So I had one of those moments this morning where I felt like maybe I was living under a rock or something for the past couple of months. Maybe it has something to do with summer, or with the new job – but I do try to keep up on news as it happens, and I do stay on top of HR trends and highlights. Perhaps it’s just an artifact of being located in Canada.

Apparently, on June 28th of this year, Jack Welch (you know, the former GE CEO guy – the one responsible for catapulting GE growth and profits during his tenure) spoke at an SHRM conference in the United States. Following that address, he basically set off a firestorm of controversy over comments as described below:

Mr. Welch has some blunt words for women climbing the corporate ladder: you may have to choose between taking time off to raise children and reaching the corner office.

“There’s no such thing as work-life balance,” Mr. Welch told the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in New Orleans on June 28. “There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”

Mr. Welch, a thrice-married father of four, said those who take time off for family could be passed over for promotions if “you’re not there in the clutch.”

“We’d love to have more women moving up faster,” Mr. Welch said. “But they’ve got to make the tough choices and know the consequences of each one.”

Taking time off for family “can offer a nice life,” Mr. Welch said, “but the chances of going to the top on that path” are smaller. “That doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice career,” he added.

Not sure why this did not trickle up to my neck of the woods, but here I am, now two months later, hearing about it on the radio and seeing it in the media.

The reason I find those to be somewhat profound and newsworthy, is not so much because of the comments themselves, but perhaps more because he is actually addressing the issue – he’s not afraid to speak about it and get people talking. While we offer 12 months of job protection (and an abysmal amount of EI compensation overt that period) to women having children in Canada, rarely does anyone ever talk about the impacts that might be made on a woman’s career.

Let’s not stop there however. Let’s not necessarily make this about women. I believe the fundamental difference we Canadians face over that of our southern parents, is the fact that probably more men take a portion of the 12 months of leave as paternity leave – and, likely would face the same “consequences” noted above by Mr. Welch.

So, as I see it, the real issue at play is one of family vs work. And, as I have preferred to start looking at it through a different lens provided by D-CODE, the concept of Work-Life Blend (as you’ll have read about in my prior blog entries).

The take away from this? An opportunity to set yourself ahead as an employer and focus on programs or policies that allow employees, whether male or female, to continue developing, stay in touch and remain at the forefront of his/her occupation while on maternity/paternity leave, or while managing a demanding job portfolio. Or, if not a formalized program, at least the cultural commitment and support to empower workers to be able to make decisions that benefit both themselves and the company. Because, at the end of the day, a worker who is not happy at home, is not likely to be happy in the workplace either.