Gadsden-Williams: We talked about
technology being a double-edged sword, but
for me, someone who commuted to
Switzerland every other week for seven
months, the use of video conferencing and
teleconferencing were very effective in allowing
me to have work/life balance. You can imagine
how exhausting that may have been on a plane
every other Sunday; it was daunting. On the
positive side to the communications piece, that
was what kept me sane and probably kept me
as healthy as I was at that time.
Malveaux: From a diversity perspective, we
have to pay attention to what globalization
means to different parts of the world in terms
of developing countries, if we look at the rising
industrialization in China and the growing
role that China will play in the world economy. While I don’t have the answers to those
questions, I think they are very useful questions to ask. If you look at some of the development that is happening on the African continent, I don’t even think these work/life issues
exist, unless you’re talking Fortune 100 companies who’ve gone to someplace like South
Africa, a relatively managerial group, would
those issues be raised? In Uganda, for example,
you have some of the retail manufacturers paying people very, very little, but the folks are
very happy to have those jobs. In that case, I
don’t think that people are really talking about
work/life, but I think that if we think of ourselves as diversity thought leaders and practitioners, the issue of diversity is not only about
what kind of diversity we have in the United
States but also what globalization looks like
from a diversity perspective.
Shi: In some of those countries, it is a luxury
to sleep in a warm home and not have a leaky
roof and have enough to eat, so it’s all comparative as to what you define as work, what you
define as life, what you are able to earn. Also
on globalization, though, because if you’re
working for a multinational corporation, different time zones and the expectation that on
certain levels there is no time-and-space barrier. If you need to be somewhere, you’re going
to be somewhere, whether it means fly for 20
hours and then show back up in the United
States at 10 for the usual meeting.
ARE BOOMERS CHANGING THE
DEFINITION OF WORK/LIFE?
Gadsden-Williams: Part-time work is
important to them, having that flexibility, job
sharing, work from home, remote access, all of
that. It’s all very important to them whether
it’s eldercare issues that they are dealing with
or their own personal health issues.
Galinsky: It takes a different mindset, particularly in big corporations. It’s been the notion
of up and out, just like the ads, you’re leaping
over an abyss toward retirement. Part of it is just
thinking differently about the fact that maybe
someone will be leaving and they may be able
to do a job in your company and you may want
to keep them in a different way. Hospitals are
probably the leading edge of this because they
have shortages in staffing and nursing. So you’ve
seen hospitals develop creative solutions for
