FC Experts Blogs
Cali Williams Yost
February 1, 2008
Work/Life: Recession and Work+Life Fit
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been repeatedly asked: “What do you think will happen to work+life fit and flexibility if the economy experiences a recession?”
I think two things will happen. Unfortunately, too many leaders and organizations will default to a shortsighted fall back position, “Forget flexibility. People are just lucky to have jobs.” But the smart leaders and organizations won’t. They will continue to move forward integrating flexibility into the way they do business because they understand that there is no turning back. To use a recession as an excuse to stop developing news ways of flexibly managing work and life will only put them further behind in terms of growth potential when a recession ends.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 1:03 PM
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January 24, 2008
Work/Life: NYC Versus Kentucky—One Resists Flexibility, the Other Embraces It. Who Wins?
First, let’s establish that the horses have been let out of the “flexibility barn.” Whether we like it or not, flexibility is fundamentally reshaping how and where we live and work. Yet, while some communities are choosing to embrace and leverage this new flexible reality to fuel growth, others are surprisingly resistant. Case in point would be the contrast between New York City and Kentucky.
According to the New York Times, New York double taxes non-residents with jobs in New York City, but who work from home in other states. This is common since people can live in New Jersey, Connecticut or Pennsylvania and still work in New York.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 12:24 PM
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January 8, 2008
Work/Life: Top Five Work+Life "Fit" Resolutions for 2008
As we begin the New Year, let me throw my hat into the ring of resolution-making and share what I think should be the Top Five Work+Life Fit Goals for 2008:
1) Recognize that there isn’t a “right” work+life fit answer, and stop judging the choices of others. There is no one “right” way to combine work and life, but I still find people are searching for that one correct answer. The truth is that the answer isn’t out there. It’s within each of us. And all of our answers are going to look different, and they are going to change many times throughout our life and career. I know that sounds a little “Glinda the Good Witch meets Dorothy.” But if we acknowledge this fact, maybe we’ll spend less time judging the work+life fit choices of others as being right or wrong, and start sharing strategies for creating solutions that work for us personally and for our jobs. Because this new reality does require new strategies.
Continue reading "Work/Life: Top Five Work+Life "Fit" Resolutions for 2008"Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 2:19 PM
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December 19, 2007
Work/Life: Flexibility Will NOT Hurt Customer Service
“But how will we service our customers?” If I had a dollar for every time I heard this from a corporate leader…This fear is one of the key obstacles organizations hit when implementing flexibility. And on some level, it’s a valid fear. No customers, no business, no jobs.
But in our 24/7, high tech, global work reality where people who sit on the same floor primarily communicate via email and IM, and customers span all time zones, we need to start rethinking what “customer service” looks like, and how flexibility might actually make it better.
We asked respondents to the 2007 Work+Life Fit Reality Check, to choose one of the following responses to the question, “If you had more work life flexibility….” 1) Clients and customers would expect better service because you would be a more satisfied employee; 2) It wouldn’t matter to clients or customers; or 3) Clients and customers might worry it will affect your ability to service them.
Even I was surprised by the overwhelming consensus: Almost 9 out of 10 respondents (86%) feel there would either be a positive impact (27%) or no impact at all (59%). Only 12% think clients and customers would worry.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 10:53 AM
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December 12, 2007
Work/Life: Congress Introduces Flexibility Bill! But Where's the Next Prez?
At the same time we announced that nearly 60% of respondents to the 2007 Work+Life Fit Reality Check survey believe the next president should introduce legislation that would make it easier for organizations to offer and for individuals to have more flexibility, Congress took a first step. On December 6th, Ted Kennedy and Caroline Maloney introduced the Working Families Flexibility Act to Congress. Presidential candidates from the Senate, Christopher Dodd, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are co-sponsors of the bill.
The U.S. is following the lead of other countries where flexibility primarily for caregivers has been a high profile political issue for quite some time. In England, work+life flexibility was a key part of the platform of Conservative Party candidate, David Cameron (see a blog I wrote about it in March, 2006). There’s been legislation passed in both New Zealand and Australia improving access to flexibility.
Continue reading "Work/Life: Congress Introduces Flexibility Bill! But Where's the Next Prez?"Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 7:20 PM
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December 7, 2007
Work/Life: The 2007 Work+Life "Fit" Reality Check Survey Results Say...
The results of the 2007 Work+Life Fit Reality Check national survey are in! The research covers fresh work+life fit topics such as the U.S. presidential campaign, the impact of flexibility on customer service, as well as challenges some of the findings from other work+life research. Overall, the results show that, yes, the U.S. culture is making progress from the prior year, but there is still more work to be done.
Why conduct an annual Work+Life Fit Reality Check? In my first Fast Company blog posting, I wrote, “Work+life “fit” requires change on many levels: individually, managerially, organizationally and culturally.” And in my day-to-day work, I do see progress.
Individuals have greater access to the mindset and tools that help them partner with their employer to find mutually-beneficial work+life fit solutions. Managers are creating an environment that supports using flexibility as a tool to manage time, talent and resources. And organizations are operationalizing flexibility as a key lever for business success. But was change happening within the culture? Was progress being made on a broader scale?
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 7:29 AM
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November 28, 2007
Work/Life: Houston's "Flex in the City" Takes Commuting Into the 21st Century
It seems I’m not the only one asking the question from my blog post a couple of weeks ago, “Why do we all commute at the same time?” Not only are others asking the question, but they are doing something about it!
FC Expert Blog readers shared examples of organizations rethinking how we commute in the comments section of the post—thank you! One was about staggered shifts at Boeing in Seattle, and the other about IBM in Germany where there are no set hours.
