It’s Friday! I’m quite ready to start Christmas break, which we will officially begin on the 24th. There may be a 10-hour car trip involved at some point. The folks at my OB office said I need to stop and walk every 2 hours. Since I’m not sure I’d make it 2 hours between bathroom stops, this shouldn’t be a problem.
I’m working on two pieces right now that I’d love some more sources for. First, on loyalty. People change jobs a lot these days, and move in and out of self-employment. Loyalty is now more to people than institutions. I’d love some stories of people who’ve worked together in multiple situations, and how they’ve managed that relationship over time as companies and employment situations have changed.
[As a side note, this happens to me all the time. I’ve worked with some editors at multiple publications, and written about the same people I find fascinating for multiple publications too.]
Second, I’m writing about lessons learned from tracking time. If you’ve ever kept a time log, and learned something fascinating that you’re willing to share, please let me know! As always you can email me at lvanderkam at yahoo dot com (or post here).
I have a column in today’s USA Today called “How Churches Can Attract Younger People.” Especially around the holidays, houses of worship see new faces in the pews. Here’s how to increase the chances that millennials stick around.
I wrote a column for Fortune’s website earlier this week called “Is It Time To Stop Asking Female CEOs How They Balance?” It’s tied to the impending arrival of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki’s 5th baby. My answer: asking this question probably is sexist, but it’s also fascinating. Those of us trying to navigate our own balancing acts have much to learn from how high-powered women make it work. Heck, that’s what my next book is all about!
At Fast Company, I have a piece on “How To Score A Promotion Even When You Work From Home,” based on the experiences of people who’ve done it. A number of studies have found that out-of-sight kind of is out-of-mind, but that reality is not insurmountable.
In other news: A few weeks ago, Forbes ran a story on the morning routines of 12 women leaders. The first one featured intense early AM yoga and steamed spinach served to small children, which was more than the editors at The Federalist could take. They ran a story on the morning habits of 10 more extraordinary women, which was pretty funny. There were no green smoothies. Only the tragic observation that you have to make the coffee before you can drink the coffee. Life is cruel that way.
Photo: Not my tree. I wish.
i am actually really tired of hearing anything about CEOs. there are way more people in the ‘their own sweet time’ situation than multi-million-dollar earners out there, and the lifestyle differences are likely pretty staggering. when money is literally limitless it changes everything. that is not the case for 99.99999% of people, even high (but not extreme) earners with ‘big’ jobs.
@Sarah – this is an interesting subject in its own right. From the perspective of a family earning, say, $25-50k, does a family earning $250-500k look very different from one earning $2.5-5 million? How different is the 5% from the 0.5%? Many likely conflicting opinions on this out there.
Well, I’ll just say that as someone lower than that 100K+ range, even having an extra 10K per year would open up pretty radical possibilities in terms of outsourcing. And I consider myself pretty fortunate. I’m not sure what the magic number is, but yeah, above a certain point it’s all just RICH 🙂
There is quite a big difference between 250 and 500K. Not sure those two numbers should be lumped. This applies particularly if both parents work and if more than 1-2 kids are involved. Just saying.
I think there is a huge difference btw 250,000 and 500,000, and an even huger one between 500,000 and 3 million … And don’t most big CEOs earn literally millions per year?
I don’t know Laura…you can outsource date night but it might not be good for your marriage. 🙂 Hahaha.
@Arden – I sometimes have a joke in my regular speech where I talk about nurturing your relationship with your spouse/partner being a core competency: “at least you hope no one can do it better!”
As a millenial who is a regular church attender, I think the most attractive quality of a church is other millenials. Church is partly about connecting with other members and it’s really hard to walk into a room where everyone is 50 years older than you and feel connected. And, although the study says otherwise, the guitars/coffee/casual thing IS really important to some of the other millenials I know who are regular church attenders. Many of them either rejected the church as teenagers/younger adults or didn’t grow up in a church background at all so being in an environment that either doesn’t remind them of the church they rejected as a child or is culturally relevant to them if they have no experience with church is very important.
@Chelsea – thanks for your perspective. I think there are probably a wide variety of things people are looking for in a congregation. I’ve always liked formal churches with organs and very good choirs, and that’s the kind my husband and I joined when I was 20-something in NYC. I agree that seeing other people like you is probably very important. We tried some churches out here that clearly didn’t have a lot of parents of young kids. It just wasn’t going to work. I like that the one we joined has Sunday School for 2-year-olds, specifically, rather than a nursery where you throw in everyone under age 6.
Just being in a church makes me skin crawl. I grew up going every weekend. I will never go back.
I just caught up on your blog. Thank you for the great writing and good subject matter. I am always enlightened after reading your blog.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and safe travels.
@Shelley- thanks, I appreciate it!
I think I am a millenial or maybe just slightly past the cut-off ( born end of 1981). Personally i hate church services with drums/guitars etc. I like rock music at a rock concert. At church i prefer traditional liturgy and hymns. I took a long break from church at about age 18-25, and then became active again in my late twenties. I remember disliking youth group and college groups that tried very hard to be hip.
Wow, hope the marathon drive goes well!
On the subject of if we should stop asking women CEOs (or any other inspiring women for that matter) how they balance, I would like to see us start asking men. It might be an uncomfortable question if the answer is “I expect my family to 100% support me while the only contribution I make is $”.
@Frieda – I agree that it’s such a fascinating question that I like to see it asked of men as well. And in fact, in addition to the Microsoft CEO interview, I’ve seen it asked at a conference recently of a very macho type CEO. And he, likewise, knew he couldn’t just say, um, my wife handles all that. Whether it was true or not, he knew he needed to talk about wanting to spend time with his family, and trying to be there for important events and so forth. I think that’s progress. I’m pretty sure no one asked Jack Welch this, back in the day.
I think it’s interesting that you imply that these male CEOs are saying what people want to hear. I’d make the assumption that ALL CEOs do this when they’re “on the record” and I think it’s unfair to say that the men are only saying those things because they think it’s what they’re supposed to.
I think the times are changing and most men with young kids today (at least in the techie/liberal circles around me) genuinely feel conflicted about work and home demands as well. I am thrilled that they are starting to ask male CEOs about it. Doesn’t Elon Musk have 5 kids too?
@ARC – fair point that female CEOs may also be saying what people want to hear, and male CEOs may feel genuinely conflicted. I agree that expectations have changed, and I enjoy hearing how men answer the how-do-you-balance question.