Mission Should Be to Kill the "Just"

[Liz Ryan]

When I speak with job-seekers who've been out of the workforce for awhile or who are underemployed, I often hear similar themes. "I have a degree in English, and worked in publishing for six years," goes a typical recounting. "But since I came to Boulder I've just been volunteering."

A variation: "I've just been home with my kids since 2002."

I ask, "Why do you say you are just at home with your kids?"

"Oh, I don't know," they say. "It doesn't seem that employers value things like volunteering and raising children. It seems that if you don't get paid for your work, it isn't worth anything."

It makes me sad and angry that our culture has so little regard for the important work that happens off-the-payroll in Boulder County and across our country, every day. One hundred and six CASA volunteers spend countless hours every year supporting children who are victims of abuse and neglect in our county, and they do it for free.

We have a new street mural in the Martin Acres neighborhood in South Boulder that got deposited there via unpaid labor.

Sixty-six Boulderites and other Front Range singers, dancers and instrumentalists, mostly volunteers, are rehearsing now to perform the ninth Rocky Mountain Revels production at the Boulder Theater this December. Many, many other organizations are making amazing things happen every day in non-corporate, unpaid settings.

This morning, moms and dads at home are teaching their kids how to draw and count and unicycle and solve quadratic equations, off the payroll, and other citizens are caring for ailing or aging family members and being compensated for their trouble in hugs and smiles.

Boulder citizens are traveling the world as visitors and emissaries and learning about cultures many of us couldn't name. Isn't it shocking that, on a job search, these priceless experiences and accumulations of wisdom have so little value?

We can't change the no-pay, no-value mindset overnight, but we can remember what's priceless and worthy in our off-the-pay-grid work and stop apologizing for it, as a first step.

One friend said to me, "I worked in financial services for years and had a bit of latitude after reaching a certain level. I took some years off to help my mother when she was not well. Was that not my privilege and honor, after all those years in the workforce?"

On a job hunt, screeners might turn up their noses at the employment gap on a resume. We can reclaim the value of that time, and say "I was delighted to be able to help my family when they needed me." After all, isn't the definition of maturity "the wisdom to put one's priorities in order?"

If we'd feel we had to stay on the corporate treadmill just to avoid raising eyebrows on a future job search, even if a family member desperately needed our help, wouldn't that be a horrible tragedy for all concerned?

Having the ability to choose to stay home with the baby, or to be a volunteer, or to travel the world when we're called to do those things: isn't that the American dream?

Let's agree to drop the "just" and take pride in experiences that have paid us, and others, in spades, no paychecks required. If other people don't get it, the loss is theirs.

Liz Ryan is the CEO of Ask Liz Ryan, a human-resources and career-development consulting firm. She can be reached at [e-mail].

[Shiela Cochran Ryan]

I have been at home with my children for the past five years after a very successful 16 year career in the financial services industry. I have recently started the process to re-enter the worforce and I really needed to hear your words of encouragement this morning. Thank you!