very valuable to us as an employee and we can
utilize you in your current capacity, which is,
by the way, OK, you continue to produce very
well. Or we can transfer some of the skills that
you have and put you here and do something
that is comparable and reuse some of the skills
that you have. Re-energize you in the process
and we won’t kill you, because many of us
have seen road kill, people who have worked
their hearts out and then realize that they
aren’t going to make the progress they thought
they could make, or worse yet, they lost their
jobs somewhere in the process for reasons
beyond their control.
Galinsky: It’s a cutting-edge way to deal
with the aging population and the programs
that help people move into meaningful roles in
the community. Like IBM has a program for
teachers, it’s a really interesting model. I’m see-
ing the whole notion of not just thinking
about flex paths, but Deloitte calls it Mass
Career Customization, where they start with
the notion that you should be able to customize your career over your working life, and
that’s an ongoing process where you look at
the different demands and the needs that you
have and the demands and needs that the
company has, and you could move laterally for
awhile if you have little children or if you have
elderly parents, or you even could move down.
But you also have the opportunity to continue
to move in different directions. Deloitte has
Personal Pursuits, where you can take a couple
of years off but stay connected to the company. A lot of the financial companies are doing
that as well.
DOES WORK/LIFE WORK FOR
SMALL COMPANIES?
Galinsky: Smaller companies are actually much more flexible. They don’t offer
onsite childcare as much or paid benefits
as much, but when it comes to flexibility,
the culture of flexibility is much higher.
Thirty-one percent of employees say they
have a really supportive culture of flexibility in small companies, compared with 18
percent in large companies. Seven days on
and seven days off—this came from an
employee suggestion box from a blood
bank in Salt Lake City, where you really
work three days in one week and four days
in the next but then you get paid for 80
hours when you only worked 70 and you
get a whole week off. There are wonderful
examples of creativity that we’re finding in
small companies over the country.
Malveaux: Small companies do have
more flexibility, but you’re defining small
as under 100; when you look at the work
law, companies that have under 25
employees are exempt from that. While
people may end up with various kinds of
informal arrangements that encourage
flexibility, one of the big key ones for
women, and that very small companies
do not have to provide, is the Family
Medical Leave Act. And the logic on it
