In this episode of Unstoppable Together, host Jennie Brooks speaks to Rayna Lerner about the many facets of flexibility. Rayna is currently a member of Booz Allen’s People Services Talent Strategy & Integration team, but she’s held many diverse roles in people functions and client delivery over her 25-year career at the company. Tune in to discover how flexibility led to new career opportunities for Rayna, as well as new chapters in her life, including the chance to make the most out of a unique moment in time with her family.
Jennie Brooks:
Welcome to Booz Allen Hamilton's Unstoppable Together podcast, a series of stories that unite us and empower each of us to change the world. I'm Jennie Brooks with Booz Allen Hamilton, and I'm passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Please join me in conversation with a diverse group of thought leaders to explore what makes them and all of us unstoppable.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Unstoppable Together podcast. I'm your host, Jennie Brooks, and I'm excited to be joined today by a member of Booz Allen's people services, talent strategy, and integration team, Reyna Lerner, who's been with Booz Allen for 25 years in diverse roles across people, functions, and client delivery teams. Reyna, welcome to the podcast.
Reyna Lerner:
Thanks, Jennie. Happy to be here.
Jennie Brooks:
Thank you so much for joining us today. Today, we're talking about a really important topic, flexibility. It's no secret that in the past few years, flexibility has emerged as a major theme across the workplace for so many reasons. Start us off by talking a little bit about how flexibility has shaped your own experiences at Booz Allen.
Reyna Lerner:
Sure. Jennie, I've been so excited to join you for the podcast, because I think many of the experiences I've had over the course of my career here really exemplify how Booz Allen supports employees throughout their career and lives, and flexibility is at the heart of it. I've been here for 25 years, as you said, and when people ask how or why I've stayed here for so long, this is a big part of why. I sort of have a laundry list of the ways that flexibility has shown up in my time here.
Jennie Brooks:
Good. A laundry list is good. Let's get into it.
Reyna Lerner:
All right. So first, when I tell people how long I've worked here, I almost always immediately follow that up by explaining that I have, by no means, been doing the same job for 25 years. As you mentioned, I've held diverse roles, so I've worked across many different teams and roles within our people services function. But I've also supported different markets, locations. I even did client facing work for a few years as an intel analyst, supporting our intel and military clients. So it's almost like I've had multiple careers over that time.
I also relocated with the firm. So I started in DC and transferred down to Tampa, Florida about 20 years ago, and I've been here ever since. I also worked part-time for a few years, when my son was in preschool. And then lastly, like many of us now, I flexed between working in the office and working from home, but not only over the last few years. I had been doing that for years leading up, in pre-pandemic as well. So I feel like, over the years, I've really been able to balance the requirements of the various roles I've held, my career interest, and my personal needs. So I hope that really shows how flexibility can look different over the course of a career here.
Jennie Brooks:
Yeah, that's fantastic. Can you share with us a little bit... Because each one of those that you mentioned sort of has a distinct context to it, a different look and feel, really tapping... You weren't kidding. You're tapping different ways of how flexibility can be realized in your career. Can you tell us a little bit about how you navigated those conversations with your career manager at the time? Because I think that would be really helpful for people listening.
Reyna Lerner:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is one of those things that, for me, really has made my experience stand out for me, again, in terms of thinking, would I ever go to work anywhere else? And I always come back to this, because I think every time I have wanted to do something different, or needed to do something different, or needed really anything in this flavor of things, I've just brought it up to my career manager and leaders, and it's always been met with support.
So for me, that has just stood out across the course of my career with each example. I think that the first step was just reaching out to my career manager. We'd already had that relationship, so it wasn't like you need to schedule a call even. It was just in our normal course of relating, these things would come up, and I would put out there a request for what I needed, and it was always met with support and we'd figure out how to make it work.
I know my experience with mobility and raising those questions and requests to my leadership, as I mentioned, have always been met positively and with support. But if you are an employee who's finding yourself in a situation where you do want to try something new or have a request, and you're not sure how to bring it to your leadership, I would say certainly think about leveraging any mentors or colleagues that you have.
If there are people that you've observed who you know have leveraged benefits or made changes previously, reach out to them, ask for advice in how they could approach it, how they approached it, how they were successful. And then, along the way, when you do reach out to your leadership, be flexible in hearing their response. So you may not get the response you're wanting at first blush, but I think it's a give and take, and you can work together to find a mutual solution and meet your need over time.
Jennie Brooks:
That's awesome. You also mentioned in your laundry list at times taking a pause or a leave of absence. And in my experience speaking with people, sometimes there's, for lack of a better term, an intimidation on the idea of once you leave, how to come back. What does that conversation look like? Can you share with us your experience around the leave of absence particularly?
