Balancing Family and Work

Anne-Marie Slaughter gives an inspiring life-balancing speech with thoughtful insight into how incorporating more family time will result in greater productivity at work. Her moment of truth was time lapsed, because while the woman she thought she was would've jumped at the opportunity of a promotion, she admits it didn't feel like the right decision. Ultimately she made her decision by accepting what was most important to her -- family -- and decided she wanted to be closer to her home.

Slaughter is committed to the idea of a flexible workplace. She says, "If family comes first, work does not come second -- life does." Those who are more active in their family endeavors and those who attend their child's extracurricular activities are more inclined to indirectly socialize and network at functions, as oppose to those who stay working at their desk.

A flexible workplace and one that values the importance of families creates an environment that is less stressful and has employees who are more engaged with each other, and thus more proactive. Furthermore, there should be more equality and support that men choose to make be it breadwinner or caregiver. While there is a revolution in human equality, how fast it happens is ultimately up to us.