Book Review: CEO of Me
Featured Guest Blogger October 27th, 2008
Ariane Ollier-Malaterre is an Associate Professor of Management at Rouen School of Management and a Research Associate at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College. Please note that the views of our guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.
I am a work-life researcher and an expatriate here in the U.S., in a dual-career marriage, with a young family (local) and elder care responsibilities (at a distance). I approached the book with the greatest expectations and was delighted to find new and insightful food for thought.
Based on hundreds of interviews in the U.S. and Canada, Kossek and Lautsch coin the concept of “flexstyle.” They define flexstyle both as a strategy to handle one’s life and an understanding of what is driving the relationships between one’s work and one’s life.
They identify 3 different “flexstyles”, each introduced with real-life vignettes:
- Integrators physically and psychologically blend work and life;
- Separators maintain barriers;
- Volleyers switch back and forth between integration and separation. For volleyers, the very task of managing work and life is a “third major life task” in itself– probably familiar to many a scholar.
Flexstyles are not personal preferences; they are behaviors that stem both from personal preferences and the resources and constraints of the context, notably the degree of power and control over one’s life.They are a dynamic concept– major life changes require a re-examination of one’s flexstyle to ensure it fits well with the new circumstances and people.
Let me share with you two of my main take-aways from the book.
1. The book steps away from the mainstream idea that flexibility is all good and that flexible jobs automatically benefit employees. Flexibility can also be a trap and it requires monitoring, notably boundary work. Therefore, an “in control” and an “out of control” configuration occur for each flexstyle:
- Integrators in control are “fusion lovers,” while they are “reactors” when not in control;
- Separators are “firsters” (work or family first) or “captives”;
- Volleyers are “quality timers” or “job warriors”.
2. The book provides a comprehensive coaching on how to achieve a better fit with one’s current environment. I found a good number of them that I, as a “quality timer,” had been experiencing in a fuzzy way before reading this book. Since they may apply to you, let me quote one of them: “Have separate work and personal email accounts and resist the urge to check work-related emails after your workday has ended.” For instance, I closed my mailbox while drafting this blog, so that I don’t compulsively hit the mailbox tab, which I recognize as a “destructive work pattern.”
Whether you are looking for an optimistic and constructive self-help book, or you are curious of great insights on the relationships between work and life, read this book!
