Archive for the ‘Family Matters’ Category

Rich are Eccentric; All Others Just Crazy

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

I’m 75% of the way through Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. It’s the story of Patagonia, and how a company started by a guy who just wanted to climb mountains became one of the world’s best workplaces.

Patagonia was one of the first in the country to offer on-site childcare, paid maternity (and paternity) leave and flextime. Chouinard says he only wants to sell products people need, not things they simply want. And because the company is so environmentally conscious, its products are made to last, and last, and last.

Yet Patagonia remains convincingly profitable, earning $330 million last year. In 2007, Chouinard landed the cover of Fortune Magazine which dubbed Pategonia “the coolest company on the planet.”

The company has given more than $34 million in grants and in-kind donations to environmental causes since 1985, $3.8 million in 2009 alone.

Part of the company’s mission statement is to use “business to implement and inspire solutions to the environmental crisis.” That means they need to be successful. As Chouinard says:

“If we wish to lead corporate America by example, we have to be profitable. No company will respect us, no matter how much money we give away or how much publicity we receive for being one of the ‘100 Best Companies,’ if we are not profitable. It’s okay to be eccentric, as long as you are rich; otherwise you’re just crazy.”

Chouinard went into business by accident, and wound up doing a lot of good. Today Patagonia is a strong model for business and social activists alike….Want to do good in the world? Find a way to make a profit doing it.  It makes your voice easier to hear.

posted by Jaime

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Prediction#6: Mr. Mom

Friday, February 5th, 2010

In case you missed our Six Work Life Predictions for 2010, here’s a repeat of #6:

6. Mr. Mom issues. Fathers will increasingly reassess their roles in the workplace and family. Women now make up 50% of the workforce, and more of them became the primary household breadwinners after recessionary layoffs hit men in disproportionate numbers.

Studies show millennial men and women are equally career-focused, meaning traditional gender roles will be less defined in younger households.  And men are already winning primary custody in half of all disputed divorces. We’ll see greater awareness that work and childcare conflicts are a family issue, not just women’s concern.

Now jump over to yesterday’s The Juggle at the WSJ: Do Work Life Policies Discriminate Against Men?

Sue Shellenbarger writes that dads are angry they’re not getting the same access to child care help, paid family leave, and bring your babies to work policies.

But the problem isn’t so much that men are officially excluded from these policies, it’s a perception….a perception that these policies are for mothers only and that men (and all non-parents for that matter) belong at their desks, clocking regular hours.

That’s just not the reality of today’s modern family.  Fathers are active parents.  Fathers are often primary parent.  Or, fathers may be the primary parent on Tuesdays and Thursdays and every other weekend. Get it?  The family has changed.

And if your workplace culture perpetuates the assumption that women are the primary caregivers and therefore the only ones who really need flexibility, then you’re alienating and undermining the other half of your workforce.

It’s an issue dads need to step up and get vocal about.  From “Work Life Balance is not a Woman’s Issue” in The American Prospect last fall:

We have to stop using “work/life balance” as coded language for “working-mom stress.” Despite ample evidence that men are served by investing more time and energy outside the workplace and coming out as fathers while in it, there are very few men who are taking on this issue in a substantive, political way.

So keep speaking up, fellas.  But you have to do more than write angry blog comments on The Juggle.  You have to be an advocate at work and you have to model the way.

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