Work that fits your life
Author: Kathy Callahan
I’ll never forget the day I got the call to work at EnCompass.
It was 2001. I had recently finished graduate school in DC and moved back to Philly to get married. I’d been working a bit with Peace Corps and CEDPA, and thinking I might try my hand at being a consultant for awhile before looking for a full-time job.
I got a phone call in my new Philly apartment from Tessie. I remember she said, “We’re trying to build a company that fits with your real life.” I remember pulling the phone away and looking down at it, thinking, “Sure you do. That’s better than any line I’ve heard at a bar.”
She went on to note that professional women, sometimes at the most technically competent phase in their lives, were often called upon to be caregivers for children and elders, to follow partners, to prioritize others. She wanted to find a way to keep those women in the workforce, to keep their expertise and their contributions, while honoring their multiple roles.
It took me some convincing to believe her, but after 25 years, I am here to attest that one of the deeply held beliefs at EnCompass was that work should fit into people's lives, not the other way around.
It wasn't part of the mission or vision statement, but it was woven into the company as it grew. I saw it in:
Starting the e-learning practice because I couldn’t travel as much after I had my first child
Supporting a flexible work schedule for the school drop-offs and pickups of a father of four
A fully virtual team for the first nine years, back when that "wasn’t done," and ongoing flexibility to work from home or in hybrid arrangements
Flexing hours for staff as they navigated life transitions—openness to full-timers moving to half-time and then back to full-time, as the need arose
Looking back, what strikes me is that this wasn't a policy. It wasn't part of the mission statement.
It was a belief.
A belief that talented people shouldn't have to choose between meaningful work and the rest of their lives.
And because that belief was held consistently by the organization's leaders, it showed up everywhere. In hiring decisions. In how supervisors responded when someone needed flexibility. In opportunities created for people whose circumstances had changed but whose contributions were still valued.
That's how culture works.
People don't learn culture primarily from employee handbooks. They learn it from what leaders repeatedly choose to do. They learn it from what gets celebrated, what gets supported, what gets overlooked, and what gets protected when circumstances become difficult.
At EnCompass, flexibility became part of the culture because leaders lived it. Year after year. Decision after decision.
And that's one of the most important lessons I learned about building an Appreciative Workplace.
Culture is not something you announce. It's something you practice.
Twenty-five years later, I can still trace that one belief through hundreds of moments, large and small. Most of them were never written down anywhere.
And yet they became part of the culture all the same.