But companies aren’t alone in trying to bring commuting into the 21st Century. Communities are also recognizing the benefits of using flexibility to save money and resources that are currently wasted during our daily “mass” commute.
Yesterday, when I was having lunch with my former boss Ellen Galinsky, President of Families and Work Institute she mentioned the City of Houston’s “Flex in the City” initiative. The goal of Flex in the City (love that name!) is to get companies and individuals in Houston to use flexibility at the same time for one week in September to reduce the number of people commuting during the traditional rush hour period. The city’s 2006 Flex in the City effort resulted in an estimated $16.8 million savings. Here’s a description of the initiative from the City of Houston’s website:
Continue reading "Work/Life: Houston's "Flex in the City" Takes Commuting Into the 21st Century"Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 12:36 PM
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November 19, 2007
Work/Life: "Good" Mothers Don't Miss Back-to-School Night
A couple of months ago, I got an invitation to a national gathering of flexibility experts. This was a unique opportunity to spend two days sharing best practices with some of the most respected individuals in my field, and guess what my first thought was? “Oh, I can’t go because I will miss back to school night.”
That’s right. As I looked at my calendar to see if I could attend this once-in-a-lifetime event, my primary concern was back-to-school night and the how I couldn’t possibly miss it. Looking back now, it sounds silly. But in the moment, the choice seemed very clear. And it wasn’t attending the meeting.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 12:34 PM
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November 12, 2007
Work/Life: Why Do We All Commute at the Same Time?
A member of my team and I caught the 7:05 a.m. train into Manhattan for a client meeting. Something must have been wrong with the trains that morning because it was standing-room only and there were still eight stops to go. People were not happy. We arrived in Penn Station and then fought our way through the crowd into the equally packed subway. Once we emerged into fresh air we both looked at each other and almost simultaneously said, "Why do we all keep commuting at the same time when we really don't have to?"
We started imaging what the world would look like if everyone staggered the time they went to work or worked from home at least one day a week. Not only would you have fewer cars on the road and fewer people on public transportation, but the roads, trains and buses would be used more efficiently. For example, one group could arrive early and leave early, another shift could arrive mid-day and stay later, and then a final group could arrive in the late afternoon and stay through the evening.
Continue reading "Work/Life: Why Do We All Commute at the Same Time?"Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 2:10 PM
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November 5, 2007
Work/Life: It’s About Time AND Energy
My colleague’s been having a tough time. A number of relatives recently died, and she had a minor health scare. The other day she said, “I am getting a personal experience of how work and life is about time and energy. On paper, I still have the same number of hours I always did to get things done, but I just don’t have the energy. And I need to find a new “fit” that deals with all of these energy-draining circumstances, or I am going to hit the wall.”
Time and energy. Time management tools will only get you so far in finding a better “fit” if you don’t include the critical component of energy. And yet we don’t hear anything about it. Adding energy to the equation is so important that when I wrote my book, Work+Life: Finding the Fit That’s Right for You, five years ago I devoted an entire chapter to the concept. You'd think by now our culture would have caught on, but I’m beginning to see signs that might change.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 10:43 AM
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October 26, 2007
Work/Life: Bye, Bye "8-to-6," Flexibility to Find a "Fit" Across Time Zones
Work+life flexibility is an effective retention strategy, but in a 24/7, high-tech, global work reality it is much more. It’s a resource and time management tool for coordinating global clients and teams so that work is done across time zones without burning people out. Too many people are working their traditional “8-to-6” schedule in addition to doing global work after-hours. Something has got to give, and greater flexibility is the solution.
Increasingly, I find business leaders are recognizing that you can’t ask people to work “8-to-6” and then get on calls with Asia from 11pm-3am without rethinking if the standard “8-to-6, in-the-office” model of work even applies anymore. It doesn’t. Flexibility in where, when and how work is done achieves global client and team objectives while giving people the time and energy to still have a personal life.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 4:03 PM
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October 21, 2007
Courage to Share Our Stories!
Readers of my Work+Life Fit Blog shared my eighteen month work+life fit journey caring for my mother until her death from lung cancer this past July. The heartfelt emails I received from readers included their own personal eldercare experiences as well as surprising remarks about the courage I showed by sharing my story. And once again, I was reminded how difficult it is for most of us to share our work+life fit realities and choices, often at great cost.
Writing about my struggle of manage a full-time job, two children, a husband, and a sick mother whom I loved dearly wasn’t an act of courage. It was about survival and the search for a common understanding of experience and support. But for many of the people who reached out to me with their stories, that honesty was an act of bravery.
Why do stories matter? Because until we talk about how we’ve responded to work and personal transitions that challenged us to rethink our fit, the illusions that workplaces don’t need to be flexible and that careers are still linear will remain. Only when we begin to tell the truth about how we are really working and managing our personal responsibilities and choices will more meaningful managerial, individual, and cultural change occur.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 8:34 PM
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October 10, 2007
Work/Life: Why It's Work+Life "Fit," Not Balance!
Welcome to my first posting as a Fast Company blogger! In the spirit of full disclosure, if you clicked through hoping to learn how to achieve “balance,” I am afraid you will be disappointed. You see, I don’t believe there is such a thing as work/life “balance,” a concept I first discussed in the provocative October, 2004 Fast Company article by Keith Hammonds, “Balance is Bunk."
If, however, you want to join a thought-provoking dialogue that challenges the conventional wisdom about managing your work+life "fit" in a 24/7, high tech, global work reality, then you are in the right place. That’s right, I said “work+life fit,” not balance.
Posted by Cali Williams Yost at 12:15 PM
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