Female CEO keeps job, family separate
By Carol Kleiman
Chic ago Tribune
Yvonne J. Furth says her success in balancing her personal and professional lives is based on her belief that "it's best when the lines are drawn hard."
Furth is president and chief operating officer of Draft Inc., a global marketing company that specializes in direct, promotional, retail and digital marketing.
And she is precise in explaining what she means when she talks about "hard" lines:
"It's my way of making a dramatic point of the necessity to focus," said Furth, whose firm is headquartered in Chicago and has branches in 25 countries. "It means when I'm home with my children, I focus on them 100 percent. I don't want to worry about things happening at the office.
"And, frankly, it works both ways."
Furth, who is married to Glenn Furth, an attorney, and has two children, has plenty to "focus" on. The executive, who has a bachelor's degree in marketing, joined the agency in 1981 as an assistant account executive. In 2002, she became president and COO. She has a staff of 450 people.
"I've always worked full time — I only took three months off after the birth of each of my sons," said Furth. "I had an employed mother and it never occurred to me not to be one."
She notes that "in advertising, the hours never are just 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. I work long days, some evenings and weekends and go to marketing conventions. When my son was born in 1986, I found a babysitter who still works for us today. That's really how I was able to do it. Plus the fact that I can count on one hand the number of times my boss for 24 years, Howard Draft, has called me at home about a crisis."
Establishing that "hard" line between home and work was "instinctive," Furth says.
"It came about because I wanted to be sure I had the time I wanted with my children. Now I can set my own schedule, but from the time my son was born, I made it clear at work I could be called at home only if really necessary — but the advent of voice mail and personal computers have made things much easier."
Though her sons now are teenagers, she still maintains her close involvement with them and attends their sports and other school activities.
The executive also finds time to be an active volunteer for the Off the Street Club, which she describes as a "nonprofit safe haven for children in dangerous neighborhoods." And she and her husband also "find time for a romantic weekend two or three times a year."
As an executive, Furth knows that employees need flexibility in their lives.
Draft has a policy that allows all employees to get time off for personal matters if they inform their supervisors in advance.
"We don't lose productivity because our employees are so appreciative of the flexibility that they make up the work missed," said Furth.
The secret of separating work and home that has worked so well for her, she says, is "being organized and productive and a good communicator at work — and confident that at home your child is safe and happy. If you're torn in two directions, you're not able to draw that 'hard' line."
But she's realistic, too: "The irony is that the 'hard' line sometimes gets to be blurred," she said.
