The Foreign Service Journal, April 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2020 47 School who championed the idea that if you offer employees flexible work options, you not only increase productivity, but also help recruit and retain a more diverse pool of employees. This concept intrigued us, and we invited Friedman to State to meet D staff and give a talk at an event during one October National Work and Family Month. The event was a huge hit, and Friedman was able to tie employee productivity and retention to having flexible workplace tools in place like telework, job shares and alternate schedules. Armed with this new information, we leveraged these points when advocating for a new employee leave bank—an idea from our own boardmembers who learned that other agencies had this incredible tool in place. When we first approached HR, we were told it would be too difficult to implement because of a software issue in the time and attendance system. Luckily, M agreed with us again that this shouldn’t be a good reason not to attempt to create a program that would become such a critical tool for employees needing hours covered for a host of medical or personal reasons. Balancing Act also realized in our advocacy efforts that in many cases there was information “out there” for employees on certain policies, but no one could find it. It was too hard to find on HR websites, or buried in department literature and cables. BA helped to serve an information-sharing role at the grassroots level through our monthly membership emails and meetings, which also helped build the organization and the constituency. Lesson 4 Keep at it. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It’s now nearly a decade since Balancing Act started, and we have learned that change takes time—and change in a bureau- cracy this size takes even more time. One appeal to senior leadership is rarely enough. We have learned that if you don’t get the response you want right away, keep coming back, and do it collectively, strategically and consistently. For the past few years, Balancing Act has been invited to brief every new A-100 class that comes in. At the “work-life lunch” session, we discuss the programs that are offered for workplace flexibility, and why our new colleagues should embrace having a good work-life balance in an organization that has not traditionally been known to foster such balance. They, of course, don’t know the journey Balancing Act has been on or how long it took for each BA “ask” to be approved (about two years each). But what they will know is a department that has entered the 21st century with a more modern toolbox of workplace flexibilities. They will experience a department that has paid parental leave (another early BA ask that finally came to frui- tion this year). They will experience a department that allows you to telework while on medevac and allows your spouse or partner to work remotely in a domestic employee teleworking overseas (DETO) arrangement. They will know a department that is trying to change a culture where productivity is measured by the hours at your desk and not what you actually accomplished, or where you arrive at a new post and work the very next day as opposed to having a day or two to arrange your personal life. These are changes that our new Director General, Carol Perez, is champion- ing—changes reflecting the needs of a modern workforce that BA fully supports. When I look back at all that Balancing Act has accomplished, it gives me an immense sense of pride. The original founding members get together once a year, and we still vent and share stories, but now we also smile, laugh and reminisce at the path we’ve forged. Anne Coleman-Honn and I like to joke to family and friends that Balancing Act is “our other baby,” because we’ve had a hand in creating it, raising it and watching it grow over the years. And like any good parent, we want to see it continue to thrive and succeed. As we look ahead, there is still much more to be done. We want to see a one-stop platformwith options for supervisors to help fill gaps when an employee is out on extended medical or parental leave. We want more lactation rooms and childcare options. We want more DETO opportunities across all bureaus. And we want travel covered for the birth or adoption of a child for the non–birth parent or partner. We are confident we will get there because at the end of the day, we are the State Department, each of us—indi- vidually doing our best and collectively working on these goals to change the culture and embrace the future. n BalancingAct Former and Current Board Members Asha Beh, current co-chair Andrea Donnally, current co-chair Nicole Otallah Rob Hollister Brian Gillespie Isabella Rioja-Scott Anne Benjaminson Sharlina Hussain-Morgan Emily Bruchon MiriamMurray Awad Manuel Medrano Cheryl Harris Michelle Bernier-Toth Lillian Wahl-Tuco Founding Members Amy Coletta Kirshner Anne Coleman-Honn Lesley Ziman Lillian Wahl-Tuco Carol Volk Margot Carrington Kristin Dowley For more information or to join Balancing Act, find them on Facebook at “Balancing Act at State and USAID.” Email BalancingActExecutiveBoard@state.gov to receive the monthly membership email.