Natalie Thomas isn’t making any compromises.

The 35-year-old associate at Holland & Knight in Tampa is honing her skills as a construction litigation lawyer, having recently earned a prestigious board certification, and she looks forward to being nominated as a partner.

She has also recently participated in her son’s pre-K apple pie baking day, and she looks forward to dinner and weekends with her family.

“I always wanted to be a mother — I blink my eyes and my son’s already 4 years old. But being challenged and having a rewarding career is also rewarding to me,” Thomas said.

Reporter Dave Simanoff can be reached at (813) 259-7762 or dsimanoff@tampatrib.com.

“I want a fulfilling personal life, and I want the flexibility to develop my career on my path.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Thomas and other professionals would have been asked to sacrifice personal goals to further career ambitions. But today, professionals are embracing new attitudes about success.

Some, such as Thomas, are learning to balance a rewarding career with a satisfying personal life. Others say personal considerations are playing a larger role in the types of jobs they choose and the number of hours they’re working a week.

Experts attribute the trend to a handful of factors:

A wave of new technology. This allows people to stay productive and remain in touch with clients and co-workers, even if they’re not in the office.

The rise of the Millennial Generation. This large and highly vocal demographic group is just now entering the workforce and expects employers to understand the balance between professional and personal life.

That, in turn, is changing corporate mores and shaking up baby-boomer obstinacy.

Long-term career paths. Many young employees don’t envision spending their entire career with a single company.

So the rewards that may have tempted previous generations to scrap their personal lives for long hours at work — such as a corner office after 30 years of toil — aren’t nearly as tempting anymore.

“Instead of there being one social norm of success, success is becoming a much more open question. It’s a much more multivariable concept,” said workplace expert Bruce Tulgan, author of “It’s Okay to Be the Boss” and founder of Rainmaker Thinking in New Haven, Conn.

Many people no longer want to forfeit their personal lives for money, rank and seniority — especially when the payoff is so many years in the future, Tulgan said.

“To Generation Y [the Millennial Generation], that sounds absurd,” he said. “It sounds like you’re trying to sell them a bridge.”

Interior Designer Mom Works 4 Days

Mary Farley is one of the professionals who opted to work fewer hours in the office.

After she gave birth to her first son seven years ago, she returned to her commercial interior design career. She quickly realized she would be happier working four days a week.

It was worrisome asking her bosses to change her schedule, but she knew she was respected and liked at work. The company agreed to let her work Monday through Thursday.

Now Farley works for CLW Real Estate Services Group in Tampa, where she coordinates interior design planning and standards for one of her company’s clients, a major financial services firm.

She still works four days a week. Today, she has two sons.

Once or twice a week, she works from home, pulling up all her work documents and files through a virtual private network on her home computer and teleconferencing with architects and designers in Chicago, Atlanta and New York.

“Being a working mother has its challenges, and working a day or two at home, with a four-day schedule, really eases the stress of trying to do it all,” Farley said. “It reduces the risk of burnout, too.”

It’s important to have a boss who trusts employees to work from home and gives those employees the tools to work away from the office, Farley said.

“It says they believe in me as a professional and value me as an employee,” she said. “It says they know I don’t have to be in the office to perform and succeed.”

Farley said she believes success comes from balancing her personal and professional goals.

“Success is to exceed the expectations of your client and employer, while maintaining a level of connection to your personal life,” she said.

Not Just About The Money

Lawyer Jared Smith said he considers the needs of his family and his wife, Suzette, when he weighs job offers.

Before accepting his current job a year ago at Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell, the former Air Force JAG officer weighed several offers.

“One of the jobs promised well over $200,000 a year, but I looked at the hours that the attorneys were putting in, and I made the decision that even though the pay was excellent, it was not going to fit into my priorities,” he said.

Smith knows it might take him longer to achieve his career goals than someone who doesn’t have a family to raise. He knows it’s about balance.

“Ultimately, may this hurt my career a little bit? Could I have had more exposure, or could I have gotten my name out a little bit more? Yes, but I’m choosing to make that sacrifice,” he said. “I’m OK with that. I’m OK to go a little bit slower.”

Back at Holland & Knight’s offices —which, coincidentally, are just a few floors up from Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell, in the same downtown Tampa office building — lawyer Natalie Thomas is comfortable with the speed at which her career is progressing.

The number of hours spent in the office? That’s a moot point, she said. It’s the quality of the work that’s most meaningful to her, her clients and her employer, she said. She, too, knows it’s about balance.

“It’s really important to find a place where you can perform that balancing act,” she said.

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