If you have lived in Southern California for a decade or 3, you know Dr. Lucy Jones as the seismologist who explained each earthquake as we all turned on the news to get the whole story. She told us what happened and what was likely to happen next in a simple straightforward fashion. After the Joshua Tree earthquake in 1992, she held her sleeping toddler in the middle of the night while explaining what had happened and how we should react. Somehow, when Dr. Jones came on the air, you felt reassured that things would settle down and we would be fine.
For women of my generation, she was one more example of how to be both a mother and a scientist, business leader, lawyer or whatever our chosen field. We did not have role models from our mothers’ generation on how to do this. We were the pioneers.
Today’s article in the L.A. Times describes Dr. Jone’s life and work as she retires. It mentions that Dr. Jones worked part-time until her older son was in college. Maybe because she worked for the United States Geological Survey, she was able to negotiate part-time work. Or maybe, because she was so talented. Many of us who managed to keep working while raising kids were able to negotiate some flexibility in our work hours. So many of my friends were not able to do that and dropped out of the work force.
As Dr Jones retires from the USGS, I wonder if much has changed on the flexibility for working parents, especially mothers. The Millennials who watched their Mothers juggle so much are delaying having children. They are determined to not live like my generation did. I hope they are inspired by the grace and intelligence that Dr Jones showed in leading her professional and personal life.
If you own a business, spend a little time thinking this week about how you can support your team to lead a full and complete life, both at work and at home. We will all benefit from that.
Illustration courtesy of http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~braile/edumod