Ditching corporate life for balance

updated 8:34 a.m. ET July 13, 2005

CHICAGO - The epiphany for Trudy Bourgeois came in the form of a stinging rebuke from her daughter during a weekend when, as always, she was preoccupied with her job.

“Mommy, I don’t want to be like you when I grow up,” the frustrated sixth-grader told the shocked executive. “All you do is work, work, work, and you’re always stressed.”

Bourgeois’ career and life turned for the better on that painful moment — she resigned her high-level position to run a business out of her Dallas-area home. So did John Gates’ when he left a corner office for a farm and tractor, and Jim Modica’s when he turned his back on Madison Avenue to open a pet boutique.

Forsaking corporate jobs may not yet be a trend, but if boomers made it one it wouldn’t be surprising for a generation known for shattering barriers and doing things in its own unconventional way. Due largely to boomers’ influence, work-life balance is becoming more of a priority for a U.S. population getting older and wealthier.

Kathleen Christensen, director of a program sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation examining the work force and working families, says research clearly shows American employees want flexibility in their jobs and more control over their working hours.

Instead of waiting for the boss to suggest something, she recommended employees propose flex schedules that offer demonstrable benefits for their employers. Someone working in a highly cyclical business, for example, could offer to work a part-year schedule where their time off would correspond with the slow periods in order and cut labor costs; even an office assistant might be able to demonstrate how coming in earlier and leaving earlier would get more phone calls answered while addressing his or her personal needs.

“Companies are seeing that flexibility can be a means to enhance recruitment, improve retention and in some cases increase productivity,” Christensen said. “I think any company that may be losing critical human capital is going to step back and say ’We are losing not only money but the investment we have made in this person. This person has an enormous amount of institutional knowledge about our organization over a long period of time.”’

Employers that don’t adjust for those needs, or can’t, risk seeing top talent walk away.

Bourgeois, 45, did just that after getting what amounted to a wakeup call at home six years ago.

One of the first black female vice presidents in the consumer goods industry, she managed a $3 billion business unit for a multinational conglomerate. The compensation and benefits were “fabulous,” she recalled, but there also were endless 80-hour weeks and travel. Lost in the shuffle were her two children, and her daughter finally erupted one Saturday.

Compelled to fire out just one more e-mail, Bourgeois risked making her daughter miss a volleyball tournament. “It’s a burden for you to take me to my game,” the girl told her accusingly — something her mother couldn’t truthfully deny.

“I concluded that my life was out of control,” Bourgeois said from her home in Plano, Texas. “I was defined by my job. I WAS the rat race.”

It wasn’t easy to abandon the race. Two years and many tears later, she started a training and consulting firm in her home called the Center for Workforce Excellence.

MORE FROM U.S. BUSINESS

U.S. business Section Front

AT&T, Verizon face off in TV ads Canada court rules for Wal-Mart in union case AIG, ex-CEO Greenberg settle disputes U.S.-made drywall also being investigated NYT: Medical debt spurs more bankruptcies Washington Post closing several U.S. bureaus Google sorry for offensive pic in Obama search AIG CEO Benmosche to get $7M pay package 'Problem' banks at highest level in 16 years Microsoft's chief financial officer to step down U.S. business Section Front   Add U.S. business headlines to your news reader: