During her two maternity leaves, Tara Piurko maintained a lifeline to her hard-earned career as a lawyer in Toronto through an innovative buddy program run by her firm, McCarthy Tétrault LLP. Through the program, she and a selected work buddy regularly met for lunch, with her baby in tow. In weekly calls, Ms. Piurko received…

The example of this executive highlights the powerful influence that direct supervisors can have in creating more flexible (and more human) work cultures: Andrea was the technology manager for a telecommunications company operating in Argentina. An engineer and mother of five, she had always been capable of balancing her work and family life. She was…