Monday, April 30, 2007
Back to Balance
Posted the May 1 issue of Info Career Trends today, on "building balance." I especially appreciated Marcy Brown's pointer to Making a Living Without a Job and the idea of creating "multiple profit centers" to deal with the inevitable ebbs and flows of self-employment.
I'm also reading Leslie Bennetts' The Feminine Mistake, which talks, in part, about the long-term economic impact of women's decisions to quit their jobs to stay home with their children. In libraries, this is pretty easy to rationalize: I make less money than my partner; I'm burned out working with the public; my salary would go to daycare; it makes sense for me to stay home. But, while our salaries may not be all that great, we shouldn't dismiss the benefits of more years in Social Security and/or an employed-sponsored retirement plan, access to 403B/401K plans, more time to move up the career ladder and earn raises and promotions, better future employment prospects.
I don't regret swapping full-time work in a library for self-employment, but think we need to go into any of these changes with our eyes wide open. I can't contribute to a 403B, but I'm darn sure to dump the maximum into my IRA each year. I'm no longer participating in a pension plan, but I'm continuing to work for pay each year and trying to avoid those years of zeros being figured into my Social Security. I'm doing things related to librarianship that will put me in a better position if and when I do decide to go back to more traditional work. I didn't quit right away, but took time to build up some freelance work. I'm incredibly lucky in that my husband's workplace provides family health coverage.
Women (never men) come up to me fairly regularly at conferences or send e-mails asking, basically, how they can quit their day jobs too. I'm all for this, but think any one of us who takes that plunge needs to be aware of the long-term implications and to have a long-term plan and goals (however flexible or changeable these might be). This also points to the need for libraries to pay attention to work/life balance issues for everyone.
I was at dinner with a few mom friends the other night, all of us librarian or teacher types, and the conversation came around to goals. A couple of people said straight out that they don't have any career or long-term goals, don't think they need any, and that their focus is only on their kids and making sure they turn out well.
My kid (soon kids!) is my top priority, but I don't think it's healthy for either of us that he be my only priority, or to focus only on the immediate future of staying home with kids without also thinking about a long-term career path. We can't truly build balance without an idea of what we want from our lives and our careers, and where our priorities lie in terms of both short-term needs and long-term goals.
I'm also reading Leslie Bennetts' The Feminine Mistake, which talks, in part, about the long-term economic impact of women's decisions to quit their jobs to stay home with their children. In libraries, this is pretty easy to rationalize: I make less money than my partner; I'm burned out working with the public; my salary would go to daycare; it makes sense for me to stay home. But, while our salaries may not be all that great, we shouldn't dismiss the benefits of more years in Social Security and/or an employed-sponsored retirement plan, access to 403B/401K plans, more time to move up the career ladder and earn raises and promotions, better future employment prospects.
I don't regret swapping full-time work in a library for self-employment, but think we need to go into any of these changes with our eyes wide open. I can't contribute to a 403B, but I'm darn sure to dump the maximum into my IRA each year. I'm no longer participating in a pension plan, but I'm continuing to work for pay each year and trying to avoid those years of zeros being figured into my Social Security. I'm doing things related to librarianship that will put me in a better position if and when I do decide to go back to more traditional work. I didn't quit right away, but took time to build up some freelance work. I'm incredibly lucky in that my husband's workplace provides family health coverage.
Women (never men) come up to me fairly regularly at conferences or send e-mails asking, basically, how they can quit their day jobs too. I'm all for this, but think any one of us who takes that plunge needs to be aware of the long-term implications and to have a long-term plan and goals (however flexible or changeable these might be). This also points to the need for libraries to pay attention to work/life balance issues for everyone.
I was at dinner with a few mom friends the other night, all of us librarian or teacher types, and the conversation came around to goals. A couple of people said straight out that they don't have any career or long-term goals, don't think they need any, and that their focus is only on their kids and making sure they turn out well.
