Content area
As the west region vice president of sales for CenterBeam Inc., Greg Bacheller travels an average of three days a week sometimes he is gone for as many as six. Bacheller has devised a plan to balance both work and family.
Full text
JUST ABOUT EVERY WEEK, Greg Bacheller is gone for days on end. As the west region vice president of sales for CenterBeam Inc., in San Jose, California, Bachelier travels an average of three days a week from his home base in Denver, and sometimes he's gone for as many as six. Family time with his daughters Katie, 5, and Rachael, 2, is fleeting.
Or at least it was, until Bacheller devised a plan to balance both. How? For starters, Bacheller optimizes every free moment. On the road, with five to seven minutes between sales calls or flights, he phones his family. "They're not long conversations," Bachelier says, but they happen six or seven times a day. Quick phone reports from his daughters about going to the pool or a movie keep Bacheller in the daily loop of what his family is doing in his absence. "It makes me not a stranger when I come home," he says.
When home, Bacheller is crafty about his time and family activities. When his daughter Katie wanted to take piano lessons with him, he sought a teacher who would accommodate his schedule.
"I told my wife I'm never going to be husband, father, or employee of the year, because to do that, you'd have to sacrifice one for the other," Bacheller says. "But I'm going to excel in all three." -B.C.
Copyright VNU eMedia, Inc. Sep 2003