Jack Welch -- former CEO of General Electric, for those of you who don't read business books or watch "30 Rock" -- is a ginormous idiot who doesn't know jack about business, life or issues that touch the lives of modern, working Americans. I know this for a fact because I recently attended the Society for Human Resource Management's annual conference in New Orleans on June 28.
"No Such Thing"
Welch delivered the opening speech for the conference and completely dissed the idea of work-life balance for women in corporate America. As reported by the WSJ,
Mr. Welch told the audience, "There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences." Welch said, "We'd love to have more women moving up faster, but they've got to make the tough choices and know the consequences of each one."
Click here to read Laurie's rebuttal after the jump.
Business Icon or Cranky Grandpa?Jack Welch, who has been married three times and has four kids, represents a dying breed of iconic American men who are wealthy, politically connected and blessed with an enormous sense of entitlement. In his mind, it makes sense for Mr. Welch to spout off on any issue, especially work-life-balance challenges for women, because he has money, status and life experience.
If anything, Jack Welch is an über-wealthy version of my cranky grandfather. He remembers the Great Depression, still talks about Ronald Reagan and can't be bothered with learning about the Internet.
No modern man who considers himself to be innovative, thoughtful and "good with money" would dismiss work-life balance in such a callous and shallow way. Can you imagine the CEO of Google making such a flippant statement?
Balance Works
Given a choice between losing a valuable employee or creating a flexible work environment for mothers and fathers, any smart company would bend over backwards to ensure that a talented employee would stay with the company and continue to advance in his/her career.
Jack Welch? He lives in a world where women either have a nice family or a career. With a wink and a nod, he implies that you can either be a CEO or you can be a mother. You can swim with your kids at the country club pool on Tuesday afternoons or you can attend board meetings. You can't have both.
Could you envision a scenario in which you hear a rant like this from your CEO and then you don't walk into your HR rep's office to complain? Of course not. The irony of this whole story is that Jack Welch felt entitled enough to sit on stage and make such idiotic statements in front of a group of HR professionals who take their careers seriously and ensure that companies in America operate in a fair and unbiased way
Made by Women
Without any self-awareness, Mr. Welch failed to realize that his whole career is an example of the hard work and sacrifices of women around him. Shall we talk about the women who married him, raised his kids, stood by his side and were impacted by his infidelity? What about the ordinary women whom he hires to wash his clothes, clean his house and organize his schedule?
We certainly know that Mr. Welch is kept in clover thanks to the hardworking women at General Electric who funded his lavish retirement package, which was only given up after the terms and conditions of the package became public through his divorce proceedings.
Vent Back
Welch's rant on work-life balance represents an unfortunate and outmoded way of thinking in corporate America. If your current or former CEO ever tells you that working women have to understand the tough choices behind work-life balance -- and if he implies that you have to know the consequences of taking federally protected time off to be with your children -- it's time to take a stand.
Alert the media, alert your board of directors, and alert everyone you know to stay the heck away from your company, products and services.
Make it clear that you want your idiot CEO -- who doesn't know anything about innovation or leadership -- taken out to the woodshed and taught a valuable lesson on the consequences of making stupid and misogynistic statements about working women in the 21st century.
Laurie Ruettimann is a writer, speaker and HR exec with Fortune 500 experience. She blogs at Punk Rock Human Resources.
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Wednesday 15 July
By leanneclc
Laurie - so glad you weighed in. You know I value your opinion and love that you were at the conference to report in.
I do think some of his speech's message was lost in the fray...but I also agree that he is an old cranky man that needs to either understand business is changing or stop being an "expert"...of course for that we need to blame SHRM as well.
Loved your take!
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Wednesday 15 July
By Nancy Newell
*SMOOCH*
and thank you. I watched him from the front row, and watched, mouth agape, as Claire Shipman pandered to him and flirted with him. And, as a part-time HR consultant and full-time SAHM, I was appalled and offended by his callous, arrogant and misogynistic attitude toward families in the workplace trying to seek balance in their lives. He quoted - 60% of female Harvard grads are out of the workforce within 5 years of graduating. He laughed - "foolish women". I cringed - foolish companies, letting talent like that walk out the door. He made it a gender issue - "women must suffer the consequences of their decisions. never will they sit in the corner office if they sit and feed their children lunch." (ok, I paraphrase). I think it's a societal issue - no longer are we connected geographically to our families, no longer do we have a built-in support system to provide lessons on our family culture, values, beliefs. We HAVE to farm it out to strangers, trusting the well-being of our future to those we MUST believe have our best interests at heart. And some of us just can't do that. Myself included.
So shame on Jack. For everything you mention, and for his failure to continue to lead. He has a big, loud voice. Too bad it's so out of date.
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Thursday 16 July
By MBA
Except he was 100% right, there are no real balances in the top tier of corporate life. Those who sacrifice more will get more. What is a complete lie is the idea that you can have it all with out any consequences...
Regarding the idea of letting good talent go, a dime a dozen. In a globalized world, the pool of employees is much larger and more competitive, and some are willing to sacrifice more which in turn is more profitable for the company than to try and satisfy a few individuals.
One only needs to look at the faith of the industrial sector in America, which has for the most part all being outsourced. In time, no sector will be immune from the globalized market. The 'old school philosophy' is a proven one, Google is simply an anomaly.
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Thursday 16 July
By JC
As an employee of one of Jack's former companies, and as a woman, I find these comments to be particularly distasteful. Not to take a potshot, but I don't measure my life's success by the number of failed marriages and ruined lives I leave behind in my quest for business success. Jack might have been a great manager and executive, but he sure sounds like an asshole to me, and thank god he isn't in charge of any of his former companies in today's modern, flexible environment.
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