Outsourcing: Save your marriage and your career

Vancouver, BC, April 28^th, 2010 – 50 years ago the thought of both parents working for a living was... blasphemy. 

Now for many parents, the thought of sacrificing one parent’s career to care for their children is one of the most challenging decisions they are faced with.  There are many factors that influence the decision, such as rise in cost of living, the need to own their home and/or saving for retirement or the kid’s college fund.  If you think that you can’t possibly save enough on a single income in Vancouver to fund all the goals; you are right.  But how does one generate enough while still having work/life balance – one word: “outsourcing”.

In a recent study by Researcher Youngjoo Cha from Cornell University quotes: “The…prevalence of overwork may lead many dual-earner couples to return to a separate spheres arrangement- breadwinning men and homemaking women.”

Marc Bonin from the Car Butler comments: “It’s amazing to me all the businesses that have sprung in the last 5 years to help parents and professionals with the objective of saving time.  We teach people that instead of trying to accomplish everything on their own there are many services geared specifically to help people leverage their purchasing power for time.  In the end, they’ve earned more than they paid for the service.  Most of the time people just don’t know what is available.  We are a car concierge company, but there are companies to walk dogs, clean the house, grocery shopping…name the task and I can find you a provider.” His view is that if someone that has a specialty to only do one thing, the task at hand will be done far more efficiently than someone who tries to do everything.  “If we need a plumber, we call Joe from xyz plumbing; if we need something, anything for our car we call the Car Butler.  It’s that simple.  Because we’ve analyzed that our time was worth more than their cost” says Pamela Chatry of eWomen’s Network in Vancouver. 

Ref: "Reinforcing Separate Spheres: The Effect of Spousal Overwork on Men's and Women's Employment in Dual-Earner Households" Youngjoo Cha from Cornell University