Long airplane flights offer me much opportunity to catch up on past reading. For this flight, I brought along about eight magazines that have been cluttering up my office at home.
One of the more interesting was an older issue (two months gone by I suspect) of Fast Company that discussed Where Are the Women? The focus of the article was about the progress, or lack thereof, that women had made moving into the top levels of corporate America.
The more interesting parts of the article were about the women who had reached the upper levels of corporation management only to walk away because the price wasnt worth it. This is something that Ive thought about a lot lately.
I have a good friend back in Cleveland who was on the fast-track to a senior leadership position at my employer. She also had two small children at home. Out of the blue, she took a leave of absence which led to a resignation in order to spend more time at home. As of the last time we spoke, she still wasnt working.
And Im not sure that I blame her.
As things exist today, I am up at 5am, at a work location by 6:30a or 7:00am (its a 90 minute drive most days each way, sometimes longer) – I spent 8-9 hours at that location, and then drive home. I get around 20 phone calls daily with 2-3 of them being after normal business hours (my work location has 24 hour operations and things do happen after hours) – and then 2-3 calls per day on the weekend. Add another 500 or so emails each week and an out of town travel strip every 2-3 weeks, and things add up quickly.
I dont have children, so this workload is doable but sometimes I wonder to what purpose?
The promotion that I have been striving for will come at some point and then Ill be on the road overnight 3-4 days a week in most cases. While I would enjoy the professional challenge, I wonder if the sacrifice for the additional money and prestige is worth it.
No, Im not leaving, and no, Im not removing myself from the rat race. This article just threw some deep thoughts my way that Im chewing through, as usual.