Mother Nature Makes the Case for Flexibility

The flexible workforce used to be a nice-to-have for working parents, mostly mothers. Phased return to work for new mothers, job-sharing, alternate work schedules; these seem like almost quaint strategies to help employers attract and retain their top talent.

Then the economy collapses and, when faced with shrinking profit margins, employers began to hire part-time workers in both contract and permanent position in droves. This flexibility, while not ideal for many, is a huge positive for working mothers, returning-to-work baby boomers and grad students seeking supplemental income.

The fall of 2009 turned into the winter of 2010 and the country was faced with a massive H1N1 outbreak. As employers prepared to deal with highly contagious sick employees and absenteeism while taking care of sick children, we recommended many reasonable accommodations for creating flexibility in your workforce to keep people working while out of the office.

As H1N1 faded out, many smart employers maintained those flexible work policies to keep business moving as the Mid-Atlantic got slammed with several historic snowstorms. With 2 1/2 feet on the ground now, my street still unplowed and another 5-10" expected tomorrow, it's clear that I won't be making it to our new DC area office anytime this week.

Here's what we're doing to keep our business on track as Mother Nature continues to throw us curveballs, make that snowballs:

• Laptops, high-speed internet access, and cloud computing. Important documents on shared servers or Google Documents for version control.
• When the power flickers out, charged smart phones (like my iPhone) save the day.
• Google Video chat and Skype allow us to conduct candidate interviews, client meetings and internal meetings without digging out our cars.
• Working very early (I prefer 5-7AM) and late (after bedtime) to spend the daytime hours building snowmen, sledding and enjoying an historic winter.

Balancing on my Toes

Last week was just one of those weeks. My husband was on West Coast travel, my 2 year old was sick for 9 days with the flu, and business was booming. See, we've been very, very busy in 2010, which is a good thing, no- scratch that- amazing thing, but it seemed like it was all coming at me at once.

Trying to keep my own life in balance, I vowed to make it to not one, but two, yoga classes last week. In Monday's class as I sat in toe balancing pose (some call it butterfly), our teacher instructed us to leave prayer position, lift our arms to the sky and "carry the world" with our arms. Losing my focus, holding the "world" literally on my shoulders while balancing on my toes, I fell over.

And no surprise really, when I considered all that was going on. It was time to regroup. I asked a neighbor to help me get the older kids home from school, I took two other friends up on their offers for dinner delivery, and cut out all that was not urgent. I made a list of all that had to be done that week and put the rest of until the weekend, when I could hole up in my office as Dad held down the fort at home.

It worked beautifully! Kid #3 got healthy, Kids #1 and 2 had a good week, husband returned home safely and with the help of our Richmond office we made a lot of clients happy last week. As another busy work week comes to an end and yet another major snowstorm threatens to throw all plans off track, try to keep it balance, do what you must, let go of the rest.