We're very all or nothing, we Americans, right?

And there's this sort of macho ideology around putting in long hours and we somehow have to have kind of deified busyness even in a way that I think is really, really detrimental.

I'm Jocelyn K. Gly, and this is Hurry Slowly, a podcast about pacing yourself, where I explore how you can avoid burnout, improve your productivity, and activate your creative mind, all through the simple act of slowing down.

One of my obsessions throughout this season has been the topic of work-life

balance, and more specifically how to set boundaries at the office and how to make room

outside of work for everything else a person needs to be a happy, healthy, whole human being.

And today, I continue exploring this thread with Tammy Foreman, the CEO of

Path Forward, a nonprofit organization that helps women and men transition back into the workforce

after they taken a long break to raise a child. I first encountered Tammy while watching an incredible five-minute talk

that she gave on women in the workplace, which cited, among other shocking statistics,

the fact that there are more CEOs in America named John than there are female CEOs. I know. Just let that sink in for a minute. With Tammy,

I had the opportunity to expand the conversation about work-life balance from the individual to the

family, asking, what does setting boundaries mean for those of us that are raising a family outside

of work? And how can we as

individuals and managers set expectations in the workplace that accommodate not just single

20-somethings with all the time in the world to devote to work, but also families? We also talked

about how parenting makes you better at prioritizing and why a concept called core hours could be the key to accommodating a wide array of different schedules in the workplace, from busy moms and dads who need extra flexibility to start up singletons who just want to sleep in and show up at work at 11 a.m.

I should note that this interview happened in the middle of a rainstorm in a conference room,

with droplets pinging off an air conditioner in the window throughout the conversation.

We tried to minimize the plinking a bit in post-production,

but if you hear some background noise, that's what it is.

I kicked off the conversation by asking Tammy to describe the quote-unquote ideal worker

...