Reyna Lerner:
Yeah. So this past year, actually, I took a six-month personal leave of absence. So like you said, it wasn't an easy decision to choose to take that time off, particularly at this point in my career. But I think that my story is one that many can relate to, so I am excited to share. To your question, I do think that before I decided to take leave, probably one of the key concerns in my mind was afraid that it would derail my career. But now that I'm on the other side of it and back from leave, I can say I don't feel that way at all. I feel like I received support. Once again, as I brought it up to my leadership, it was met with support.
And frankly, the conversations that transpired once people found out I was taking leave were really inspiring. It struck me because people would reach out over teams and say, "Hey, I heard you're taking leave." First, their question was like, "Is everything okay?" And then when I would let them know that the reason why I was taking leave was to spend time with my family and to appreciate my kids in a unique moment in time that we were having, their responses were so amazing and supportive that I was really touched. For context, a little bit about me, I am married and we have two kids. They're now 18 years old and six years old, so they are 12 years apart.
Jennie Brooks:
Wow, Reyna.
Reyna Lerner:
Yeah. We're kind of crazy and had kids 12 years apart. We can only handle one at a time. So given their age spread, we always knew, from the start, something my husband and I talked about was that we'd really only have them together for about five years, living together in the same roof as our little family unit. So it's been really important to us to savor those few years together and make sure that we foster those bonds. And so, when the pandemic started, for us, our kids were like two and a half and 15. So while obviously the pandemic brought a host of challenges, we had some upside. We got to spend lots of time together.
So in that priority of wanting to savor those few years, it sort of struck at a perfect time for us to really foster that. We also had a quieter schedule over that time. Kids weren't going to school as much. If they were, we weren't allowed to go to their school activities, there weren't any extracurricular activities. Again, if there were, we couldn't go. And there was just less activity overall. So for my husband and I, who are both introverts, this was definitely in our comfort zone. My husband, I think, was thriving, in fact.
But fast-forward a couple years, things started opening back up, our little one is a bit older, activities for both kids ramped back up into full swing, and it sort of hit us like a ton of bricks. My husband and I just felt really overwhelmed, and we were juggling our busy schedules, and kind of getting through it all. But as we approached that last year where we were going to be together, we had a kindergartner and a high school senior, so sentimental time for all of us. And with it being in that spirit of wanting to really savor the moment, and also quiet some of the busy and the juggling, and take the opportunity to appreciate all those little moments that were going to happen over the year with both kids, I made the decision to take a leave of absence.
So like I said before, definitely was not an easy decision. I really loved the role I was in, didn't want to necessarily pull back from that job, but we needed a break, and if there was ever a time, that was going to be it. So I did, and I took the spring and summer off and really played with my kids basically. We did all the things, field trips, birthday parties, graduation. We dropped my son off at college. I did mommy summer camp basically with my six-year-old. So we did all those things that we probably would've done anyway, but just with a little less juggling and really felt like we could savor the moment.
Jennie Brooks:
Awesome. Congratulations. That's so fantastic and so inspiring. I love it. Let's move a little bit to talking about the trends we see in terms of flexibility in the workforce. We know that flexibility has emerged to be a good solid factor in addressing burnout and increasing employee retention. According to Future Forum's research in 2022, employees who are dissatisfied with their level of flexibility at work are 43% more likely to say they feel burned out. At the same time, flexible remote work policies are cited as a source of improved company culture over the past two years. In your roles, how have you seen these trends and flexibility take shape in the workplace over the course of your career?
Reyna Lerner:
So different ways, certainly, over time. I think for the moment that we're in now and have always been, flexibility doesn't mean that the mission has changed or that all business realities are movable, right? There's always going to be some things that just can't be flexed. So I think what we see at Booz Allen is that we're aiming for managed flexibility, where we can balance the needs of our people, our clients, and our business. So while it's been certainly, I think, coming to the forefront since the pandemic, and with so much that's changed in terms of the workforce, and priorities, and codifying more as we transition out of it, I don't think it's new at Booz Allen.
I had an experience once where, I think one that stands out really in my mind across the years that I've been here, was much earlier on in my career, back to when I was in that role. I mentioned earlier I had a stint as an intel analyst. In that role, as many of our colleagues in that field can probably relate, the roles require work in a classified space, sometimes travel. The role I was in required deployments out to international locations for extended periods of time.
So that's really a business reality that I think a lot of our employees face who work in that type of space. And so I think we sometimes think, how do we navigate that? And from my experience, it may not be one that would necessarily resonate for all, but when I was in that role, it was also at a time when I had just gotten married and I was actually expecting my son at the time, and the consideration of deploying out to international locations for extended periods of time was definitely not something that I was super excited about, and it definitely gave me pause.
So at that time, for me, once again, back to what we talked about earlier, my leadership knew me, they knew my priorities, we had good conversations about it, and they knew that I wasn't necessarily excited about the idea of deploying, but it was a requirement by the contract that wasn't really going to be flexible. Fortunately, at the time, that contract that I was on was experiencing a surge in staffing requirements, so much so that the recruiting team had opened up a full-time recruiting position in our local office to support that effort.
