Forget Work/Life Balance: All Work Is Great Fun for Some, Says Consultant
Once a litigator, Yolanda Cash Jackson is now a more than full-time lobbyist and she loves it.
The 51-year-old partner of Becker & Poliakoff in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., intertwines her work and social life, “relationship building” with a signature smile throughout a jam-packed schedule that could begin with a breakfast meeting at 7:30 a.m. and end 14 hours later with a client dinner, recounts a McClatchy Newspapers article written by Cindy Krischer Goodman, CEO of BalanceGal.
On any given day, Jackson’s schedule might include meetings with corporate clients, lobbying at the legislature in Tallahassee, participating in—or running—networking events, firm oversight (she is one of the first women elected to Becker & Poliakoff’s management committee) and stopping by her childhood neighborhood of Liberty City in Miami, to visit now-elderly people who helped her get started in life. She is also the only African-American woman on the board of trustees of the University of Florida College of Law, her alma mater.
Seeing Jackson in action, clearly having a ball, has made Goodman rethink the concept of work/life balance. Jackson, she writes, is “the new breed of woman for whom work and all of its psychic rewards provide a fulfilling life. Sure she might experience fatigue and frustration at times, but she’s able to cope because she’s 110 percent immersed in something she finds meaningful.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “It’s Time to Give Up Fantasy of Perfect Work-Life Equilibrium, Lawyer Coach Says”
