Conversation for Baby office (http://www.babyoffice.cz/) with Mrs. Hana Krejčí.
I got to know Michaela at lunch at Business and Professional Women, where she added a very interesting contribution about balance between one's work life and personal life. That is a topic that really resonates in our current day and that’s the reason why I decided to ask Michaela to share her experiences from this area. We met in a comfortable office in Prague on Pakráci, where the dog, Míšin, walked around quite satisfied and really completed the pleasant, informal atmosphere of this workplace.
A very personal question to start this off. How is harmonizing your work life and your personal life going?
I don’t separate my work life from my personal life very much, they both mix together. Rather, it’s more about what my priority is in that given period of time. To have time for my children when they need me or to do my job well. I take care, so that I can regularly refill my energy, get in touch with my mom and husband and to put myself first. For me it is very clear what is important and according to the situation, I will stress one thing and set aside something else.
Your children are already adults. Did it always go so well for you when you tried to harmonize everything like you do now?
I always tried to at least make it so, of course. I was on maternity leave for 6 years. My children are three years apart. I devoted a lot of time to them. I took them to playgroups, swimming, exercising, we went on various trips. After being on maternity leave for six years, I began to look for work, possibly within the industry. I could have taken a position in a laboratory, but I would have missed being around people there and I was turned off by the heavy work hours. My main criteria were that I would be able to look after my children while at work. I am lucky that I found work, which enables me to do so and I took the job as a business representative of a pharmaceutical company. I had a car at my disposal and so I was more flexible and more mobile while I simultaneously planned my work hours however I wanted. But most importantly, I had our grandmother, my husband's mother. If I hadn’t had her, I probably would have spent a large amount of money on someone who would have been able to help me with the children. In this regard, I had the feeling that I can combine both work and family together, well.
Many women deal with the notion that if they stay at home like that with the children for a long period of time that they will no longer be fit to work and that they will not be able to find a job. You were lucky that you found something. Do you have any tips for women on how to find a job, which is flexible, which they will enjoy and will also allow them to take care of their children?
I think that it’s really about how somebody's mind is set up. What is important for who. We often don’t even try at all to negotiate the optimal conditions for ourselves, but rather we immediately accept anything that somebody offers us. Women don’t believe in themselves. They don’t have any arguments that they can use to convince the employer that they will do better if they take them on. Because she actually will be useful. I also see how young women are held under the pressure of their surroundings. They think that they have to do everything at once and that they have to be great at everything - a superb mother, a great employee and still perfectly handle everything at home, like doing the cleaning and cooking. I of course do not mean all women.
I don’t want to generalize. It is very important to make time for yourself and to ponder about what you want, define your priorities and then organize your time according to these priorities. Maybe - I want self-realization, but I have to look after the children. Children shouldn't have to pay for the fact that they were born and now we don’t have the time to look after them. And cleaning. Cleaning can wait or it can be taken care of by somebody else.
It is not necessary to have everything immediately. Young people have their entire lives for them to build themselves up. It is better to have contact with your industry after your time on maternity leave, assuming you want to return there. I devoted my time to many things. I studied languages, I traveled. I worked on one interesting project where I helped to bring a model of caring for orphans and handicapped children from Germany, here. I was in Germany and my small children were with me. It was enriching for both me and my children. I took my children somewhere, where they had the opportunity to get to know a new environment as well as different life values. I brushed up on a language, taught myself something new and, to some extends, this all lead me into realizing what I wanted and what I wanted to do. Everything that a person learns in life, they will use once. I wasn’t the type of mother, who would sit at the playground and chat with the others. This probably isn’t the correct way to prepare one’s self for professional development. But it is possible to study, to stay in contact with colleagues or to get involved in service activities. It’s always possible. It is mostly important to not let yourself fall into pessimism. Even while working at an amazing job it isn’t good to forget about yourself.
You speak a lot about harmonizing both work and family. Also, about how you shouldn’t devote everything to your work. What if that is actually exactly how somebody wants to do it? When that person perceives their job as their calling and feels like work is the most important and they don't want to harmonize.
I think that it is correct to live life how we want. It is up to each of us to decide how much time to dedicate to work, family and friends and to ourselves. Of course, this is going to change in life. A younger person will devote more time to their work, but gradually their values change, most likely in connection with children being born. There is nothing wrong when somebody wants to work a lot. Even I love my job. But it is necessary to take care of one's self and one’s surroundings. It's not possible to devote all of one’s time and self only to work. That person then becomes blinded and burnt out. They will run out of strength.
So, it will be their body that lets them know?
Yes, but it’s already late when the body finally speaks. I can work a lot, but I have to take my health into consideration. I have to take care of myself both physically and mentally. And I also shouldn’t forget about my surroundings or my friends and family. Because, there will always come some hard times at work and those who are closest to us are always the first that we can turn to.
Many people are aware that they aren’t living the way that they would like and that they would like to change that, to have more time for themselves, but they are on a train that’s already moving. They already have kids, a mortgage, high standards and a change is not always possible. What can they do?
