I Might Screw Up, But No One's Going to Die

Even in the best job I've had, Directing the Washington, D.C. office of Momentum Resources, I have bad days. I make mistakes. I forget to return calls or am late getting in a contract, but at the end of the day, no one's going to die. As stressful as life as a working mother can be, imagine if your professional life held other people's life in the balance?

I considered this after reading Parenting Squad's "Work Life Balance Tips from a Heart Surgeon." The article details tips from Dr. Kathy Magliato, a world-renown cardio-thoracic surgeon. Dr. Magliato believes that there's never really a balance, and rather than compartmentalize the two parts of our lives (which- let's be honest- women are just not good at doing!) we should integrate the two.

Dr. Magliato advocates involving your children in your day-to-day work. Whether it's occasionally bringing her children on rounds or having them make artwork for her patients, she's found a way to bring what she does while she's away from her family into her family.

It sounds easy enough, but for many of us, do our kids even care? I tried to talk to my 8-year old boys about what I do and although they were somewhat interested in me helping other parents find jobs that allowed them to spend more time with their families, they really wanted to know when we could go to the pool. Any my 3-year-old? Forget it.

Do you talk to your children about your day job? Have you found unique ways to incorporate your children into your daily work life? Are your kids even remotely interested? Share with the crowd!

You CAN Have It All, Just Not All At Once

Today the Wall Street Journal covered interesting new data on the success of women in the workplace, so long as they don't have children, in "Women Near Equal in the Workplace, Mother's Fall Behind." The article, like so many in recent months, recommends policy changes for increasing flexibility in the workplace and admonishes the United States for falling behind so many of our peers in this department.

Sure there are many, many things our government, Corporate leaders and non-profit advocates can do to improve the lives of American families, but I think it's important to remember that you can have it all, just not all at once.

If you scale back your hours and work responsibilities to spend more time with your family, that's more than ok, but you're probably going to lose a promotion to your non-parent co-worker who's putting in 50-60 hours each week. Maybe that used to be you, maybe that will be you in a few years, but right now, you're dialing back. Good for you, enjoy it. The smartest moves companies can make to attract and retain top talent is grant flexibility to dial up and down on the career track as family requirements mandate.

One of the things the Momentum Resources family is most proud of in the Great Recession is that we're finding win-win situations for both our candidates seeking a balanced professional life and our clients seeking the best bang for their bucks. We're matching Brand Managers that want to work 30 hours per week with employers who only have 3/4 of a role's budget and accompanying pipeline. We're putting Project Managers to work at firms whose project lifecycle works around school schedules. Rather than mandating policy changes, we're showing every day that this works to everyone's benefit.