ECB emergency funding saves Greek banking collapse; Millennials aren't as different as companies think; Working mothers who make it all work

1 ECB emergency funding saves Greek banking collapse (Larry Elliott in The Guardian) The European Central Bank provided just enough support on Friday to stave off the collapse of the Greek banking system as political and financial pressure was piled on Athens before a crisis summit of eurozone leaders on Monday.

With more than €1bn leaving Greek banks on Friday alone, the ECB provided €1.8bn in emergency funding to keep the system operating over the weekend. The ECB’s tough line came as a succession of European politicians demanded the Greek government of Alexis Tsipras come up with proposals that would prevent Greece’s default and its possible exit from the single currency.

Far from buckling, the Greek prime minister put on a show of defiance during a visit to Russia, where he made a pitch for support from Vladimir Putin. “We are ready to go to new seas to reach new safe ports,” Tsipras said. Russia’s deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich had hinted that Russia would consider a loan to Greece.

Failure to end the stalemate between Greece and its creditors at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Thursday led to fresh Greek deposit withdrawals, bringing the total for the week to €4.2bn. The British chancellor, George Osborne, said Tsipras should do a deal before it was too late, and that Europe should start preparing for the worst.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/19/ecb-greek-banking-system-emergency-funding-greece-creditors-monday-meetings

2 Millennials aren’t as different as companies think (Kia Croom in San Francisco Chronicle) Millennial workers are misunderstood, according to SAP’s recently released Workforce2020 study. The tech company surveyed 2,700 executives and 2,700 employees in 27 countries. Half of employees surveyed were millennials. The study found similarities between millennial and non-millennial workers.

“We learned millennials are not as different as we think they are,” said Karie Willyerd, Workplace Futurist at SAP. For example, myth number one: millennials care more than non-millennials about making a positive difference in the world through work. According to the study, one-fifth of millennials and non-Millennials alike cite “making a difference” as important to their job satisfaction.

Myth number two: Achieving work life balance is more important to millennials. Survey data indicates 31 percent of non-Millennials say work life balance important to their job satisfaction, vs. 29 percent of millennials. Myth number three: Meeting income goals is less important to millennials as long as they are learning and growing. Research indicates millennials prioritize meeting career goals and income goals, followed distantly by learning and growing.

When it comes to job satisfaction, millennials prioritize meeting career goals (35 percent), meeting income goals (32 percent), and meeting goals for advancement (29 percent). Non-millennials prioritize corporate values that match their own (30 percent), achieving work/life balance (31 percent), and meeting income goals (30 percent).

However, the study suggests millennials and non-millennials differ in terms of how they need to be managed, how they view professional development and how they like to receive feedback from their supervisors. Nearly one-third of millennials say they expect more feedback on their performance than they currently receive—and they want it more often than non-millennials.

More than two-thirds of millennials want informal feedback from their managers at least monthly, whereas less than half of non-millennials expect feedback that often. The non-millennials are perfectly content with the routine 1-2 performance evaluations per year. They want to do their job and be left alone.

http://blog.sfgate.com/gettowork/2015/06/19/millennials-are-not-as-different-as-companies-think-study-shows/

3 Working mothers who make it all work (Laura Vanderkam in The Wall Street Journal) Of all the truisms about work and life out there, the most widely accepted may be this: Any woman who tries to combine a high-powered career and a family is going to be one frazzled, sleep-deprived mess. 

The conventional wisdom is that women shy from jobs in consulting, finance, tech, medicine, law and the high ranks of corporations because the grueling hours mean they won’t have an outside life. But this doesn’t match the reality I found. The truth is, women with big jobs often have more balanced lives than the popular narrative conveys. How do they make it work? I saw three realities in these women’s lives.

First, while these women certainly focus on being efficient during the hours they work, the long hours allegedly required by big jobs may be somewhat exaggerated. In my study of women earning six figures, they averaged 44 hours of work a week. No one logged more than 70. To be sure, my sample is small and unscientific, and 80-hour weeks do happen—but they may not be as common as people think.

Second, women who did work long hours often had a good dose of autonomy and flexibility in their big jobs. Close to half of the women in my study worked what I call a “split shift.” They left work at a reasonable hour, spent time with family in the evening, then did more work at night after the kids went to bed.

Finally, women with big jobs earn enough to buy balance, in obvious and less obvious ways. Women in my study spent an average of 10 hours a week on housework and errands; the typical employed American mother spends about 19. Women at the top ordered what they could online, hired cleaning services and had household help to cook family meals. Women with big jobs, in short, have more autonomy and resources than women who earn less, which allows them to have more balanced lives.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/working-mothers-who-make-it-all-work-1434712370