So since I had had the recruiting background and was grappling with that deployment requirement, I applied for the recruiting role, and I was offered that position, and so ultimately was able to transition back into the recruiting space, which was a win for all, really. The business and our client needs were addressed because we were staffing the positions that needed to be staffed on the contract, but I was also able to support the mission, but just in a different way that didn't require the deployment. So again, just one example, but I think it sort of shows how we do aim to balance and find creative ways of addressing and providing that managed flexibility that we're aiming for.
Jennie Brooks:
Yeah. I think the other thing that comes to mind as I'm listening to you is, think about flexibility, and we've always had a component of flexibility at Booz Allen, from the projects that we take on, to meeting employees, meeting people where they are to ensure success. But flexibility also increasingly these days as a conversation around mobility and diverse career experiences, which you just touched on.
And what we see is that people really want to be able to move around to different opportunities. They also want diverse career experiences as a means of learning and development, and professional skills, et cetera. So we talk about rotating people around, rotational programs, or that mobility piece. And given how you've seen it in your own personal story, can you give us your thoughts on that today, and what you have found in your own career?
Reyna Lerner:
Yeah. So I feel like I have been a poster child for mobility at Booz Allen, I mean, through the examples I've already shared today. But actually, one of the roles I held within people services was directly in support of mobility for several years. So we've had different names for the function. It used to be called resource management, but our talent marketplace essentially internally serves that purpose.
And like you said, it's always been a priority for the firm and for our employees to be able to have that diversity and experience over the course of their career. And so we've got programs in place that support that. And then additionally, through, like I said, just the culture of being able to express your interests, make connections, and leverage your network, I think that we're able to bring that to reality for a lot of our employees.
Jennie Brooks:
That's fantastic. Reyna, what have I not asked that I should have asked? Your diverse and flexible career stories are fantastic.
Reyna Lerner:
So, I do have a fun story that sort of brings work and personal life together and can sort of relate back to flexibility. Yeah. So fun story of my work and personal life colliding. I'll start with the work side of this story. And again, grounded in flexibility for sure. My first couple of years with the firm, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to participate in a unique HR rotational program.
So at the time, it was an 18-month program where I worked in three different functions that we had. It was HR, learning development, and recruiting. So it was for six months each. And so looking back, being able to participate in a program like that early in my career was invaluable. I was able to expand my network across our teams within people services, I got to try on new roles, and I learned a ton.
Beyond that though, it did open a chapter in my personal story as well, as during one of those rotations, I actually met my husband. And how we met is kind of a funny Booz Allen story. So in that rotation, my office happened to be on the same floor as the one my husband's team was on. So we worked in different teams. Our work didn't really collide, but the floor shared space and also shared restrooms. And one day, I accidentally left my Booz Allen ID badge in the restroom.
My husband's office mate at the time happened to follow me in the restroom and found it, so she brought it back to their office and jokingly tossed it to my husband, sort of like, "Hey, why don't you give her a call?" So he did. He let me know he had my badge, and I went to his office to pick it up, and that became the first time we met, and the rest is history as we're celebrating our 20-year anniversary this year. So again, bringing it back to flexibility, the rotation program not only offered me a great career development opportunity, once again, grounded in that mobility concept that we've talked about, but through a little twist of fate, it also had a huge impact on my personal story.
Jennie Brooks:
It certainly did. Absolutely. Flexibility and a twist of fate for leaving everyone with some inspiration today. Reyna, at the end of every podcast, we give our guests some free space to share their final thoughts. What would you like to leave with our audience today?
Reyna Lerner:
Yeah, thank you. So I know our focus has been on flexibility, and the ways that can show up in the workplace, and the impact that can have on us both professionally and personally. As I reflect on the roles that I've held over the course of my career here, I think one of the things that I always remember and kind of remind myself is that I'm fortunate to know a lot about our benefit and leave programs, the variety of talent programs that we have in place by virtue of the role that I'm in.
And so for me, being able to leverage those programs and meet my flexibility needs and work-life needs is sort of second nature. But I know through my role and in supporting employees and leaders over the years that many of our employees don't always know as much about the options available to them. So just for those listening, I would always encourage employees who may have a need to leverage their leaders, career managers, colleagues, resources that we have available at the firm to see what options might be relevant to them. We want our employees to be supported, happy, and healthy. So I know I've received that type of support, and I hope that the stories I've shared give others a sense of what's possible in this space and how we make it real for our people here.
Jennie Brooks:
Absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing, Reyna. We appreciate it.
Reyna Lerner:
Thanks for having me, Jennie.
Jennie Brooks:
Thanks for listening. Visit careers.boozallen.com to learn how you can be unstoppable with Booz Allen. Be the future. Work with us. The world can't wait.