The Roche Report

I haven’t written on this blog as much as I would like because the past several months have been pretty hectic .  This is primarily because things have been great busy at work, but the reality is that one of our challenges has been that as soon as we hit November, we entered the season of sickness, and seem to have been juggling one member of our family being sick. And when I say sick- I’m not talking about a runny nose- we’ve had two stomach viruses, Johnny and Charlie got the flu, two ear infections, and jack recently had hand / foot / mouth virus ( non parents : I don’t really suggest googling images of this, it’s a pretty gross kid virus). Johnny and I have kind of an evolving system of calendar scheduling of who has what work commitments and who is primary- when one of us has early / late meetings, work events, or travel; but at a time where both of us could basically be working most hours of the day (and sometimes are), we’ve also been forced to slow do...

Today marks exactly one month back at work after my parental leave with Jack. I have started to write a blog post each week that I have been back - and I have to admit that I've had a hard time writing one. I generally work to have a positive message or something positive that I am working towards in my posts (and in my life!) and I have to admit that being back at work has been an adjustment. But, the intent of this blog is to write about the ups and downs of being a working mom and so here I am, writing about the ups and downs of the past month. I will start with the good - coming back to work has been mostly great. I was laughing with someone who I work with that late Friday afternoon the thought came into my head, "Wow, I'm pretty good at my job!" I say I was laughing, because it's almost funny that it felt like a revelation. While I looked forward to coming back, I think that there is always a bit of anxiety as well, especially after a long period away, of ...

This week marks the midpoint of my maternity leave, which is both easy and hard to believe. There have been many times that I have thought about writing an update post, but time and life got away from me in the chaos of a new baby, a move (we may be completely delusional, but we moved into a new house 10 days after Jack was born. Subsequently, 10 days later, our basement flooded, so we had to move everything back out of the basement, which included a lot of boxes that we hadn't unpacked that were wet. UGH!), etc etc etc. Jack is an incredible addition to our family. We are so lucky because he is an easy, peaceful little guy who basically only cries to communicate with us about being hungry. Charlie LOVES him, and smothers “her baby” with kisses as much as she can. Charlie has stayed in daycare while I’m out, and it has been funny because all the kids in her class are fascinated by the baby but when jack and I arrive to pick her up, she stands on the side of the stroller and tell...

I haven't written a blog post in a while; as I prepare to go on maternity leave, the frenzy of wrapping things up, transitioning, and still having time for my family has meant that I have less time to indulge in my passion projects like this blog. Another thing that I had let drop recently, which is one of my favorite things that I do with my team is my Team Roche Book Club - but as I transition more and more to my team, I was able to schedule TWO book club meetings before I go out on leave. This had dropped because I felt the need to refresh myself on some parenting-related reading, including the new release Crib Sheet ; while this book is not necessarily appropriate for the Team Roche Book Club, which focuses on more professional development / leadership development type books, it is on my must-read list for any prospective parent (for the record, so is Emily Oster's other book, Expecting Better ). Both books focus on a data-driven approach to analyzing the common issues that...

Last week, IBM published a study about advancing women in the workplace . One key finding was that in spite of the increased discussion about the importance of gender diversity in the workplace, most companies are not actively prioritizing it as a strategic initiative. Two stats that jumped out to me as I read the study were: "58 percent say fewer women than men want to take on leadership obligations."  "Mindset matters. We asked survey respondents how long it will take for their industries to exhibit an equal balance of women and men across all leadership levels. On average, they estimate 54 years—more than two generations into the future."  54 years!!! W.T.F!??! And do we really think that women don't WANT to take on leadership obligations? IBM's study is likely not new news; but I certainly appreciate that my employer is contributing to the discussion about how to drive gender diversity in the workforce - and this is a topic I am passionate about...

Several weeks ago, I attended a training at INSEAD (a business school in France) with a number of the leaders from the IBM iX organization. One thing that struck me was that one of our senior leaders made a comment about how she starts each day with meditation. I've written about my struggles with guilt and how one of my goals is to move beyond that this year; likewise another goal of mine this year is around being more present. After hearing Nancy talk about her meditation routine, I started researching and reflecting on this - and, for the past month, have been trying to incorporate a meditation into my own routine. As a bit of context, I am Catholic and converted to Catholicism when I married Johnny. As I was in the process of my own faith journey, I read a lot of books, especially enjoying many by Father James Martin, who is a Jesuit priest. Likewise, my husband is Jesuit educated and I like to joke that I myself would be a Jesuit if I could be. The Jesuits are known for a f...

It's that time of year - the time for reflection on what went well last year, what didn't, and what you want to drive towards this year. Personally, this often comes in the form of New Year resolutions, resolutions to {finally} exercise, or totally change our diet, or dedicate more personal time to meditation or prayer or to family. Professionally, this is in the form of measurable targets, time-bound metrics, and always in the form of growth. I spent some time talking about building professional goals with my team today and one of the comments on the call was that it would be helpful if I shared my goals with the team so that they could work on goals that could ultimately roll up to mine - at least at an organization level. So, I thought I would write a blog about both the structure that I try to use for writing goals - as well as what some of my own goals are personally this year. First, the structure - IBM has a goals system called Checkpoint where we are asked to measur...