Winning the Career Tournament

FC: Many people say that women would succeed if only workplaces would be more accommodating, particularly for parents. Do you think that could really work?

O'Reilly: The HR director at the SAS Institute, which is a pioneer in this area, always asked one particular question when people came in and asked for special consideration: Will this policy disadvantage some other group? I think that's the hard issue because clearly you want to do the right thing. If nobody had babies, we wouldn't be in business. But on the other hand, getting that balance right on not disadvantaging other groups is, I think, the tough part.

FC: Is it easier for a women to step off the fast track than a guy?

O'Reilly: If a woman wanted to scale back or leave, most people would say, gee, that's too bad because she was so successful, but we understand and having kids is important. If a man did that, I think the interpretation would be less flattering. It would be, what? Mid-life crisis? What's going on here? There is less social stigma attached to a woman making that decision.

When women reach a point where they don't like what they're doing or it's getting too hard, they have this choice: is this job really interesting, or can I be doing something else that's more fulfilling? A man in the same circumstances puts his head down and says this is a miserable time, but I'm just going to gut it out.

FC: Now that young guys are more involved with their families, are work-life balance issues going to be important to men as well?

O'Reilly: I've heard our male MBA students at Stanford say that they want to go to work in places where there's more to life than just being successful in your career.