Comments on: CEOs can learn from job hoppers about personal responsibility

By: search » CEOs can learn from job hoppers about personal responsibility

search » CEOs can learn from job hoppers about personal responsibility — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 23:49:47 +0000

[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere's a quick excerptI have also laid out the argument that men who have these top jobs can get there because they have a wife at home, running their personal life. Women get stuck in their ascent up the corporate ladder on the day their first child is born … [...]

By: Chris Yeh

Chris Yeh — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 06:54:39 +0000

Penelope,

I agree heartily with this post. In my own research on dads who balance prominent careers with being great fathers, I have found over and over again that most of them rely heavily on having wives that don't work.

In their favor, most of them do recognize the incredible value that their wives are providing, and also take advantage of their wives' hard work to help the family spend more time together, rather than simply working longer hours, but it doesn't change the fact that having a non-working spouse makes parenting much easier.

Any dads who (like me) make it work with a working spouse, please contact me by all means–I'd love to interview you.

In terms of CEOs who do manage to deliver for both their shareholders and their families, I love the example of Bill George, formerly the CEO and Chairman of Medtronic. You'll find his inspirational words towards the end of one of my all-time most popular posts:

http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com/2006/06/can-global-business-leader-balance.html

Here's what he said:

"When my younger son graduated from high school, I felt very proud that I had never missed an important event in their lives due to business. Now at 30 and 27 1/2, my sons feel like very close friends: we talk over everything and have great times together. Both boys are very proud that I coached their soccer teams for a total of 13 years.

At the end of the day, what is more important to you, your family or your money? One is a lasting legacy, the other just disappears when you die.

You CAN have a successful career and a successful family life – you just have to work at balancing the two every day. More hours on the job do not make you a better executive or a better leader."

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Chris, thanks for adding this link. It's actually one of my favorite things I've read on your blog. Perfect addition to this post.

-Penelope

By: John

John — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:13:21 +0000

I agree that it's not the best idea to have CEOs with children. It's either they work too much and forget about their family or they worry too much about their family that can't concentrate on their work which affects their performance.

By: melanie gao

melanie gao — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:12:38 +0000

A lot of the arguments in this article are based on the premise that women end up taking care of the kids. This isn't true in my case and I suspect I'm not alone. For example last week my manager asked me to go to Japan this week. I went home to talk to my husband to see if he could handle both kids for a week. He was fine with that, but was a little worried because one kid is in a cast and her special needs are quite taxing. We finally came up with a creative solution. His parents live very close to the office in Japan where I need to work this week. I brought my 3-year-old to Japan with me and we're staying with my in-laws. They're watching my son during the day while I'm at work. The grandparents are thrilled to have time with their grandson and he's revelling in their attention. My husband is taking care of our daughter back at home in China. I'm working in Japan as requested by my manager, and to make it even better she doesn't have to cover the cost of a hotel for me. Everyone is happy. We do stuff like this all the time.

It's significant that my husband and I are each taking care of a kid this week. It's more significant that when I talked to my husband about this the first time, it was *our* problem to resolve and not mine.

* * * * * *

Melanie,

This comment is a good example of why I like your blog so much — you give such clearly painted slices of your own life as examples of what's going on for women in the corporate world.

I like reading your comment about how you and your husband shifted things around for the week. My husband and I find ourselves shifting in this way a lot, and sometimes it feels like a ballet and I love my husband for being in sync with me. Other times it feels like a train wreck from two conductors who can't read a calendar.

But, I digress…. The point of the CEO thing that I wrote about is that at some point in the corporate ladder, the company has to be a higher priority than the family, and the competition is too stiff for the family to have any space. That the routine you and your husband managed, for example, worked because you only needed it for a week. It doesn't sound like that routine could go on long-term. I think as the responsiblities of corporate life get bigger and bigger, there is less room for compromising to accommodate other peoples' schedules.

Penelope

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:15:26 +0000

Penelope and Lea, thank you for making your lives public. You are an inspiration.

