Lisa Belkin on flexibility in a financial crisis.

Our colleague LISA BELKIN has written her final column on work life issues in the New York Times. Luckily for all of us Lisa will continue to write on the subject in her new blog Motherlode. Lisa’s work has been groundbreaking. Back in 2003 it was she who first wrote about professional leaving the workplace in large numbers in her article, The Opt Out Revolution.
It was a piece that depressed many career Moms but it also rang true and was backed up by figures from the Harvard Business School. And several years later is was that piece that prompted Claire and I to take a fresh look at the subject in our upcoming book “WOMENOMICS.” We believe times have changed even in the last few years so that professional women no longer have to make the choice between career and kids. They can use their clout in the marketplace for more time, allowing them to have both. Both of us had been struck by the Opt Out Revolution and were determined to find a way to avoid opting out while still having enough time for our families.
In her goodbye piece, Looking Back, Moving On, Lisa has a sober assessment of the current financial situation. Lisa asks whether concepts like flextime and telecommuting will simply “evaporate at the first hints of economic trouble.” We don’t think so. Companies are making long term decisions to deal with long term structural changes. In order to deal with a looming labor and talent shortage they need to keep talented, highly educated women and the only to do that is come up with ways that allow women to stay in the marketplace. Added to which, the many companies which have made seismic changes to allow employees (men and women) to have a work life based on their results not their hours have seen huge returns in increased productivity.