From left, Christine Malafi, partner at Campolo, Middleton & McCormick; Neela Mukherjee Lockel, CEO of American Red Cross on Long Island; and Christine Riordan, president of Adelphi University, during a panel discussion with women CEOs at the HIA-LI’s 6th annual Women’s Leadership Breakfast in Hauppauge, December 2, 2016. Ā Photo credit: Ed Betz.
Panel: Women Should ‘Outsource’ to Achieve Career/Life Balance
by Ken Schachter
Conflicts between advancing in business and maintaining a family life can be overcome with the right tactics, women executives said at a business breakfast panel sponsored by HIA-LI on Friday.
āThe things I donāt want to do, I outsource,ā said Judith Heller, assistant vice president of physician recruitment at Northwell Health. āGive yourself permission not to do the things you donāt want to do . . . Find a service that will do your laundry for you.ā
Speaking at the Hyatt Regency Long Island in Hauppauge, Heller said that although she is willing to cook, āpeople donāt want to eat my food.ā
Fresh Direct, the grocery delivery service known for its prepared foods, āwill save your life,ā she said.
Another panelist, Christine Malafi, a partner at the Ronkonkoma law firm Campolo, Middleton & McCormick LLP, acknowledged there are times when she serves a family meal āand we look at each other and say, āWeāre going out.ā ā
In a similar vein, Karen Davis-Farage, president and co-owner of the Pole Position indoor electric go-kart tracks in Farmingdale, Jersey City and elsewhere, said that her children understood that she would not be coming to all of their events.
Davis-Farage said she hired nannies who shared her ācore valuesā and she ceded parental authority when she was absent for business. When a school called because one of her children had hit pupils at school, she told the educators that her nanny was āthe mother during the week while Iām at work.ā
Beyond family issues, Christine Riordan, the president of Adelphi University, said that women need to overcome their fears and learn to take risks.
āYou have to face what youāre afraid ofā by gaining skills and crafting strategies, she said. āWomen are more afraid to put themselves out there than men are.ā
Riding the inevitable career dips also may require women to ābe able to rebound and do it gracefully.ā
But in the end, Riordan said, āsuccess comes in many, many forms, particularly for women.ā