MBAs 3.0 —
GEN Y WOMEN, NOW YOUNG MOMS, PUTTING CAREER FIRST
News from Nadine
We’ve been getting a lot of Gen Y women in our offices lately — born around 1980, graduated from college in the late 90s and finished graduate school in the first years of the 21st century, they are now married and starting families. They are disarming in their self-assuredness and their absolute conviction about needing flexible work arrangements. But unlike the Gen X moms before them, they are not interested in managing every aspects of their kids’ live. In fact, most tell us they have not even considered not working. Here’s what they are telling us:
- The current economic situation had made it imperative that they accumulate as much wealth as possible for their futures, having experienced a major economic meltdown very early in their careers;
- They fear that taking even one year off will cause their skills to erode, because technology changes the workplace almost daily;
- They are a decidedly driven group and are focused on keeping their edge, worried that the workplace will not want them if they step off the career track for any length of time.
They tend to be very driven young women. We are interviewing more and more women, now in their early 30s, some fully employed, others who took a brief time off to have a child, tell us they want to get right back to work ASAP. They ‘project manage’ their lives, making time for family but always keeping career on the front burner. Not working is not even an option.
These women have much to offer companies. They are super efficient and focused, and can pack 10 hours of work into a five-hour day. We are having no problem finding places for them, even now, on a contract basis, or in permanent part-time positions. They make the case for flexibility, which creates focus, commitment, motivation, all good for the bottom line.
If you’re a Gen Y mom tell us what your experience has been in getting (or not) getting flexible work arrangements. Even if you’re not a Gen Yer, we’d like to hear from you.
Tags: Part-time pros
I changed job about 9 months ago into a supposedly family friendly large corporation. However as I found out later, work at home is not very common at the company as well as flex hours. It makes my life miserable because I have little kids (day care and school) and I have a hard time asking to shift my hours a bit to attend the school events. I want to start looking again for another company that offers flexibility.
Before you start your job-hunt prepare a written plan about how you will manage your workload if you are allowed some flexibility in your schedule. Certainly there are other moms at your workplace who need time off for special events at school, and elsewhere. If you show that you are highly organized, focused and motivated to complete all tasks on deadline, your manager will be more likely to allow you some flexibility. One of the greatest fears managers have about granting flexible hours is that “if I give it to one person, everyone will want it.” But if you schedule a meeting with your manager, and show a written plan documenting how and when you work will get then, and then follow through on it, your manager is protected against the onslaught of requests for flexibility by saying that a flexible work schedule will only be granted upon submission of a plan documenting how and when work will get done on time, and then following through to show results. Ask your manager to measure results– not face-time.