When Dr. Jana Craft hears the same question from multiple students she knows something is awry. So in the middle of January when students started questioning the meaning of success, Dr. Craft listened. Students wondered if success is the same for everyone. How does success in business square with having a family? Can you have a career and a family? Do you have to sacrifice one for the other?
In her personal experience, Dr. Craft knows what it means to sacrifice short-term family time for long-term career gains. To be away from home, but also how to say “no” when family takes priority. This seemed to be a confusing concept for students, so she asked the WSU student Society of Human Resources Management chapter to co-sponsor an event that would host local professionals to share their experiences with work-life balance.
About thirty students gathered in the COB Engagement Center for a casual discussion on work-life balance: how to be successful in business and at home. Local business professionals Cherie Burke and Julie Fassbender joined in the conversation. Burke is a Market Vice President at Home Federal Savings Bank in Winona with over 25 years of banking experience and 35 years in sales and management. Fassbender, a WSU alum, is a small business owner and entrepreneur in recreation and tourism. In addition to being a professor in the Business Administration department, Craft is a local business owner and author. All three women have families and have taken different paths to find success in work-life balance.
Sacrifice Leads to Payoff
Sacrifice at the front leads to pay off at the end. Craft talked about going to school both before and after having children. She was candid about getting divorced during graduate school and how she felt guilty taking time away from her young daughters while working full-time and in doctoral school. However, she said that sacrificing time with them while they were young led to her being able to be home when they were older and more in need of her time and attention.
Part-time Business Pursuits
Fassbender spoke about her decision to go part-time with her career to better manage her family’s household. “Your house can make you money if you run your home smart.” She used the example of working part-time meant being able to research and eventually purchase solar panels for their home. This decision made their home not only more efficient, but also an income generator for the family. Additionally, she spoke about how the decision to cut back on expenses and convenience goods was a good decision for their family’s quality of life. Fassbender also talked about her family’s entrepreneurial ventures and how the entire family is involved in their outdoor business pursuits. Work and family lives are integrated when everyone is involved.
Never Miss a Game
Not missing family time and your child’s sporting events was a key characteristic of Burke’s comments about work-life balance. She spoke about how her career has never prevented her from attending every one of her two daughters’ volleyball games, even when she was a single parent. “You just figure it out day to day.” Staying organized and in frequent communication with child care providers and family members makes is possible to work and know your kid is safe and cared for.
Craft, Fassbender and Burke agreed that work-life balance is achievable, and success is in the eye of the beholder. Fassbender pointed to her strong family connections and Burke mentioned her circle of close women friends as elements of success in their lives. Craft stated her view of success involves her children becoming their true selves, having a best friend as her spouse, and a job that she loves. Not one person mentioned money as the sole factor in success. Rather, being comfortable was much more important than being rich.
Perhaps the most memorable line of the evening, the one that was echoed in numerous reflective paragraphs after the event, was Craft’s work-life balance mantra: “If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.”