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.