It is better to just not end up in such a situation. My grandmother said that even a swallow knows that it needs a nest and that it has to have children there. I know that society and our surroundings pressures young people to have such a life, but I also think material things aren’t as important as people make them out to be. It seems to me that some people compare themselves to others and that, that will lead them nowhere, where they would want to go. A person always needs to set priorities for them self in their mind of what they want and what they will do to get it. The biggest problem that we have is with ourselves. We take on too many things at once and then we can’t handle everything. I haven’t done and I'm still not doing everything correctly. Quite on the contrary. Now, after 25 years of employment I can look back and assess what was good and what wasn’t. For example, I often worked at the expense of sleep and that isn’t good. Fortunately, I take after my parents in that I have a lot of energy, so I was able to endure.
What is it like in your work, concerning harmonizing both work and family? Are you a friendly employer?
We have 29 employees. We started with five. We were mostly a strictly, feminine collective, but I felt that we needed to have a more gender balanced team. It really is amazing how it works, now. When I take on a new employee, it is important for me to know what kind of knowledge and experiences that person has. What have they done and what do they want to do? But it is equally important to me, what kind of person they are. What kind of values do they have, how are they going to fit into the team? The foundation is having a pleasant atmosphere at the workplace. All it takes in one person to mess it up. One who is negative and toxic. After which, all your time is spent on fixing the bad atmosphere and not a lot of work gets done. We are an international company. We don't have too many employees in our branch, but we have to come up with the same results and documentations as other branches. It is great that our employees understand this. They work on full stretch and, most importantly, they keep to the rules, which we agreed on together. I appreciate them very much for this. We have so many responsibilities and tasks that all of us have the tendency to spend too much time at work. We are a small branch. These people spend a lot of time at work and still aren’t able to handle everything, but the work just keeps coming either way. And so, we made the rule that everyone has to go home by 6 p.m. If they want to stay later, then they have to have a very serious reason and it has to be approved by me. Well, now that I am thinking about it, we haven’t actually been keeping up on this rule very well. I will have to remind them again... We took sports cards and made a few daily workshops for employees, focused on work life balance. Work isn’t everything. We spoke about nutrition, exercise, relations, etc. I taught my employees that if they have too many tasks at once and they can’t handle them all, that they shouldn't go out into the halls and complain about them to everyone in the area, but rather that they should go to their superior and decide on a procedure of what they need to do first and what they can put off. The big problem isn’t just in companies, but generally in our Czech population. The problem is with communication. People are maybe afraid that they don’t know how to go to their superior and tell them that they don’t agree with something and that they want change. Many rightfully so. We are afraid and more so, some superiors don't even listen. But I am a different kind of superior. I enforce the principles of leadership. Motivate people, push them forward and mainly be flexible, because so many things are changing every day. I see my role as helping people to get oriented. What is the most important, what do I need to do right now and what can wait? Newer and newer tasks are always coming in, but it is always possible to handle them. It is extremely important for superiors to have an open-door policy, for them to listen and to try to pick up on the emotions of the company. It isn't easy. Most of us have a full calendar. We have an activity set for every half hour. We also want to go home sometime. I have set, regular meetings with my colleagues, where we solve this situation, which I have just described. Time wise, it is challenging. I sometimes have to put some of my other tasks off for later. But it is important for me that my employees are doing well and that they are motivated. I read that, today, there are successful bosses, who are flexible and are able to continuously adapt with their changing environments, all while managing to work with emotions.
Have you not thought about maybe using your leadership capabilities in your own, independent business?
I have never felt like I was called to give someone advice. Every person is so individualized that others simply can’t tell them what they should do. On the other side, you will all start something new at work or in your private life at some point and you will need encouragement, inspiration. Or a different situation - some women feel like it is a big problem when their children leave the nest. Many can’t even remember what they used to enjoy before. They are closed. They need someone, who could help them to find joy again. Everyday life and worries limit them in their way of thinking, and they will forget at once that they used to be happy. And so I heard various desires and recommendations from my surroundings, and I started to put a project together. A project, which will support women in their new beginnings and help them experience a well-rounded life. It is my project, and, in the firm, we call it “social responsibility”. I hold this project close to my heart...
I like that you know exactly what you want, and you go for it. Where do you get your self-assurance from?
I don’t feel self-assured in all areas, but in my position, I should really radiate, so that I can be the support and powerhouse for my team. When things get bad, it is the responsibility of the superior to hold the team together, to be balanced and strong. Of course, I have to work on myself. I know where my strong suits are, and I also know where my weak suits are. I am not ashamed of this. Everybody is different. I can allow myself to admit that. My self-assurance is actually more like authenticity.
Do you think people are just born as good leaders or is it something that they can become?
People are born with somethings, but they still have to work on everything. You can pick up on something, you can learn something else and somethings are told to you by your intuition. I’m more and more convinced that today’s leaders must mature into a position. That they need to go through various, difficult situations. The era of classic management, set orders, the reprimanding of mistakes and leading from a position of power, are no more. The current trend of leading people is direction, communication, motivation, listening, learning from mistakes, overshadowing the ego of a superior, the capability to accept the opinions of others and to make compromises. It isn’t easy. It takes maturity and an abundance of energy. I use experiences from the family, from raising kids, from life with a partner, etc. in my leadership with others. You can’t be afraid to admit that other than all the good that someone does, they also make a lot of mistakes.
The mistake of superiors is trying to improve people’s skills in something that they don’t know how to do. For companies and employees, it is very beneficial to strengthen everybody’s strong suits.
Thank you for the inspirational interview.
Hana Krejčí
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