Men Want A Life, Too
by Miki SaxonI’ve another disagreement with a comment in Business Week’s The Welch Way column, written by Jack and Suzy Welch. In response to a question about work/life balance they say that they think that work-life choices is a more accurate term. They say that “balance” is a personal choice and doesn’t necessarily mean a 50-50 split between personal and professional.
Great, I’m in total agreement.
Then they took what, to me, was a giant step backwards and said, “That said, we do acknowledge that work-life balance is usually a much harder goal for women with children. For them, there is about a 15-year period in their careers in which the choices they make are not about what they want from life professionally and personally but about what is right for their kids. It can be a fraught time, since choices and consequences are more complex. That, however, is a topic for another column.”
This statement seems to say that men aren’t facing the same choices.
Interesting, since all my reading says that men are increasingly looking for the same thing, “The New Workforce Reality, a study by the Simmons School of Management in Boston and Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. reports that 95 percent of more than 2,000 adults surveyed across the country say that life outside of work is just as important as–or even more important than–their work. There were no statistically significant differences in priorities between men and women, researchers found.”
In medicine, men, as well as women, are choosing their specialty based on having a controllable lifestyle.
Wall Street is known for its grueling 70+ hour weeks, yet “A majority of women (57%) said they don’t want to work at this pace for more than another year; 48% of men agreed.”
If doctors are choosing their specialty to avoid long hours, and nearly half of the men on Wall Street aren’t willing to sacrifice their lives to work, then it’s pretty certain that that similar numbers of men feel the same way—and their numbers will only increase in the future.
It will be companies that recognize that today’s workers, both men and women, have similar desires, face similar choices and hurdles regarding their work and personal lives, and succeed in building the solutions into their culture, that will in a position to hire, retain and thrive in coming decades.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Lives are changing. Our society is altering its priorities. It used to be the Man of the House, went to work and did what it took to be successful in business and if he was successful in business then he was successful as a family man. Turns out that’s not exactly true in the greater scheme of things.
My Dad spent hours upon hours working and furthering his career at the expense of a lot of lost time with my little brother and I. That’s not something I’m willing to do should I have children. Society is starting to notice that a career/job doesn’t always make for a great family life.
Then again because Dad worked that way I was able to afford a good collegiate education.
So I agree with you Miki: both men and women have to make a choice between career and family. And making the decision for either is very difficult.
June 10th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Hi Luke, I’ve never been a proponent of living for the sake of your kids, I think that everybody loses when it’s done.
Hopefully we’re moving to a time when people won’t have to choose between the two, but will have the tools available to balance them.