Yvonne J. Furth says her success in balancing her personal and professional lives is based on her belief that “it’s best when the lines are drawn hard.”
Furth is president and chief operating officer of Draft Chicago, the Chicago office of a global marketing company that specializes in direct, promotional, retail and digital marketing.
And she is precise in explaining what she means when she talks about “hard” lines:
“It’s my way of making a dramatic point of the necessity to focus,” said Furth, whose firm is based in Chicago and has branches in 25 countries. “It means when I’m home with my children, I focus on them 100 percent. I don’t want to worry about things happening at the office.
“And, frankly, it works both ways,” she said.
Furth, who is married to Glenn Furth, an attorney, and has two children, has plenty to “focus” on. The executive, who has a bachelor’s degree in marketing, joined the agency in 1981 as an assistant account executive. In 2002 she became president and chief operating officer. She has a staff of 450 people.
“I’ve always worked full time; I only took three months off after the birth of each of my sons,” said Furth, who is a member of The Chicago Network. “I had an employed mother and it never occurred to me not to be one.”
She notes that “in advertising, the hours never are just 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I work long days, some evenings and weekends and go to marketing conventions. When my son was born in 1986, I found a babysitter who still works for us today. That’s really how I was able to do it. Plus the fact that I can count on one hand the number of times my boss for 24 years, Howard Draft, has called me at home about a crisis.”
Establishing that “hard” line between home and work was “instinctive,” Furth says.
“It came about because I wanted to be sure I had the time I wanted with my children. Now I can set my own schedule, but from the time my son was born, I made it clear at work I could be called at home only if really necessary–but the advent of voice mail and personal computers have made things much easier.”
The hardest part of the “hard” line is not to stress out over your many responsibilities.
“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t worrying about what was happening at home while I was at work,” Furth explained. “And I tried not to worry about home while I was at work. That’s why I make it a point each day, at about 3 p.m. when my sons get home from school, to check in with them.”
Though her sons now are teenagers she still maintains her close involvement with them and attends their sports and other school activities.
“The other day I went to an early parents’ meeting and came into the office afterwards,” said Furth. “If there’s something important going on during the workday, I always do the best I can to be there.”
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The executive also finds time to be an active volunteer for the Off the Street Club, which she describes as a “non-profit safe haven for children in dangerous neighborhoods.” And she and her husband also “find time for a romantic weekend two or three times a year.”
As an executive, Furth knows that employees need flexibility in their lives. “We understand and appreciate the importance of work/life balance,” she says.
Draft has a policy that allows all employees–not just parents–to get time off for personal matters if they inform their supervisors in advance.
“We don’t lose productivity because our employees are so appreciative of the flexibility that they make up the work missed,” said Furth.
The secret of separating work and home that has worked so well for her, she says, is “being organized and productive and a good communicator at work–and confident that at home your child is safe and happy. If you’re torn in two directions, you’re not able to draw that `hard’ line.”
But she’s realistic, too: “The irony is that the `hard’ line sometimes gets to be blurred,” she said.
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Carol Kleiman’s columns also appear in Monday’s and Thursday’s Business sections. Hear her on WBBM-AM 780 at 6:21 p.m. and 10:22 p.m. Mondays and 11:20 a.m. Saturdays. Watch her “Career Coach” segments on CLTV.