When my kids were little, I looked forward to this time of year when they would participate in special holiday programs at school and at church. My all time favorite performance was in 2004. Alexia was a 4th grader, David a first grader, and Julia was in kindergarten at Kings Grant Elementary School. They performed “Let there be peace on earth” together in the holiday program. They started the performance lined up with Alexia in front, David behind her, and Julia behind him. Alexia started the song, and when it got to David’s part he stepped out from behind her, and then Julia did the same a few lines later for her part. They sang individual parts, and sang together. It was beautiful. Their performance was reminiscent of the Von Trapp children’s performance in Sound of Music. Tex was deployed to Bahrain. Kings Grant did a special dedication of the holiday event to military parents, and they featured a picture of Tex along with other active duty parents in a slide show. A memorable and emotional event for me.

One of the things I am grateful for in my career is that I had leaders who valued and supported me, including my need for flexibility when I was raising my children.  If my leaders were rigid and unsupportive, I may have missed that important event. I left work that afternoon, attended the event, and later that evening logged on to my computer to complete my work day. During Tex’s deployments, I was the only parent at home juggling work and family demands. (I have great respect for single parents; they are unsung heroes in the lives of their children). Having the flexibility to manage my work schedule made all the difference in the world.

Not all jobs lend themselves to telecommuting (a.k.a. working from home) but mine did, and I thankfully utilized that option when needed. For jobs where telecommuting is an option thanks to the magic of technology, it is hard to imagine that there are still leaders who perceive men and women who utilize a work from home option as being less committed to the the job and the organization. On the contrary, being able to work from home allows dedicated professionals to manage the demands of work and family.  Some parents who have long commutes, for example, can save precious time by telecommuting on a day when there is a parent teacher conference or event at her child’s school in the middle of the work day. There is always the possibility that someone will abuse the privilege and claim to work from home but in reality is goofing off. As employees, if we abuse telecommuting privileges we are robbing the organization and probably shouldn’t be a part of the team. As leaders, we need to make sure that our own insecurities or need for control doesn’t blind us to the needs of our employees. Flexibility is increasingly an important value for the workforce. Traditional work day rules can be dissatisfiers and may even stifle innovation and joy at work. Let’s embrace a new paradigm that supports flexibility in our definition of the work day. It’s good for business, good for employee morale, and our workplaces and organizations will be better off.