, spreading ourselves out among the real homeless people as Genro and Paco had urged. The streets hadn’t really come alive yet, but a few people in suits scuffed by without seeing us. I wondered what breakfast would be. I pictured a big basement room with tables and bowls of oatmeal. But when the line finally started moving, I found the payoff was a table on the sidewalk where a monk silently handed me two ham and cheese sandwiches in clear wrap. I gave one to another woman who hesitated and then took it with a smile. I saved the other for someone else later. I wondered, if I really were homeless, would I have to eat meat so as not to starve?
Read more
Intrepid Women: My Life on the Street, Part I
Featured, Intrepid Women SeriesLabor Day weekend approached, and all week I’d answered what-are-you-doing-this-weekend with “oh, sticking around.” True, but… For the next four days and three nights, I would be living like, and with, the homeless. I had signed up for a Street Retreat run by the Zen Peacemakers. The street that I would be living on was as much a state of mind as the street that peppered financial conversations, but the two were worlds apart.
Read more