Chapter 19 - The Workplace PolicyMy prolonged exile in St. Louis eventually went down as one of the most successful projects in my consulting firm's history. The manufacturing company survived, thousands of jobs were saved, and the firm's profits soared. But when the senior partners took me out to a lavish dinner to praise my "relentless sacrifice," the compliments tasted like ash in my mouth.
I had been rewarded for abandoning my family during their darkest hour.
Instead of accepting my bonus quietly, I began drafting a new corporate policy proposal. I suggested that senior consultants on extended, high-stress assignments be mandated scheduled return trips home, provided with confidential family support stipends, and given the right to decline unnecessary extensions without fear of career retaliation.
The pushback was immediate and severe. During a tense board meeting, a senior partner scoffed, “Elaine, we cannot become the babysitters for every employee’s home life. We run a business.”
I stared him down across the mahogany table. “We are already dictating their home lives. We are destroying them. The only question is whether we have the moral courage to admit it.”
It took months of aggressive negotiation, leveraging my success in St. Louis, but a modified version of the policy finally passed.
A year later, a brilliant young consultant named Meredith knocked on my office door. She was crying. Her father had just been diagnosed with aggressive cancer, but she was terrified to step away from a major merger project. “I don't want the partners to think I can't handle responsibility,” she wept.
I thought of my phone, silently buzzing on a conference table while Noah was loaded into an ambulance.
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“Going home to your dying father is not a lack of commitment, Meredith,” I told her firmly. “It is proof that you understand what cannot be replaced by a paycheck.”
She took the leave. Her project survived without her. More importantly, she was holding her father's hand when he passed away. I couldn't change the fact that I ignored Rebecca's last call, but I could make sure the people working under me never made that same devastating mistake.
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