Jetstar Models a new type of chief Narelle hooper and Catherine Fox
Jetstar Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka says workplaces won't change until woman and men start to demand to work in different ways and draw the line. Speaking to a Financial Review Corporate Woman event on Thursday, the former management consultant and Qantas strategy head used her own appointment as an example.
Hrdlicka and her husband Jason have two young sons. She told the audience that when Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told her he'd like her to be CEO earlier this year, she said: "Your mad - there's no way I can run Jetstar Group and have two dogs and the whole package. . . it's just not going to work"
She told him she couldn't spend two weeks a month in Asia doing deals as well as a heavy domestic travel schedule, "that's not the kind of parent I want to be".
She said Joyce told her. "I'm offering you the job of a lifetime. . . I don't want you to do the job the way it was done in the past.
"He said: "There is a must better way to run this business and the role modelling you will do by running it differently is exactly what the business needs'."
US-born Hrdlicka cam to Australia in 1994 to run a business and joined Qantas after spending several years with Bain and Co.
She took up her present role in July. Hrdlicka said that while the first six months was an intense period of establishing credibility and relationships, "I am very clear about my work balance rules".
She said 80 per cent of the time she wants to drop her kids at school and get home by 6pm. She gets back online after dinner and bedtime. "You have to be very clear about where the that line is and manage that line because nobody else can manage that for you. And you have to have enough strength in the relationships around you. . .
"If you don't have commitment at the top to create a diverse work environment, you're not going to get there." She advised people to "dig in and check the settings on things. . . ask why we do that?"
Just to keep your head down and keep going was dangerous, as more diverse workplaces benefited everyone. "We have to debunk some of the myths. These things are deeply embedded," she said.
Australian Financial Review September 1-2,2012, page 12
Will this attitude be extended to those down the ladder?
Thought this article was interesting... particularly the photo!
The image blurb says this:
Quote:
''They are managing the wellbeing of your children'' ... Jayne Hrdlicka with her four-year-old, Josh, left, and the family's nanny, Caroline McKeon, with Alec, seven.
US-born Hrdlicka came to Australia in 1994 to run a business and joined Qantas after spending several years with Bain and Co.
and
Quote:
Just to keep your head down and keep going was dangerous, as more diverse workplaces benefited everyone. "We have to debunk some of the myths. These things are deeply embedded," she said.
Oh my, we are sooo screwed. The Bain & Co model running an airline, let alone any business is like allowing former Bain & Co Mitt Romney running the US.
And the only to benefit from a more diverse workplace (divide & conquer) are stupid senior management, in the Qantas case MBA 101.
Bain & Co were bailed out in the early 90's by the US government FDIC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rolling Stone
According to the candidate's mythology, Romney took leave of his duties at the private equity firm Bain Capital in 1990 and rode in on a white horse to lead a swift restructuring of Bain & Company, preventing the collapse of the consulting firm where his career began. When The Boston Globe reported on the rescue at the time of his Senate run against Ted Kennedy, campaign aides spun Romney as the wizard behind a "long-shot miracle," bragging that he had "saved bank depositors all over the country $30 million when he saved Bain & Company."
What a load of self-serving, sanctimonious horse-s$&t.
I can only imagine the response if I took a copy of that article in to my fleet manager on Monday morning demanding similar treatment.
This article is no better than say an air-brushed photo shoot of Miranda Kerr giving women unrealistic expectations in respect of their bodies. Working men and women are made to feel guilty as a consequence of the choices they are forced to make.
Only the very well paid can afford to take the sort of position taken by Ms Hrdlicka. The rest of us have long since realised that life is a compromise and something must suffer if success is to come in another area. Simply putting food on the table forces virtually everybody to compromise their family life. This sort of BS just confirms how out of touch these idiots are.
Happy fathers day - especially to all the dads away today.
Hmmm, she wants to drop her kids at school and be home by 6, plus refuse to head overseas to set up more smoke and mirrors. That makes it almost $1.5 million for a 10-4 job. Good gig if you can get it!
This article is no better than say an air-brushed photo shoot of Miranda Kerr giving women unrealistic expectations in respect of their bodies. Working men and women are made to feel guilty as a consequence of the choices they are forced to make.
Agreed. What is does show is that regardless of gender, the average modern CEO's most outstanding skill seems to be spruiking BS about how awesome they are in every possible way. I'm only surprised she didn't showcase her best cookie recipe and hand made quilt as well; after all, she's a Superwoman, yeah?
Before anyone accuses me of jealousy, I'm not. She's very successful, probably worked very hard and good luck to her. However, the average worker has to front up when they're told to and fit their family around that. Suggesting otherwise is hypocritical and irritating. If the paper had really wanted to investigate the work/life balance issue it should have followed up with the question 'What did you do when you were an aspiring lower/middle manager working your way up the corporate ladder? Did you lay down the law about needing kiddie time or did you unquestioningly work the sixty hour week that (rightly or wrongly) is expected of ambitious middle managers and business professionals'?
A question also for the AFR; how many male CEOs get asked about their home life?
P.S. Really unfortunate surname . Am I being juvenile? Absolutely.
Nanny included....
I'm only surprised she didn't showcase her best cookie recipe and hand made quilt as well; after all, she's a Superwoman, yeah? 
. Am I being juvenile? Absolutely. 
