Working for a family-friendly company is the best way to achieve work/life balance. That’s the usual advice for employees who want to have a life and a job.
But there are other routes you also can follow to make sure there’s some equality between your professional and personal lives, according to D. Quinn Mills, an economist and professor of business administration at Harvard Business School in Boston.
Mills, also a consultant on family and work issues to major corporations, has a doctorate in economics. He is co-author of “Having It All and Making It Work: Six Steps for Putting Both Your Career and Your Family First” (Prentice Hall, $19.95).
“The career you choose and the career path you take can be as important as your choice of company to work for,” said Mills, who focuses on teaching and researching the specific challenges faced by upwardly mobile professionals who want to achieve better work/life balance.
Certain careers are more open to having a life, particularly teaching and academia. “But it’s easier to name the ones in which it’s difficult to get any balance in, such as consulting, investment banking, accounting, the media and sales that involve a lot of travel,” reported the economist.
When choosing a career path, keep in mind the kind of life you want to live, Mills advises. “One way to achieve that is to work out a career path that involves lateral moves only–moving from job to job within the same company without getting promoted,” he said. “Making lateral moves might give you more time with your family because the higher you go, the greater demand on your time and commitment. Your employers will pay you more, but they are paying to put your family on hold.”
Reducing the time it takes to get to and from work can make a difference. “A lot of people have huge commutes, and that takes up a lot of time,” said Mills.
The key to “having it all is consciously to work at having balance. Monitor how you’re doing. Involve your family. Sit down at least twice a year with your spouse and family and review how you’re doing. Things only get worse if you don’t deal with them. Remember, your life will change, your children will grow up and your needs will change.”
Mills cites the example of a friend, also an economist, who recently was offered a post as an economics professor at Harvard–a prestigious place to teach.
“He simply turned it down because he wanted more time with his wife and two young children and didn’t want to relocate,” said Mills. “He said the position would take up too much of his time because of the highly competitive nature of the school and the high expectations to publish or perish.”
Instead, his friend, who was not tenured, took a job at a small branch of a large university near his home. “He’s very pleased with that choice and does indeed have time for his family,” Mills said. “He didn’t leave the industry–economics–but picked a more family-friendly place to work and a geographical location where he didn’t have to commute as much or to relocate.”
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I asked Mills, who has been at Harvard since 1976, how his friend’s choice affected him: “I’m older and I’m tenured,” and Mills, who is married to Elizabeth Moore, an antiques dealer. They have grown children: Mills has two from a previous marriage and Moore has three.
“But I have always been aware of having balance in my life and struggled with it–but I also managed to spend a good deal of time with my kids. I’m careful about the projects I take on. I’m deeply committed to my profession and I’m published, but I’m not trying to climb a promotion ladder. I also make time to hike and bicycle and work in the garden with my wife.
“There is time in your life for family and career. These are the top priorities, even if you don’t have time for a whole lot of other stuff.”
And that’s how you can manage to “have it all.”
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Carol Kleiman’s columns also appear in Monday and Thursday’s Business sections. Hear her on WBBM-AM 780, at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Mondays and at 11:20 a.m. Saturdays. Watch her “Career Coach” segments on CLTV. E-mail [email protected].