After Lehman, Callan Speaks Out on Balancing Work and Life

Erin Callan, the former chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers, has kept to herself after leaving Wall Street during the financial crisis.

But she is back in public view, with an opinion essay in The New York Times on Sunday about managing the demands of a high-intensity job.

Writing from Sanibel, Fla., Ms. Callan says she has some regrets â€" not about the disastrous collapse of Lehman, per se, but about how she allowed her job to consume her life. Making reference to Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook‘s chief operating officer, and Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo â€" two powerful women who have recetly incited debates over work-life balance â€" Ms. Callan draws lessons from her experience.

“Whatever valuable advice I have about managing a career, I am only now learning how to manage a life,” she writes.

“I didn’t start out with the goal of devoting all of myself to my job. It crept in over time,” she says. “Each year that went by, slight modifications became the new normal. First I spent a half-hour on Sunday organizing my e-mail, to-do list and calendar to make Monday morning easier. Then I was working a few hours on Sunday, then all day. My boundaries slipped away until work was all that was left.”

“Until recently, I thought my singular focus on my career was the most powerful ingredient in my success. But I am beginning to realize that I sold myself short. I was talented, intelligent and energetic. It didn’t have to be so extreme. Besides, there were diminishing returns to that kind of labor.”

Ms. Callan, who had a stint at Credit Suisse after leaving Lehman in 2008, is adjusting to a new life with her husband, Anthony Montella. She recently put her home in East Hampton up for sale and is living for the time being in Florida.

Her essay, which was published just before the release on Monday of Ms. Sandberg’s book, “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead,” appears intended to add to the conversation over women in the workplace. It follow other meditations on the subject by Wall Street women.

Ruth M. Porat, the chief financial officer of Morgan Stanley, was said to be a tireless worker, according to a 2010 profile by DealBook’s Susanne Craig. Hamilton E. James, the president of the Blackstone Group, said at the time of Ms. Porat: “She never makes you feel like you are disturbing her personal life; I don’t even know if she has one.”

Balancing competing demands can be quite challenging. Alison Mass, co-head of the private equity banking group at Goldman Sachs, said in a 2010 commencement speech at New York University that she had to make some sacrifices.

“I’ve learned to accept that I cannot be an A+ at everything every day,” she said, according to a transcript. “I’ve also learned that I can be an A, on average, over the course of a week in my life.”

Sallie L. Krawcheck, a former executive at Bank of America and Citigroup, told Forbes in 2008 about the importance of taking breaks from work.

“What’s happened in this downturn, which I think is going to help me longer-term,” she said at the time, “is that I’ve found that backing away â€" even if it’s just for a 45-minute run in the morning or taking time off on the weekend â€" is crucial to getting through this.”

From a personal standpoint, the collapse of Lehman might have actually helped Ms. Callan have important realizations about her life, she says.

“In 2007, I did start to have my doubts about the way I was living my life. Or not really living it. But I felt locked in to my career,” she writes in the essay. “Without the crisis, I may never have been strong enough to step away.”