On the surface, Raul Garcia, Cathie Faerber and Ed Shea don’t have much in common. Garcia, 33, is a senior auditor at Deloitte & Touche and the father of 6-month-old and 6-year-old daughters.
Faerber, 47, is the owner of the executive search firm The Wellesley Group and the mother of 13-year-old twins (a boy and a girl) and a 12-year-old son. And Shea, 54, is a salesman for Cornerstone Marketing and grandpa of three (with another grandchild on the way).
Yet the three share a common bond: All have “downshifted” their careers to achieve a better balance between their work and personal lives. And they’re all more content as a result.
“I’ve never been happier,” said Faerber, who celebrates her one-year anniversary this month. “I was looking out my kitchen window and saw my back yard for the first time–it was so weird. I was taking my dog for a walk and saw my neighborhood for the first time. Life is good and it’s so much easier with everything in one spot.”
Downshifting is to the new millennium what career-at-all-costs was to the hard-driving 1980s, according to John Drake, author of “Downshifting: How to Work Less and Enjoy Life More” (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2000).
“I define downshifting as cutting back on work so you have more personal satisfaction and happiness in life. It’s definitely a trend,” Drake said. “You can’t go to a cocktail party populated by adults where work/life balance isn’t a topic of conversation. As the workday lengthens to 10- or 12-hour days, six days a week, there’s little time left for family, exercise, a good book, a vacation. That creates internal stress. So it’s natural to seek some way to get off the work treadmill.”
For Garcia, leaving that “treadmill” meant giving up 18 percent in compensation to gain time with his daughters. “When I was in discussions with Deloitte, I told them I wanted to be able to do extra activities with my girls. I was coaching my older daughter’s soccer team and didn’t want to deviate from that. And it was important to me to be able to maintain quality time with my baby,” said Garcia, who started at Deloitte & Touch in 1996, left for two years to pursue other career options, then returned to the company in February.
“They were very receptive and made two offers. One was a regular, routine career path. But they also gave me an alternate option with a different pay schedule and a much more flexible schedule. My manager and clients have been very sensitive to that, and if I need more time off, it’s fine.”
Faerber’s downshifting came in the form of downsizing her company to just one employee: herself. “Starting my business was my answer to ‘the mommy track’–I started in 1987 when I was pregnant with my twins,” said Faerber, who founded The Wellesley Group as a home-based business, bought a second home in 1994 to use as an office, and grew to a peak of three recruiters and an assistant in 1999.
“Fifteen months ago I really stepped back and realized I wasn’t a happy person–that I wasn’t enjoying my family or my home,” Faerber recalled. “I asked myself, ‘What do I really want to do?’ I could either hire more people or get rid of everybody. So I laid everyone off, sold my second property and refinished my basement into a lovely office that I call my sanctuary. I’m more productive and I’m keeping more of the company’s earnings, and I can balance the needs of my children. I’m enjoying both [work and family life] so much.”
Shea changed careers completely, and cut his hours dramatically, when he was downsized from his job at two liquor companies–one in 1993, the other in 1997.
“I had 29 years [at the first company] and planned on retiring there, but they lost their main suppliers so the owners went out of business,” Shea said. “When I was downsized from the second company, I started looking around for something I thought I’d really like to do.”
That “something” turned out to be selling health insurance and other benefits to the self-employed and small business owners for Cornerstone Marketing.
“I set my own schedule and work the hours I want, which is now about 20 hours a week,” said Shea, who “blocks out afternoons” so he can pick up his granddaughter from school and care for her until her parents get home. “We’ve bonded so well–it’s been a great experience,” he said. “My wife and I figure we have to have balance.”
Employers respond
The increasing desire for such balance has prompted employers to offer benefits that will help employees integrate work and home life in ways that best suit their needs.
As of June 1999, for example, more than 800 of Deloitte & Touche’s administrative and client-service professionals were taking advantage of flexible work arrangements including reduced hours, flextime and telecommuting, according to spokesperson Tiffany Murkey.
And Arthur Andersen offers a menu of Flexible Work Arrangements such as telecommuting, compressed workweeks, reduced workloads, flexible hours and job sharing–a menu some 1,700 of Andersen employees are taking advantage of, according to Anne Lang, U.S. Director of Human Resources and Partner Matters says.
“Of those 1,700, about 20 percent are on partial workloads, and an additional 20 percent are on some kind of hybrid program which means they’re taking advantage of more than one of the options,” Lang explained. “The emphasis is on choices for the individual and flexibility based on personal needs.”
While compensation is adjusted for Andersen employees with reduced workloads, for example, those with flexible work arrangements receive the same ancillary benefits (medical insurance, for example), as those who don’t opt for FWAs, Lang notes. And promotions aren’t limited to those who work traditional, full-time schedules.
“Everyone has the same level of opportunity,” says Lang. “Last year eight of our new admissions to partner were admitted on a partial workload.”
Taking the plunge
Not everyone is ready or able to make the dramatic career changes Garcia, Faerber and Shea have. “Some people aren’t ready, even if they know they should downshift. It’s usually a psychological issue,” Drake said.
There are, in fact, times when cutting back on your career probably isn’t a good idea, the author stresses. “If you’ve already made a significant lifestyle change–if you’ve gotten married or divorced or taken a new job, for example–you need a settling in period,” Drake said. He added downshifting also won’t work “if your career is still your No. 1 priority, or if you’re competitive in nature and it bothers you to see people getting ahead of you.”
Drake also emphasizes that downshifting can take many forms. “It doesn’t have to be all or nothing,” said Drake, who notes downshifting can be as simple as going to the gym, writing a letter, or going to the park at lunchtime instead of eating a sandwich at your desk. “It’s putting time under your control.”
Other suggestions for low-risk downshifting include avoiding weekend business travel, setting more reasonable deadlines, and setting “stop lines”–not working past 6 p.m., for example–Drake said.
Moderate- to high-risk options range from working flexible or part-time hours to telecommuting to quitting a stress-filled job.
Whatever the choice, downshifting ultimately reaps the kinds of rewards money can’t buy, as Garcia, Faerber and Shea have learned.
Said Shea: “I was fearful at first. But I’d tell people [considering downshifting] `Don’t be afraid, give it a chance.’
“Chasing money is OK when you’re a youngster, but as you get older, other things become more important. Balance is so important in life,” he concluded.
