More on Flexibility

With children, it is very important for me that I maintain the right balance between work and home. I have been at BCG for not far off 20 years now (this includes a number of breaks for business school and maternity leaves). I would not still be here if it had not been possible for me to work on a part-time basis. I have worked at 70% or 80% since my first child was born. Having Friday at home is very important to me. Whilst we work hard at BCG, the fact that I can control my hours and that there is flexibility in terms of where we work, are important factors that enable me to meet the needs of my family alongside the needs of our clients. What matters is that the service we provide to our clients is of the highest quality, not how many hours or how much face time we put in.

Maintaining balance is entirely possible—but it's up to you to do it. I set clear boundaries and ground rules and make these explicit to my team at the start of every project. Work/life balance means different things to different people; for me spending quality time with my son is a top priority, therefore every Wednesday I like to get home before 6pm so I can bath him. This may mean that I have to make up for this later in the evening, but that is no problem after a couple of hours spent doing something that I want to do. By making this explicit to your manager you know that they will only ask you to stay if it is a real necessity (which does happen sometimes) but this then becomes the exception rather then the rule.