busiLIFEness.com

For many reasons I was very sad to hear about the death of NBC’s “Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert. Most relevant here is that I think we lost one of our best advocates for living a balanced (or at least well juggled) professional and home life. Not that he was blogging or SEOing on the subject. No, he did it the old fashioned way - he lead by example.

By all counts Tim Russert was one of the most influential political journalists of our time. They and they and they and they all think so. Yet he was also, quite publicly, a man of great passions. A fanatical sports fan. A devoted father. And most impressively he chose as the subject of his 2 books not the world leaders he interrogated weekly, but his own father. And in that small decision he showed America that it is still relevant and right and professional to prioritize and value your family.

Many talked about his excitement over the historical significance of the current election. Just as Obama and Hillary are breaking down racist and sexist and otherwise prejudice barriers by the single act of succeeding, I think that Tim Russert was disproving the sacrifices assumed necessary for global success because he was not afraid to show his personal values.

I’m sorry to lose this valuable compass in what can be difficult journey.

I’m dedicating today’s milestone birthday (39!) to bettering myself.

Here’s the goal:

• respond to every e-mail, Tweet, wall post, DM and comment I receive today today
• exercise
• shower (uhm, yeah, sadly that is a goal!)
• do it all again tomorrow

I love my birthday. I always feel a sense of accomplishment on my birthday. Another year done with some awesome things to show for it. So I am channeling this energy into some power self-improvement. Just think how accomplished I’ll feel at the next 39th birthday!

Came across a great resource for new ideas on creating a flexible workplace. The Families and Work Institute (FWI) is a nonprofit organization whose (and I’m paraphrasing here) “studies of changing workforce, workplace, families and community result in action”. They present annual awards on workplace flexibility and published a juicy little guide that pulls great examples of workplace innovation from the winning applications.

I’m highlighting just a few of the ideas that I think could be helpful, or slightly altered to be helpful to small businesses (most applicants were large organizations):

1. Future Leave - a “self-funded sabbatical” organized by Accenture. Might be hard to support in a small business, but I like the idea of long term planning on the employees part to make an extended leave happen.
2. Phasing back into work after maternity/paternity leave done by a Greenacre Properties in Tampa.
3. Deloitte’s Mass Career Customization Project lets employees progress up a “lattice, not a ladder.” Career path is laid out based on role, pace, location and schedule, and workload. Honestly, this seems a bit vague and difficult to implement, but I like the concept.
4. Life-size, full-motion cinematic video conferencing by Nortel sounds pretty interactive.
5. Capital One’s furniture allowance for home workers seems like a small thing, but what a great idea.
6. Wellness scorecards that let companies keep up with who is and is not taking their vacations - and make sure they do.
7. American Geotechnics sends employees home early on special occasions. I’m thinking kids birthdays is a must. And of course spouses, too.
8. Barnes Dennig Accounting Firm lets employees build client lists around their work schedule.
9. Phone systems that allow routing of business lines to home or mobile phones.
10. And of course almost every company mentioned flexible work schedule as great-place-to-workness mega-booster.

Anyone else have ideas for making flexible work places in the small business world?

I ran across the first of what will be a series of three articles on SmartMoney’s Small Business site that highlights “how small employers can focus on work-life programs to recruit and retain the best employees.” I’ve been exploring this topic for a while and have been having a hard time finding anything focusing on the operational side of managing a flexible business. In “Balancing Work & Life: Flextime for Employees” writer Colleen Debaise points to some real examples of small businesses that are using flexible schedules and remote working to accommodate their employees’ changing lifestyles.

I’m finding that the most valuable resource for blueprinting this organizational challenge is just hearing the little things others are doing to make it work. So thanks to Colleen for this great round-up of the the hard-to-find companies and resources focusing on this area.

At BatchBlue we work what we call “family hours”. Most of the company, and all of us who work in the Providence, RI area are parents of young children. Many sacrificed exciting positions at well-known companies in favor of having the power to set our own schedule. And we have chosen to set it around the daily schedules of our children. We work during school hours, we break during play hours and we reconvene after bed-time. My work day (which is posted on our company intranet) is 8:30 AM - 2:30 PM and 8:00 PM - 11:00 PM each day.

