Love this Alia…..a very timely read for this corporate chick, sitting here reading your piece over a morning coffee before logging in for the day!!! Thank you for the reminder to set boundaries!!
Love this. Happiest and scariest day was handing in my resignation. Now in my own business I'm happy to work extra hours knowing I'm helping a client who appreciates my efforts.
Dear Alia, thank you for highlighting my newsy. I'm thrilled for the shout out, but even more because now I've found your lovely newsletter. I will look forward to reading along. mm
You're most welcome Maggie, and thank you. I very much enjoyed your update. I find it hard to let go of a place, even when I'm itching to move on, so I could feel you there in the gap between. Wishing you all the best settling in to your new home. It sounds beautiful.
Well said. And the fact that this very fundamental aspect of a healthy, balanced life needs to spill over into law in this day and age boggles the mind. But hopefully it provides confidence to those who indeed feel too vulnerable in their position to speak up. P.S Love the skeleton sketch!
I had a similar experience 45 years ago as a young attorney in a large firm. I was one of the first women hired and the first to have a baby. The firm was very supportive, including an adjustment to my hours so I would come in a 6 am and leave at 3pm, same hours in office as before, billing the same hours. I had this adorable baby who slept 7-7! If I hadn't adjusted the hours I'd have never seen him. It was working very well until I went down the elevator with a senior partner I didn't work with , who asked me "How it was going for me part-time?" I realized that if no one sees you, they don't know you are working! Within a couple of years I was working on my own and grateful I could manage the change.
Germans have always been endearingly direct about this. I can still imagine vividly the blank incomprehension of a German colleague contacted by their boss nach Feierabend (after work). I suspect that pernicious US work practices have made inroads there too, but the sheer passive aggression of a German worker required to do something not in their job description is a beautiful thing.
Endearingly direct is the perfect way of describing it. European countries have definitely been better at resisting it, but it's hard to stave off in a competitive space.
I think work creep is in part a generational phenomenon. In the first of my two salaried jobs I often worked overtime, on one occasion several hours into the small hours of the morning after a full day, but I started employment before mobile phones, internet and email. If you weren’t at work, it was difficult for an employer to claim your time. By the time those technologies were ubiquitous – and invaluable tools in publishing – I was already planning my escape into freelance work. I entered the workforce with the utter confidence that nobody owned my time other than the hours they specifically paid for. Looking back, that was a privileged position – but my God it was a healthy one.
Being able to freelance is a saviour. I'm glad you made that escape. Our time is valuable, especially downtime. I've genuinely loved every other one of my salaried jobs and always worked on-call to make sure things ran smoothly, but it was always on the basis that things were developing in a direction where work hours would ease toward normal once this, that and the other was done. I never made it to normal hours, but it may have been possible, I don't know. I decided to go back to freelance and writing when the kids were born so I could be more present with them.
It was a real epiphany for me, having spent three years in the destabilising and exploitative atmosphere of a US publisher, but sheltered from that reality by British management who truly cared for their staff. Suddenly I realised I had skills that were in demand, that maintaining and updating those skills was my main career goal – and that I need never be short of work, or forced to do work I didn’t enjoy, or play corporate games, ever again. That’s held good for 28 years and counting.
Love this Alia…..a very timely read for this corporate chick, sitting here reading your piece over a morning coffee before logging in for the day!!! Thank you for the reminder to set boundaries!!
I was thinking of you while I wrote this. You do some crazy overtime.
Love this. Happiest and scariest day was handing in my resignation. Now in my own business I'm happy to work extra hours knowing I'm helping a client who appreciates my efforts.
That's fantastic! I work for myself now too, and it is very rewarding. The difference now is we have to be disciplined and make sure we 'switch off' 😂
Dear Alia, thank you for highlighting my newsy. I'm thrilled for the shout out, but even more because now I've found your lovely newsletter. I will look forward to reading along. mm
You're most welcome Maggie, and thank you. I very much enjoyed your update. I find it hard to let go of a place, even when I'm itching to move on, so I could feel you there in the gap between. Wishing you all the best settling in to your new home. It sounds beautiful.
Well said. And the fact that this very fundamental aspect of a healthy, balanced life needs to spill over into law in this day and age boggles the mind. But hopefully it provides confidence to those who indeed feel too vulnerable in their position to speak up. P.S Love the skeleton sketch!
Thanks Mary :)
I had a similar experience 45 years ago as a young attorney in a large firm. I was one of the first women hired and the first to have a baby. The firm was very supportive, including an adjustment to my hours so I would come in a 6 am and leave at 3pm, same hours in office as before, billing the same hours. I had this adorable baby who slept 7-7! If I hadn't adjusted the hours I'd have never seen him. It was working very well until I went down the elevator with a senior partner I didn't work with , who asked me "How it was going for me part-time?" I realized that if no one sees you, they don't know you are working! Within a couple of years I was working on my own and grateful I could manage the change.
What a wonderful sleeper!
Yes, it's true what you say, and not being familiar with your role, they'll never truly understand what you do even if you try to explain it to them.
Germans have always been endearingly direct about this. I can still imagine vividly the blank incomprehension of a German colleague contacted by their boss nach Feierabend (after work). I suspect that pernicious US work practices have made inroads there too, but the sheer passive aggression of a German worker required to do something not in their job description is a beautiful thing.
Endearingly direct is the perfect way of describing it. European countries have definitely been better at resisting it, but it's hard to stave off in a competitive space.
I think work creep is in part a generational phenomenon. In the first of my two salaried jobs I often worked overtime, on one occasion several hours into the small hours of the morning after a full day, but I started employment before mobile phones, internet and email. If you weren’t at work, it was difficult for an employer to claim your time. By the time those technologies were ubiquitous – and invaluable tools in publishing – I was already planning my escape into freelance work. I entered the workforce with the utter confidence that nobody owned my time other than the hours they specifically paid for. Looking back, that was a privileged position – but my God it was a healthy one.
Being able to freelance is a saviour. I'm glad you made that escape. Our time is valuable, especially downtime. I've genuinely loved every other one of my salaried jobs and always worked on-call to make sure things ran smoothly, but it was always on the basis that things were developing in a direction where work hours would ease toward normal once this, that and the other was done. I never made it to normal hours, but it may have been possible, I don't know. I decided to go back to freelance and writing when the kids were born so I could be more present with them.
It was a real epiphany for me, having spent three years in the destabilising and exploitative atmosphere of a US publisher, but sheltered from that reality by British management who truly cared for their staff. Suddenly I realised I had skills that were in demand, that maintaining and updating those skills was my main career goal – and that I need never be short of work, or forced to do work I didn’t enjoy, or play corporate games, ever again. That’s held good for 28 years and counting.