“Women have fought to make job shares and flexitime arrangements the norm. Leaning back is just the next chapter”. Helen Russell
Women are surrounded, nay inundated, with how to get to the top; how we can have it all; how we can do the school run-go to work-school run again-fix dinner-kids to bed-work out-sign off reports, proposals, email, checkout shopping basket on Amazon- get eight hours sleep in, I’m exhausted just writing it, let alone having to do it, as most working mothers.
Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook) told us a while ago, women can get the top jobs if they Lean In. It was motivational, it still is. But is it realistic? Helen Russell (as featured in Stylist Magazine ) has basically said that, all things being equal, it’s time for less of the leaning in and let’s lean back. You know, here at Share Your Job, we couldn’t agree more.
Sometimes racing to the top of the career ladder at work can be crowded, exhausted and maybe when you get there, it’s not a great view from where you were before. Racing to the top may mean longer working hours and a more demanding and stressful role. This isn’t balanced. Achieving a sensible work-life-balance isn’t easy, but once you have it – it is worth it.
Working harder doesn’t necessarily mean working more exhausting, longer hours; perhaps the take should be to work smarter by working less, as Alex Soojung-Kim Pang says in his book “Rest”. There are ways to do this such as through job-sharing, flexible working and perhaps even a sabbatical. By cutting the workload you’ll gain the physical rest, the mental and emotional rest that the traditional working hours of a 9-5 job gives. This rest can be applied to you, your passion or your family, whatever means the most to you.
If you would like to consider job sharing, register with us to take that step to Leaning Back.
