The Family Man

This post from 37 signals called "Why I love working with family people" summarized a feeling I have had and couldn't quite put my finger on about why people with families are great employees.

Ryan and I have seen it over the years at the various companies we have worked. The young, crazy, unattached are prized over the married/settled down employees because they seem to be so much more willing to "go the extra mile" or "work all night". I was amazed how something I think is irresponsible, like working all night, is a prized skill in an employee.

What about the person who makes a schedule and sticks to it? What about someone who has other things to do with their free time, so focuses while they are at work, rather than long lunches or chat breaks? What about the person who chooses to surf the internet at home on their off hours rather than at work and then stays late to get the real work done?

In a slightly different view of the same subject, Ryan sent me this article a while ago about the relative productivity of men vs. women with and without children in the Lawyer world. It was surprised to report that "fathers with preschool-aged children are more productive than non-fathers.". I don't find this surprising at all.

When Ryan was in law school we joked that all our friend who arrived with kid(s) in tow were better off from the outset. They didn't have time for the weekly bar runs on Thursday, but they had an advantage because they had to focus the time they had between dinner-bath-book-bed and all the other responsibilities of being a parent and studying. I don't have any statistical proof, but many of our friends with kids ended up at the top of their class at Duke that year.

Hopefully companies out there are starting to wise up in the hiring of tied down folks like myself. It's not that I am not passionate about what I do, it's just that I have to focus that passion at something else for the hours I am not working. And that's ok. Mommy has enough love for both of you.