Comments on: Work/Life Integration: Leader’s Series

By: Zen and the Art of Focustime: Work/ Life Leader’s Series | HRM Today

Zen and the Art of Focustime: Work/ Life Leader’s Series | HRM Today — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 19:54:24 +0000

[...] Eric Winegardner from Monster.com [...]

By: Trish

Trish — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:23:22 +0000

@Leanne- I think we need to pose this question to Eric, so I’ll do that in case he didn’t see it. Personally, I do not think both parents can work like that. Well, they can if they have a nanny or other arrangement, but then they are not raising their children. That just cannot be the right answer for the sake of money. I know that from what Eric has said, he has a great wife who is good at keeping things at home in line with the children. I also love that Eric focuses all his attention on his family when he is home.

I think what this series is teaching us is that there is no “right” way to do it all. You have to juggle, integrate, live, work, parent, etc. Thanks for the comment.

By: Work/Life Blend: Leader’s Series | HRM Today

Work/Life Blend: Leader’s Series | HRM Today — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:18:46 +0000

[...] posts have been incredibly successful and generated quite a bit of discussion. The first was ‘Work/Life Integration‘ by Eric Winegardner, the second was ‘Work/Life Unity‘ which I wrote, and third was ‘Work, [...]

By: leanneclc - Leanne Chase

leanneclc - Leanne Chase — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:09:41 +0000

Great series, Trish and great post Eric – especially the letting go of guilt.

One thing I would like to know and am struggling with personally is if Eric’s spouse has the same kind of travel/work schedule, he does? I’m wondering if both parents can work at that pace?

Because while I advocate work-life balance/happiness. For me, currently it means taking a giant step back at work…as my husband is mostly on the road and working many hours and we have a little one. So for the first time in our lives together we are not both able to run full speed ahead with our careers. Which is hard for both of us to adjust to.

So can both parents “work more than I do anything else?”

By: Trish

Trish — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:42:21 +0000

@Jen- I’m really glad you weighed in and gave great detail of the challenges of trying to make all parts of your life “work” as a single parent. Your comment could serve as it’s own post. I think it’s important to note that you say “it’s a challenge to please everyone all of the time”. I agree. It is actually impossible. It sounds like you worked very hard to do two things 1) use the resources available to you to help you along with dealing with issues as they popped up and 2) you made choices. Sometimes they were not what your child or job wanted, but they were choices you thought were best at the time. Like you, I’ve recently had to deal with the school nurse calling me at work and just not being able to leave right then. When I finally reached my little girl, I felt like the worst mom in the world. It was not a great day for me. These are the tough choices we face.

@Kevin- You bring up the point that not all employers embrace this. That is true. In some cultures it just isn’t offered, even if the technology or clients support it. You say it practically killed you. I’d be interested to know if that was from the standpoint that it was so hard to please the company yet still be present at home, or is it more the frustration that you knew flexibility was possible theoretically but that the company would not allow it.