Reprint: R0702B
Cheryl Jamis, the high-powered marketing director for a large UK-based clothing retailer, seems to have it all—corner office included. What’s more, she loves her job. But her professional dedication is beginning to jeopardize another job she is passionate about: being a mom.
As Cheryl’s career has grown, so has her daughter, Emma. And while juggling the two has never been easy, it’s been manageable. Emma has ended up taking a backseat to whatever work crisis loomed at the moment, but now that she is seven, it is becoming harder to put her on hold.
Marcus Addison, Cheryl’s boss, seems sympathetic to her efforts to succeed as a professional and a mother. So when she suggests reducing her hours, she is taken aback by his response: “You’ll just end up working the same hours for less pay, you know. Your job is a big, responsible one. It just can’t be done in four days, let alone three.” Then he implies—albeit vaguely—that she could soon be on the next step up the ladder.
Before Cheryl has time to digest that possibility, however, Marcus tosses her yet another curveball: a chance to take his place on a business trip to the United States—a great opportunity. Though it means canceling a long-overdue weekend away with her daughter, Cheryl accepts—then almost immediately regrets it. When she goes to Marcus’s office to hash things out, he preempts her speech with one of his own: The promotion he’d expected for her is off the table, at least for the time being. Now Cheryl has to make a decision: Should she stick it out or chuck it all?
Commenting on this fictional case study are Monica McGrath, an adjunct assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School; Rebecca Matthias, a cofounder and the president and COO of Mothers Work; Robert J. Maricich, the CEO of Century Furniture; and Evelyne Sevin, a Paris-based partner at Egon Zehnder International.