The problem comes when the rest of the world doesn’t acknowledge my 8-11 work time. Friends, family, other parents, even my spouse assume that I’m available for social time. They call, they stop by, they want to talk about the day. Not unreasonable expectations. If I say I am working, folks think I work too hard. They don’t get to witness the afternoon spent making cookies or playing princesses or riding bikes. And it doesn’t seem reasonable to wake the kids up to explain to my peers that they are destined for a better sense of self worth because I did gymnastics with them that day.

So until we can unstandardize the standard work day, the world can just think I work too much.

Other ideas?

So I’ll start the conversation off with my favorite topic: vacation. Recess for grown-ups. The time to break loose, get all the pent-up energy out and refocus your mind. To play whimsical games with your waddling tots just for the fun of hearing your own laughter in the air. To see the world or cast a rod or drive a deserted highway. In a word, regeneration.

At BatchBlue, we mandate it. Everyone in the company (regardless of position, seniority or hair color) must take 1 week per quarter with an extra week thrown in sometime during the year. And we say of vacation, “when you’re off, you’re off.” The thought being that this regenerative period is essential to each employee’s well being. And that each person’s temporary absence forces a better knowledge for the rest of the company in that person’s duties.

Like much else in life, the policy is well received, but not quite living up to expectations. The same laptops, Blackberries and iPhones that keep us well connected at work have a hard time letting go at play. And a new issue: it seems that the Bluers (BatchBlue staffers) have taken to spending their vacation time recuperating from various ailments. Not quite the rejuvenation the policy writer intended.

It seems highly competent, dedicated, conscientious employees just don’t have an off button. So I guess the thing to do is appreciate the dedication and keep working on the rejuvenation. Other suggestions?

Dear World,

I’m building a business flexible enough to work around the other great things happening in my life. And my employees lives. You know, a lifestyle business. Be it kids, travel, sports or shoe addictions, I want for myself and the people I spend most of my time with the best shot possible at having it all. The technologies available today go a long way to make this possible, but where I am struggling with my own business, and where I am soliciting your help is in the less sexy, less talked about, less bottom-linish nitty gritty. The policies, the procedures, the who’s gonna pay for the stamps kinda things where a traditional business can just muscle through, but a non-traditional business gets tied up in knots.

That’s where you come in. Send your war stories. The good, the better and best (no uglies please) on what your company is doing to make it work. Things like:

• Remote workers
• Flexible work schedules
• Vacation policy
• Maternity/Paternity policy
• Job descriptions
• Travel time
• Childcare
• Education program
• Office furniture
• Beer budget
• Employee ownership
• Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries
• Office romance
• Annual reviews
• Anything else that means work/life flexibility

If you would like to contribute an article on the above or your own topic (one time or regular contributions are welcome), please send an e-mail to pohara@batchblue.com with the following:

• Your name
• Your e-mail
• Your business with brief description and URL
• Number of employees
• Your words of wisdom

Remember, the goal is to provide just the right amount of structure to make true flexibility work. I know it can be done.

Pamela

I’m spending too much of my precious sleep time tonight (actually this morning) putting the final design touches on this new blog. I want to start recruiting folks to come join in this conversation (much as I amuse my own self, think I might learn more if I can get more folks to contribute).

So a big huge thanks to my incredibly talented little sis who stayed up with me tonight to help decorate my site with her gorgeous photographs. She now takes pics for the Chicago White Sox, so I’m glad I caught her before opening day.

Play ball!

Editor’s note: Newbie mistake. I wrote this post in the wee hours of the morning and then forget to hit the final “publish” button. This is why I DO NOT recommend lack of sleep as a work/life balance solution.

OK, I’m a list person, so I thought I would get the ball rolling on this thing with a list.

Goals for this blog:

1. Post frequently.
2. Unearth new ways of building a flexible business.
3. Get more people in on the conversation.
4. Nothing negative.
5. Anyone with the above goals can add more goals below.

In a hectic business owning parent kind of way, I have been mentally percolating the concept of this blog for a few weeks. I first registered the domain name (I’m in the web tech industry, I always start there), then yesterday I did what I usually do to get something out of my brain and ripening in the world - I told a friend about it. In fact I wrote her that I was working on a

mission statement for what would probably a personal blogging site. I’m envisioning a stream of guest bloggers – criteria being they own a business with 2-50 employees and are trying to structure it to be flexible (hours, locations, policies, etc.) to accommodate theirs and their employees non-professional lives. It will be a place for business owners to get ideas for what works and what doesn’t when managing a lifestyle business.

So in the spirit of the blogosphere, I’m considering this mission statementish enough - I’ll just let the rest unfold as we go.