Work-Life Balance a Fraud
Amy Schneider is disillusioned. After years of being told that she could have it all by ERA evangelists, guidance councilors, and countless cosmetic commercials, she has learned that she cannot have a six-figure career, be a PTA mother, and rival Martha Stewart as home-maker of the year.
"I just feel so lied to," says a disappointed Schneider. "I mean, the woman in the Enjoli commercial can do it all." According to Corporate Confidential: What it Really Takes to Get to the Top, women who take advantage of corporate work-life balance programs are less likely to make it to the top than those who sacrifice their home lives.
"Like, why didn't someone tell me that if I want to be a CEO I have to ignore my kids?" asks Schneider, who currently works as a data clerk for a Fortune 500 company with an excellent benefits plan. "Maybe the telecommuting policy should come with a warning or something."
Schneider's HR department states that it is currently reviewing her proposal to add a warning to the front of the Personnel Handbook that reads: "Warning: Face Time is Directly Proportional to Career Advancement."
posted by Trillian @ 3:17 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Wow, now there's a surprise! Still, it goes a long way towards explaining why no one's offered me an executive VP-ship yet.
Is there anyone we can sue? There's gotta be a class-action in here somewhere ...
Sometimes, I know in my heart that the only way I can be successful in my personal life is to give up my professional life. Everyone speaks freely about work-life balance, but few people know what it really means, much less whether or not it's really attainable. In my experience, balance is really only a shifting of priorities. It's either / or, with no "both". The scale is always tipped one way or the other.
My mistake in the past was making my career my priority. In this area, at least, I have learned what not to do, and I hope I can keep the scale shifted to the side of my personal life now.
The work-home balance is a fraud. My kids are asleep whern I leave in the morning and most nights are asleep whenI come home. Where, exactly, is the "balance" in that???
The only answer is to be our own CEOs.
Somehow, hanging around the office until the leader leaves doesn't strike me as a viable time management strategy.
Sigh...someday.
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