I’m a mom of a two-and-a-half year old and a three month old and I have a full time job.  If I have any extra “me” time that isn’t spent shirking the gym and the growing piles of laundry, I’ll probably spend it sleeping.  So a TV show has to be super appealing to make it on my very small “must see” list.

Enter The Good Wife.  Oh how I love thee. It’s probably second only to my love of AMC’s Mad Men. I love them both, in large part, because of their strong female characters who are dealing with realistic life pressures for the times in which the shows take place.

Sunday’s episode of The Good Wife (Parenting Made Easy) was particularly appealing to me.  Although the primary plot was focused on Alicia’s worry about whether her daughter had been abducted, I was mostly drawn to watching Alicia’s legal nemesis, Louis Canning (the incomparable Michael J. Fox) attempt to woo her away to his firm by touting the family-friendly workplace flexibility that he provides and himself values as a father.  He tells Alicia she’ll be able to telecommute and spend more time with her kids.  We may be cutthroat, he says, but we’re always home by 5pm.

Sigh.

Flexible work options like telecommuting are a great way to recruit and retain high quality staff, so Louis Canning isn’t just a super smart lawyer – he’s a savvy employer too.  And all the better to see this message conveyed by a father and male employer.

You can read more about the benefits of custom fit work places for employees and employers alike here.

Would you take a job with your professional rival in exchange for flexible work options?