On Wednesday 7th July 2010, Equilibrant held its first drinks event (completely by popular demand, I should add, as the plan wasn't to start events until September). It was fantastic!
13 women and 2 men, all currently or formerly senior execs in the London area gathered at Itsu Notting Hill for what was advertised to be cocktails and sushi and what turned out to be a very interesting meeting of minds. The attendees came from a variety of industries. Some were working flexibly and some weren't. Some had taken time off work and were interested in going back. Some were happy with how things were going in their current arrangements and some weren't. But all were interested in the topic of flexible work, and all had interesting viewpoints.
For those of you who were unable to attend, here are 10 take-aways. If you were there, thank you for helping to make the night so interesting - if you have other points to share, please feel free to add them in the comments section:
1. Successfully implementing flexible work is a complicated task for employers.
Most companies have flexible work policies, but very few have actually gone through their entire organisations and had a close look at which jobs might realistically be done on a flexible basis. Finding cases where it's worked (or not worked) is a starting point. Telling real-life stories of flexible work success from within the organisation is compelling.
2. If the client wants senior women, the company sits up and takes notice.
There was at least one tale of an account lost because there were no women put forward on the pitch, as the customer felt strongly that its suppliers must mirror its own values. The company in question sat up and took notice of importance of senior women after that.
3. Flexibility should be a positive conversation, not a gun to the company's head.
We suspect that companies that are forced by law to do something will instinctually do the bare minimum, whereas companies that are "encouraged" may actually think about doing it properly. On the subject of mandatory female board appointments, one member made the point that a quota for female board nominees might be more effective than a quota for female board members.
4. Women are feeling guilty - guys, not so much.
A lot of our issues with asking for flexible work, or over-working when we are meant to be working fewer hours seem to be to do with guilt. This is a huge kettle of fish, but it's an area where coaching could be very effective.
5. What's so urgent?
It was pointed out that much of the "urgent" work that is stressing us out and making flexible work difficult need not be urgent - that is, if expectations (the client's, the board's, etc) were managed properly.
6. Technology is on our side.
We discussed a few of the great (some free!) tools available online to facilitate remote and other forms of flexible work, like DimDim (www.dimdim.com), Doodle (www.doodle.com), and WebEx (www.webex.com).
7. Flexible workspaces are popping up everywhere.
Forget Starbucks - in London alone there are more professional flexible workspaces all over, including the Institute of Directors (www.iod.com), Adam Street club (www.adamstreet.co.uk), One Alfred Place club (www.onealfredplace.co.uk), Home House club (www.homehouseclub.com), and even one in Clapham that offers drop-in childcare (anyone know the name and/or URL of it)?
8. And specialist headhunters exist too.
Kate Grussing, founder of Sapphire Partners (a recruitment firm that specialises in women) will be doing a seminar for us in the autumn, focused on recruitment options in flexible work. She is actually looking to hire someone (ideally from a finance or consulting background, no recruitment experience required) - if you are interested in an introduction, let me know. Other websites mentioned by attendees as worth consulting if you're looking for a flexible job are: www.workingmums.com and www.professional-identity.com.
9. What do I want to be doing when I'm 50?
This was a fantastic topic on which we only scratched the surface, just as we were leaving. At this stage in our careers, we tend to plan only a few years ahead, but given that the odds are that we will be working until late in life, shouldn't we be looking further out and sowing career seeds now that we can reap when we're in our 50s?
10. More of the same, please!
I think it's safe to say that this session was a hit amongst those who attended. We'll definitely have to do it again soon.
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Sorry I missed the event but thank you for the summary.
ReplyDeleteThere is a place called Third Door, based in Wandsworth, that provides office space and child care within the same facility for an hourly fee. Here is the web site: http://www.third-door.com/index.html.
I haven't used this yet but am planning to take a look.