My kid (soon kids!) is my top priority, but I don't think it's healthy for either of us that he be my only priority, or to focus only on the immediate future of staying home with kids without also thinking about a long-term career path. We can't truly build balance without an idea of what we want from our lives and our careers, and where our priorities lie in terms of both short-term needs and long-term goals.
Labels: balance, careerpath, femininemistake, freelance, goals
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Life Trumps Speaking
First off, let me say that I love speaking to library groups. I find it energizing and inspiring and a great way to remain connected with the profession, giving me the in-person interaction I often lack when working out of my home.
But... if you invite me to come speak to your group this fall or next winter/spring, chances are I'm going to say no.
The main reason for this is our ongoing adoption saga -- since we have no clear idea of dates at this point, only could-bes, I'm erring on the side of caution. I don't think it's fair to commit to preparing presentations and traveling at a time when we might be bringing a new little person into our lives, and want to spend more one-on-one time with Jake before this happens.
Like Deborah Ng, though, it's hard for me to say no, especially to work I find both interesting and challenging. I also wonder about perceptions and burning bridges, but need to set priorities, and what has to give at this point is the travel. So if I say/have said "no" to you, it's a no for now -- not forever!
But... if you invite me to come speak to your group this fall or next winter/spring, chances are I'm going to say no.
The main reason for this is our ongoing adoption saga -- since we have no clear idea of dates at this point, only could-bes, I'm erring on the side of caution. I don't think it's fair to commit to preparing presentations and traveling at a time when we might be bringing a new little person into our lives, and want to spend more one-on-one time with Jake before this happens.
Like Deborah Ng, though, it's hard for me to say no, especially to work I find both interesting and challenging. I also wonder about perceptions and burning bridges, but need to set priorities, and what has to give at this point is the travel. So if I say/have said "no" to you, it's a no for now -- not forever!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Geek Grrls, Balance, and More
If I were a little more visually clever I'd enter this geek grrl photo contest. I think, though, that we need some librarian representation... if you enter, share here.
Picking up on previous discussions, I ran across "Why Are Women Exiting IT?" in InfoWorld recently, with more discussion and resources online. Apparently, not only are women still underrepresented in IT, but the numbers are actually declining -- "For example, women accounted for 16.6 percent of all network and computer systems administrator positions in 2006, down from 23.4 percent in 2000."
Beyond all the many, many other ways that we "lose our techie librarians," I think one way to lose people is to pay insufficient attention to the issue of work/life balance. IT work, whether in- or outside of librarianship, can easily chip away at that whole balance thing, especially when we don't fund it sufficiently and/or ask people to take on these responsibilities in addition to all their other librarian-ish duties.
On this note, it's interesting to look at the Engendering Balance section of the InfoWorld report. Of course, this is nothing that hasn't been said before, but is something that we should perhaps pay more attention to -- both as a female-dominated profession and as one that's so intimately intertwined with technology.
(edited a couple hours later to add... I forgot to link to this post about "all women's day" -- a call for postings by women on Web/Library 2.0 issues on March 8, which I meant to include here.)
Picking up on previous discussions, I ran across "Why Are Women Exiting IT?" in InfoWorld recently, with more discussion and resources online. Apparently, not only are women still underrepresented in IT, but the numbers are actually declining -- "For example, women accounted for 16.6 percent of all network and computer systems administrator positions in 2006, down from 23.4 percent in 2000."
Beyond all the many, many other ways that we "lose our techie librarians," I think one way to lose people is to pay insufficient attention to the issue of work/life balance. IT work, whether in- or outside of librarianship, can easily chip away at that whole balance thing, especially when we don't fund it sufficiently and/or ask people to take on these responsibilities in addition to all their other librarian-ish duties.
On this note, it's interesting to look at the Engendering Balance section of the InfoWorld report. Of course, this is nothing that hasn't been said before, but is something that we should perhaps pay more attention to -- both as a female-dominated profession and as one that's so intimately intertwined with technology.
(edited a couple hours later to add... I forgot to link to this post about "all women's day" -- a call for postings by women on Web/Library 2.0 issues on March 8, which I meant to include here.)
Labels: balance, geekgrrls, it, techies
