By Lindsey Wray
When Soledad O’Brien goes to get her nails done, no one at work needs to know.
The anchor and special correspondent for CNN firmly believes in creating boundaries to help maintain a work-life balance. And sometimes that means having set meetings out of the office – whether for work or personal reasons – that prohibit her from taking on additional tasks in the newsroom.
As the mother of four young children, O’Brien constantly juggles her professional and personal lives.
“It is incredibly difficult to be a working mother in this business,” O’Brien said. “…I’m constantly juggling this. How do I fulfill my passion, which is my work, and my other passion, which is my family?”
O’Brien recommends that journalists determine what they can and cannot take on – whether they are single or married, and whether or not they have children. Though she admits that balancing work and life is “difficult to navigate,” she said it helps put personal obligations on the same plane as work tasks when possible. For instance, take a doctor’s appointment as seriously as making a news budget meeting.
“It’s all about saying, ‘These are my boundaries.’ ”
Soledad O’Brien spoke at a panel sponsored by the IWMF at the 2008 UNITY conference in Chicago. The IWMF holds networking events like this one periodically for women journalists around the world. Click here to join our global network.
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Listen to Soledad O’Brien speak about boundaries and work-life balance.
Soledad O’Brien on work-life balance
“I have four children – 3-year-old twins, and a 6-year-old and a 7-year-old – and it is incredibly difficult to be a working mother in this business. I’m on a plane a lot. I want to be a leader in journalism…but I want to be a leader at home, too. If you look back and your children are a threat, then really what value have you provided to society at all? So I’m constantly juggling this. How do I fulfill my passion, which is my work, and my other passion, which is my family? And it’s really hard to navigate that in a system where people honestly don’t want to hear about your kids. And they don’t want to hear about your happy relationship with your husband. They don’t. Even the nicest people in the world or your managers. And that’s always difficult to navigate.”
Soledad O’Brien on creating boundaries
“There’s also a misconception that people can call me at any time of the day – or Blackberry me – and I can have a thoughtful conversation. For me it’s just been a struggle to say, ‘Here are the boundaries.’ And I think whether you’re single, or you have children, whether you have one child or four children, no children, married, not married – It’s all about saying, ‘These are my boundaries.’ One area that helped me was to not give details. So people don’t know if I’m going to the ob/gyn, or if I’m going to a movie, or if I’m going to pick up my kids after school. I’d say, ‘I have a meeting out of the building.’ And that helps. So when someone calls you in and says, ‘So-and-so’s got a soccer game, can you fill in?’ If you don’t want to, you say, ‘Oh, I’ve got a meeting.’ And it may be with my manicurist, but that’s a meeting.”
Lindsey Wray is the IWMF's communications coordinator.