The Roche Report

My team got into a discussion this week based on an article that someone posted in our slack channel  about caring for aging parents and how it impacts your career. It quickly evolved into a discussion about bringing your whole self to work - and I wanted to share my thoughts on that topic here... ... which is appropriate because that is the very reason that I started this blog. I started this blog because when I started thinking about wanting a family or realized that I was pregnant with Charlie, I realized that there were not many people that I felt that I could relate to at IBM (or in other consulting firms) who had been "in my shoes" so to speak: "young" aspiring executive, young baby, demanding job with travel, husband in a career with similar demands. There are women at IBM who have done some or all of those things, but if I'm being honest, it was hard to find them. When I found out that I was pregnant, I panicked - and started thinking - "ok...

I stopped breastfeeding one whole month ago! (!!!) I have written about my breastfeeding journey before; feeling anxious about talking about it so publicly, yet feeling like it was important because not enough people talk about what it is like to do it. I've written about my frenemy (the dreaded pump) , my advice on traveling while breastfeeding . I've tried to be open and honest, and share my experience - and so felt I should do the same on the end of my breastfeeding experience. It is wonderful. I thought I would be very emotional about this change, and thinking about it was emotional. It was a moment where, even in the most hectic of days, I was with Charlie, or, at the very least, I was dedicated to Charlie. I haven't been especially emotional about any of these milestones; really, I am so excited and love each new phase so much, that I'm ready to move on to the next one. I mean, what's better than her saying "MAMA!"? Well surely, her being abl...

One of my mentors once told me that I would not be able to realize my full potential as a leader until I became a parent (a surprising comment in the politically correct world today; also, to be clear, I had already told him that this was something that I wanted for myself). I've thought a lot about this since I came back to work - and how or whether being a parent has changed who I am and how I approach my job. This has been front of mind for me this week as it has come up often in two articles that I read this week: This article about Goop and how Gwyenth Paltrow purposefully tries to hire working moms (commenting, “That bitch will get things done .”) This article about how pregnancy actually changes your brain matter - so much so that just by looking at brain scans, researchers could accurately sort people into groups of women who had experienced pregnancy and those who had not Among these different but fascinating excerpts, I, again reflected on how or whether I am dif...

I was reading an article in the Atlantic this weekend that basically stated that the advice about "finding your passion" is really awful advice , and laughed out loud when I read the opening: " Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford University, remembers asking an undergraduate seminar recently, “How many of you are waiting to find your passion?” “Almost all of them raised their hand and got dreamy looks in their eyes,” she told me. They talked about it “like a tidal wave would sweep over them,” he said.  Sploosh. Huzzah! It’s accounting!" I speak to at least one entry-level person at IBM per week in a career or networking conversation - often, 5-6 - and I could wax poetic about this concept. It seems like many of the people that I talk to are waiting to stumble into their passion area and expect that they will go to a consulting project and *poof!* it will appear to them that testing (or requirements gathering, or scrum-mastering, or doing change man...

I wanted to do a little series on my favorite pieces of advice that I have received in my career, and I thought that I would start with one of the pieces of advice that I rely on the most. When discussing mentorship with someone who I ironically consider to be one of my mentors, she said that she didn't really like the idea of having "just one" mentor. Instead, she suggested the idea of curating your own board of directors. The concept is: much like a company needs a range of leaders with different backgrounds to provide strategic direction, each of us needs a range of advisors to help point us in the right direction. Your board of directors may change throughout your career as you have different roles, different needs, different challenges - and as you develop new relationships. Unlike the traditional "mentorship" model where you seek out someone whose career or style you might want to emulate, in your board of directors, you might have people who you work fo...

My first week back I wrote about  feeling like I was jumping up and down telling everyone in IBM-land "put me in, coach!" Johnny laughed and told me that I needed to be patient and that before I knew it, I would have more on my plate than I could handle... ... boy oh boy was he right. Do you ever have one of those weeks where you are just tired? Where it doesn't seem like you can keep your head above water with all the asks coming your way? Where work / life balance seems like a bit of a joke -- and nothing that you can do can shift it in the right direction? I'm having one of those weeks. I had one last week too. And looking at my next two weeks, I know I'm going to have them again for the next two weeks. Some of this has to do with the amount of work that I have to do - and some of it has to do with the amount I am traveling; I am still pretty committed to doing day trips as much as I can, but that makes for a very long day - and also throws things a bit o...

"I don't feel like a superhero, I feel like a Mom who has a career." I was reading an article this morning about the FTC Commissioner who has an 8 week old daughter who she takes to work with her and it made me think about how we all find a different way to reach balance in our lives. Several people have asked me recently how I've found the balance in being back at work / how I've found "having it all." And the reality is this article really articulated several things that I've been thinking / feeling recently. Balance First, with respect to balance, in some ways, I've found "balance" between work and life to be a bit easier than I expected. The reality is that Charlie NEEDS so much that it is not an option to not pick her. It's not like I can tell her to feed herself and put herself to bed. But, the reality is that the balance is also not so easy all the time. For example, Charlie has been sick almost every week that she ...