How to Discreetly Tell If a Company Cares About Work-Life Balance
Sometimes working late, going to the office on Saturday, and going outside the line of business are normal when you are concerned about moving up the career ladder. However, this does not negate another fact: you deserve a job at a company that values your privacy, understands the importance of flexibility, and most of all believes that spending time with your family is important.
This post was originally published on the Muse website .
So yeah, one Friday night you’ll be working late. But you’ll also want to be able to ask your boss to work remotely for a week this summer so you can join your family’s annual leave. Plus, you’ll need a place that doesn’t think twice when you leave early on Wednesdays to play kickball in your league.
Last but not least, even if you don’t have kids yet, it might be on your mind much later, and you need a manager who won’t mind when you have to leave early due to problems with kindergarten.
During interviews for my book, Here’s the Plan: Your Practical, Tactical Guide to Career Advancement During Pregnancy and Parenting, countless women were deciding how to reconcile career and family life. Spoiler alert: Much of the job is finding an organization that truly believes in work-life balance . So how do you rate this during your interview without giving the impression that you are already looking for excuses to leave the office early? You will have to act discreetly.
Here are five ways to do it:
1. Reverse check the reference.
Check your LinkedIn connections and see if you know anyone who knows former employees. Ask for an introduction and then ask to see if the former employee wants to talk on the phone for 15 minutes.
For example, you can write:
I am currently interviewing [the Company] and would like to hear about your experience there. I hope to get some cultural insight from someone who will be completely frank because he is no longer in the company.
To get the most honest result, you need to try to talk to him in person or by phone; most people are (understandably) wary of criticizing their former employer in writing. When you speak to him on the phone, be sure to state in advance that you treat this conversation as confidential, and then ask him to tell you about his experience.
Some guiding questions to consider:
- How would you describe the culture? Or, digging even deeper: is a face-to-face meeting important? Holidays encouraged or discouraged? Is it possible to work remotely? What are the usual hours?
- Do you think diversity and inclusion are priorities? Is the company focused on helping all people succeed? Does the office talk a lot about caring for the family or maintaining a work-life balance?
- If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing in culture, what would you do?
2. Examine the scene
While in the office for a job interview, look for family photos and children’s drawings on the desks of your potential boss and colleagues. Yes, even the most workaholic parents can post photos, but it’s still a good sign if the organization has something to be proud of as a parent. If you don’t see much along the way from the lobby to the conference room, ask for a tour of the office during the last round of interviews.
If possible, schedule an interview early in the morning or late at night. Note how many people are there. It’s 7pm now, and are they still puffing? Or, on the contrary, it is now 19:00, and there are very few stragglers left? If you want to come home by 6:00 pm every night , and the atmosphere in the office is still strong at 7:30 pm, that bodes badly.
The really strong hallmarks of a family-centered culture are the on-site kindergartens and well-equipped nursing mothers pumping stations that look comfortable and welcoming.
3. Do your due diligence – or rather, search the Internet.
Good old Google and social media offer a goldmine of personal information. You will need to select three categories of people to test: executives, managers, and entry-level employees. Make sure one of these people is your potential boss.
You want to find several things:
- Do they often talk about work? Or post statuses about work on weekends and holidays?
- Do you have vacation photos? More than once a year?
- It may be harder to hone, but does he or she have a housewife spouse? Whether you have (or want) children, having a spouse sitting at home means that person is less likely to be responsible for day-to-day realities and details, such as taking a pet to the vet or passing a cable ( A deep Google search can help you find your spouse’s name and then identify his or her LinkedIn profile (just make sure you search in incognito mode).
While social media can never tell the whole story, they can definitely give you an idea. And if you see recurring trends, don’t ignore them!
4. Read
There are many websites that provide useful information about companies and their work-life balance policies (formal or informal). Maybrooks is building an extensive database of family leave policies for various companies, based on the recruitment of women employed by those companies. Glassdoor collects assessments of employees from many companies in various categories (for example, work balance), as well as reviews of their work experience in certain positions. Fairygodboss shares company reviews written by women for women. One thing to note when you go through user-submitted reviews, there is no way to know how accurate or true they are, so read them with a grain of salt.
5. Ask indirect questions
It’s perfectly okay to ask direct family-friendliness questions after receiving an offer; but if you ask a question too early in the interview process, you run the risk of falling into the indecisive category.
Instead, ask interview questions that might encourage someone to volunteer to share information about work-life balance and actual company culture .
- What do you like about working for this company that is not related to your job?
- If there was one aspect of culture that the company could improve, what would it be?
- Can you tell me about who is doing well here?
- How would you describe the culture of the company in a few words?
Here, you don’t just listen to what they have to say, you also want to hone in on what someone is not saying. If you ask these questions in different ways and never hear words like supportive, flexible, inclusive, or inspiring, this could be a red flag.
Finding the perfect job and the perfect company can be tricky to say the least. But when you take the time to find a position that ticks all your boxes, it will pay off all the effort it took to reach it.
How to discreetly find out if a company really believes in work-life balance | Muse