For the next two months I will be working 75 hours a week at my job with a two hour commute. After that it will go back to a rotating shift. 6PM to 6AM for one week followed by 6AM to 6PM the next week. These are 48 hour weeks. With plenty of "opportunity" for more overtime.

I have been working "there" for 12 years and have moved quickly up the seniority roster to one of the top ten positions. Pay and benefits are great.

This job is highly stressful.

The only way I keep myself from quitting is to promise myself that I will quit on the first of the month so that I can have another month of paid benefits.

Inspired by PT's column, I have recently started networking by looking up some of my old coworkers.
We have a high turnover rate and these guys are intelligent, hard working, and are most certainly working somewhere!

My daughter has just turned ten and I want to spend time with her before she grows up.

I want to quit this job and work from home or close to home, or start a business in my small midwest town.

I have fifteen years of retail experience, and have worked as a trainer, programmer,computer tech, salesman, and as amusement park game operator(!).

I love working with computers, electronics, and people.

I am a Linux zealot.

I am 45.

Degrees: BS in CS. AS Electronics.

I am not in danger of losing my house. Daughter's college tuition is probably there. Credit score: excellent. Available capital: 150K +/-. My wife is working flexible hours around my current schedule.

Why is this post related to CEO's and job hoppers? I want to start a business that maintains the benefits of being a job hopper!

OK, people, tell me what to do for a career! Brazenly, if you will.

Maybe we can call it "blognetting".

While I sometimes disagree with PT's career advice,and usually disagree with her political opinions, I almost always agree with her family advice.

Mark

By: El bloc de Carme Pla » Blog Archive » L’ètica laboral

El bloc de Carme Pla » Blog Archive » L’ètica laboral — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 05:55:47 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Irene

Irene — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 05:43:27 +0000

Great point. We can't escape reality. CEOs with kids are more attached to their work than their family. Their kids are the ones who suffer. It's probably better if they didn't have any if they couldn't be there for them or better if they didn't take the promotion if they couldn't handle it.

By: Evan Woolard

Evan Woolard — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 03:09:25 +0000

It seems all too often I read about a CEO who has trouble in (usually his) family life. While this concerns me, a much greater concern is how most of the country would prefer to be an athlete or a contestant on American Idol rather than be a CEO. Education needs to be more important in child's lives and maybe the way to do that is through increased parental involvement.

If anyone is interested in some excellent reading about the change in identity from "corporate climber" to "job hopper," I would check out Richard Florida's book "The Rise of the Creative Class." It provides real data on a new class of people who are not necessarily looking to be CEO's but rather determined to find satisfaction in life, career, and where they live.

By: Meaghan

Meaghan — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:05:39 +0000

Loved this post, Penelope. No profound comment or insight to share — I just really think you nailed it. And, in a culture that constantly rewards "success, success, success," your observations re: the murky landscape of home life are so honest.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:35:27 +0000

So say I take a crazy view for a second, just to be a Devil's Advocate. Say I think parents don't really matter much. Maybe I don't think there's such a think as *quality* time or *quantity* time.

Instead, imagine I said that how you provide for your kids and the peers they hang out with matters far more than any parental care. Crazy, right?

Yet, some recent research on parenting suggests that this is, in fact, the case. Is it counterintuitive? Yes. Will it stop obsessive parenting? No. Nevertheless, I figured I'd bring it up.

This viewpoint is discussed at length in this Malcolm Gladwell article:

http://www.gladwell.com/archive/1998/1998_08_17_a_harris.htm

It was further discussed in Freakonomics (a book much beloved by Malcolm Gladwell, as it turns out):

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/

The upshot? Sending your kids to boarding school is OK. Being CEO for 100 hours a week is OK. What's not OK? Sending your kids to a bad school, living in a bad neighborhood, or letting them play with kids who always get in trouble.

I know this viewpoint sounds pretty ridiculous, but I figured posting about it couldn't hurt.

* * * * * * *

If you believe this, then why bother having kids?