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Yahoo Inc. earlier this week named Carol Bartz, the former chief executive of software company Autodesk Inc., as its next CEO.
Ms. Bartz, 60 years old and a married mother of a college-age daughter, has been outspoken about the tradeoffs she has made in her career and family juggle. In a terrific videotaped talk with the Wall Street Journal (worth taking a few minutes to watch) and in this 'More' magazine article, she says that daily work/life 'balance' is a myth that can only lead to counterproductive guilt for working moms.
Women put a lot of pressure on themselves, she said. 'They think, 'I'm going to cook a great breakfast, wash up the dishes before I leave, take the kids to school, call my college roommate on my way in to work, be a CEO all day, volunteer on the way home, do a little exercising, cook a wonderful dinner, help with homework, have sex. I don't think so,' she said in the interview with 'More.' Working parents should take a longer-term view, focusing on doing one thing well at a time, instead of seeking the perfection of a daily balance.
Although she tried to make Autodesk supportive of working families by shutting the company down for a week in winter and taking off five weeks of vacation herself, according to the 'More' profile, her larger goal is to get women to change their thinking─to try not to feel guilty for not being able to do everything 100%.
Women 'beat themselves up for not doing it all, and they get mad at everyone around them. That's nuts,' she said in the 'More' profile.
She definitely sacrificed family time: When her daughter was an infant she would spend four days of the week working in California, while her family was back in Dallas. 'For four days, I got to use my mind, I got to sleep, I got to have a real career. I had the best of both worlds,' she told 'More.' 'It was awesome for me, and I don't think [my daughter] is any the worse for it.'
When her daughter got older, mother and daughter would gather around a calendar at the beginning of each school year, and Ms. Bartz would mark a handful of commitments, such as a Halloween party and a Christmas pageant that she wouldn't miss, according to the 'More' profile.
'I'd tell her, 'These are the times Mommy will be here. Anything else will be a surprise,'' she said to 'More.' 'So she was surprised when I showed up, instead of depressed that I wasn't at everything. She learned about schedules, she learned about commitments, and I did get to enjoy some of the school times.'
Readers, do you agree with Ms. Bartz' opinion that working parents should quit aiming for a mythical work/life 'balance' and should get over their guilt? How have you learned to assuage any guilt for the tradeoffs that you've made? 2009-01-27
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