DONALD J. CARTY: THE BOSS MAKES TIME
AGE
52
FAMILY
Wife at home; three grown children from first marriage, one young stepchild from second
JOB
Chief executive officer, AMR Corp. (AMR), parent of American Airlines, Dallas
HOW THINGS WORK
Married for the second time in May, Carty found himself a dad again. Surprisingly, perhaps, he says he has no regrets from the first time around and isn't doing anything dramatically different now. He figures he had a good role model in his own father, a manager who rarely brought work home with him at night and spent weekends taking his sons to their hockey games and other activities. When Carty sets his priorities between work and children, it's his own leisure activities that get cut. That means no weekend golf. He regulates his workday regime, too. When he was single, he would get to the office at 7 in the morning. Now, he reads the papers and checks in on the morning reports via computer from home, while eating breakfast with his wife and stepson. He'll get to the office typically around 8:15 or 8:30 and tries to leave by 6 p.m.
As Carty worked his way up the ladder at American -- under the eye of a workaholic boss, Bob Crandall -- he says he was careful to track how often he worked into the dinner hour and would try to rein himself in if the trend line pointed in the wrong direction. And when he had to travel, he tried to avoid two trips close together. Typically, he says, he'd be home three to four weeknights a week and would spend two to three hours a night with his children. And he'd spend most of most weekends with the kids, making their breakfast on Saturday mornings and attending their sports events and other activities. He claims that he never felt at a disadvantage to execs without children. In fact, he felt sorry for them.
HIS TAKE
As CEO, Carty's juggling act is harder -- and easier. "There really isn't any limit to the number of people who want a piece of you, and it's all important stuff," he says. At the same time, he has more control over his own calendar than before he was the boss. He's also very conscious of using time more effectively. "If I look back and see I was in a four-hour meeting that could have been two hours, then I'm mad at myself." Carty admits the trade-offs are far more difficult for couples in which both parents are working. "You've got the whole coordination issue that creates another pressure." He has the luxury of having a stay-at-home wife: Anna, a bond trader for Drexel in the '80s, hasn't worked for a half-dozen years. Fathers in these traditional families, he says, "don't get the brunt of the hard things," like dealing with children who come home upset from school and needing someone to dump on.
In general, though, Carty says he sees the younger dads in the company being very involved with their families. His CFO, for instance, often goes home on his lunch break to see his baby. "I hope the senior guys are setting a good example" in showing the importance of family, he says. As more executives balance work and family, "it's going to make for a hell of a lot more efficient companies with shorter meetings."
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- CHART: Dad's Dilemma
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- DARIAN BERRY: DAY JOB, NIGHT DAD
- ERIC WEISLER: `NO BALANCE'
- VINCENT P. AUBRUN: BREADWINNER, FOR NOW
- CESAR GOMEZ: WORLDS APART
- ONLINE ORIGINAL: DONALD J. CARTY: THE BOSS MAKES TIME
- ONLINE ORIGINAL: BOB DONNA: FULL-TIME DAD
- ONLINE ORIGINAL: RICHARD JAWORSKI: FLEXIBILITY WORKS
- ONLINE ORIGINAL: KEN JOHNSON: HARDER TIMES AHEAD?
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- ONLINE ORIGINAL: SURVEY: WORK & FAMILY: HOW MEN AND WOMEN COMPARE
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- COMMENTARY: MEN: `COMING AROUND, BUT THEY'VE GOT A LONG WAY TO GO'
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