My Shingle

My Article: Treating Family Like Business

by Carolyn Elefant on January 3, 2006 · 3 comments

in Articles, MyShingle Solo, Work/Life Balance & Women

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An article I wrote several months ago, Treating Family Like Business, just appeared in Law.com’s new Career Center.  Primarily, my article reacts to pieces like this which advise attorneys seeking a home-work balance (mostly women) to pussy-foot around and beg for accomodation instead of taking the bull by the horns and advocating, strategizing and negotiating for their needs as vigorously as they would for a client.  Does this mean that I think lawyer-parents should be strident or whiny or express a sense of entitlement in asking for alternate work schedules?  No way!  I endorse proactive, creative approaches where you take the initiative, as well as advance planning to make yourself sufficiently indispensable so that you can write your own ticket.

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  • http://www.SCTrialLaw.com Dave

    Carolyn,
    I think that’s right on the money. I believe a lot of professionals go to college and work their butt off at work. They put tremendous amount of effort into their work and get great skills.
    As they get older, they learn how to apply those skills into their own life. At least I know that I followed that pattern. “Hey. I’m doing all this stuff at work. How about I put the same time and effort into making my own life better??”
    People need to fight and use their skills for what is important for them.

  • http://profile.typekey.com/Ilysiana/ Nicole Black

    Thanks for this great post. And, your article was spot on. I nodded my head as I read it.
    I do wish that in addition to addressing parenting/career issues as they arise in one’s career that more people, myself included, thought about these issues before choosing a career, specialty, etc. It would save a lot of stress and headaches.
    Personally I gave absolutely no thought to what I would do when I had children until I actually had them. I think that, more than anything, I conveninetly ignored the issue until I had to face it head on.
    I also wish that our culture/society/governnment would be more accomodating to working parents, much like some of the Scandanavian countries are, but that’s not happening anytime soon. But, one can dream…
    Anyway, thanks for raising this issue and for your thoughtful and informative article.

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