Flexi Time Case
HBR
CASE STUDY
Everybody at ClorityBa5e seemed to understand when one account manager-a working mother-got a special deal: Fridays ojf, limited travel, easy clients. But when other employees - namely, nonparents started asking for similar treatment, the company found itself on the brink of an organizational firestorm.
Morning
K
Be
by Alden M. Hayashi
MARCH 2 0 0 1
LEASE DON'T TELL ME that I need to have a baby to bave this time off."
Those words were still ringing in the ears of Jessica Gonon an bour after a tense meeting witb one of her key managers. As she sat in her office trying to make sense of a recent customer survey,
Jessica, the vice president of sales and customer support at ClarityBase, was having trouble concentrating on tbe bar graphs and pie charts in front of her.
Snippets fi"om ber earlier conversation kept interrupting her tboughts.
The issue seemed simple enough.
Jana Rowe, an account manager in the sales support department, bad requested a lighter workload: she wanted a fourday workweek, and for tbat sbe was willing to take a corresponding 20% cut in pay. Tbose were the simple facts, but the situation at ClarityBase was anytbing but straightforward.
Just last week, Davis Bennett, anotber account manager, had made a similar request. He wanted a lighter workload so he could train for the Ironman Tri33
34
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Mommy-Track Backlasti • HBR CASE STUDY
athlon World Championship, the premier competition held each October in
Hawaii. He was a world-class athlete, and his ultimate goal was a spot on the
U.S. Olympic team in 2004. Davis had said he didn't need to begin training full throttle until mid-spring, so Jessica had asked him for a couple weeks to figure out how ClarityBase might best accommodate his training schedule.
A complicating factor was that both
Davis and Jana were well aware that
Megan Flood, another account manager, had been working a reduced schedule for nearly two years. When she was hired, Megan had
CASE STUDY
Everybody at ClorityBa5e seemed to understand when one account manager-a working mother-got a special deal: Fridays ojf, limited travel, easy clients. But when other employees - namely, nonparents started asking for similar treatment, the company found itself on the brink of an organizational firestorm.
Morning
K
Be
by Alden M. Hayashi
MARCH 2 0 0 1
LEASE DON'T TELL ME that I need to have a baby to bave this time off."
Those words were still ringing in the ears of Jessica Gonon an bour after a tense meeting witb one of her key managers. As she sat in her office trying to make sense of a recent customer survey,
Jessica, the vice president of sales and customer support at ClarityBase, was having trouble concentrating on tbe bar graphs and pie charts in front of her.
Snippets fi"om ber earlier conversation kept interrupting her tboughts.
The issue seemed simple enough.
Jana Rowe, an account manager in the sales support department, bad requested a lighter workload: she wanted a fourday workweek, and for tbat sbe was willing to take a corresponding 20% cut in pay. Tbose were the simple facts, but the situation at ClarityBase was anytbing but straightforward.
Just last week, Davis Bennett, anotber account manager, had made a similar request. He wanted a lighter workload so he could train for the Ironman Tri33
34
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW
Mommy-Track Backlasti • HBR CASE STUDY
athlon World Championship, the premier competition held each October in
Hawaii. He was a world-class athlete, and his ultimate goal was a spot on the
U.S. Olympic team in 2004. Davis had said he didn't need to begin training full throttle until mid-spring, so Jessica had asked him for a couple weeks to figure out how ClarityBase might best accommodate his training schedule.
A complicating factor was that both
Davis and Jana were well aware that
Megan Flood, another account manager, had been working a reduced schedule for nearly two years. When she was hired, Megan had