The Workday Reading: September 11, 2017
Sep 11, 2017
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1) The Ambition Collision: why being a female professional is harder in your 30s. (The Cut)
2) Huge sale at LOFT. I bought this necklace and this necklace.
3) How to find meaning in a job that’s not a calling. (HBR)
4) I just bought 7 Dojo jeans. It’s 2005 again, and I love it.
5) Behind a $13 shirt, a $6-an-hour worker. (LATimes)
6) BR Picks: Hot pink pants, a moody shift dress, a chic cardigan.
7) 3 career lessons from Time’s ‘First Women’ series. (TheLadders)
8) I’m totally lusting after these Jimmy Choo pumps.
9) How to invest better: A basic guide. (Elle)
10) The long- and short-sleeve Zella twist tops are amazing.
11) What Nixon got right about women. (CNN)
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What I Am Loving. These copper wire storage baskets.
What I’m Considering. Going to a wellness retreat.
What I Read Three Times. A post on the state of blogging in 2017.
What I’m Listening to, on Repeat. Portugal. The Man. Feel it Still.
[quote from getbullish; image of 9/11 Memorial found here]
That first article got me. I have shared with all my friends because I want to talk about it with EVERYONE. Thanks for posting!
I read that article a few days ago, and it’s legit the story of my life. Well, I don’t necessarily agree with persistent sexism being the cause of ambition stagnation, but I do find myself in my early 30s, professionally adrift. For me, it’s being fed this belief that our careers should be our lives, our passions, and if they aren’t, then we’ve failed in our mediocrity. I’ve completely burnt out in my job, and now I’m thinking, you know what, a soul-less job, where I get paid a decent amount, and can go home and not have to think about work sounds pretty appealing. I’m tired of work defining me and being a part of my life 24/7.
So much yes. I am in a career I worked hard for–I’m a lawyer and work in government relations. I find myself regularly missing my retail job from college. What is that about?
Same. I’m an attorney in my mid-thirties and a couple of weeks ago I visited an aquarium and found myself envying the employees in wetsuits hanging out with penguins. When I expressed this to my extended family members that evening they looked at me like I was crazy.
One day, we got evacuated from our office for a bomb threat, so I walked with a co-worker to the botanical gardens. Watching the gardener plant flowers on a nice spring day, I’ve never been so jealous of a person’s career choices in my life.
I didn’t agree with the sexism part as the cause either. But for me, it’s just, you hit the ground running in your 20s with so much energy. Then, you’ve been working 10 years, you’ve accomplished the goals you set for yourself, and you’re like…what do you mean, I have another 30 working years?
Seriously. I achieved the 3-5 year goals I’d set out for myself after college less than a year after graduating, and now at almost 32, the thought of continuing on this path is just daunting.
I’m not even in my 30s yes and that article resonates with me. I proposed a project at my company that would have been a great next step…and it got turned down. And then I took a harder look at the facts and not only are my male peers consistently out-ranking the women…there’s nothing that implies that is going to change. Saying that I don’t know what I’m going to do next feels like a giant understatement.
I was thinking that I didn’t feel like that first article applied to me, even though I am in the target audience. I’m very satisfied with my job, and I seem to have lots of opportunities and am well regarded in my field. But then I realized that I never expected my job to be the THING that fulfills me. I enjoy it, and they give me money: that seems like a win-win in my book. But I never had conventional ambition I guess, I never wanted to be the best of the best or be the most powerful person in the room, I just want to be better than I was yesterday, or last year or when I started. My background means that I might have been more practical than the average college graduate, and I am by no means a type-A personality, so maybe that’s why I don’t feel that way.
Out of curiosity, where do you live and what field are you in? I feel like I’m surrounded by Type As and my peers from both college and the professional world are all doing these amazing things. I don’t necessarily want to do those things, but it makes it harder not to compare myself. I’m thinking of moving back home so that I can figure out my next step without having people around me to compare myself to. I’d love to find something that was interesting and paid the bills but wasn’t as all-consuming as my current job.
I’m in SoCal, and it is pretty laid back compared to other places. I also work in tech, so while I’m sure there are type-As around here somewhere, most people are pretty chill. Being a woman in tech I sometimes feel like I get accolades just for existing, which seems unfair to my male counterparts who are just as talented as I am, and sometimes more so! I do love the critical thinking and problem-solving aspects of my job, of designing solutions to problems our users are facing every day. It’s a way of helping people do their jobs better, and it probably doesn’t sound glamorous, but it seems to suit me.
Hi Belle –
I wanted to comment about your thoughts about the forest fires in the northwest. I wasn’t going to say anything, but, I did want to share this article with you. I work for the Department of Agriculture and can assure you that the forest fires in the NW are on the forefront of discussions at the highest level. Unfortunately, we’re not an agency that gets a lot of media – we don’t make the major news markets. I wanted to share this with you and hope that we can get the ear of Congress. https://www.agdaily.com/news/perdue-congress-major-fires-disasters/
My issue is more with the President. I know Dept. of Ag does a lot of work on this issue, but as you said, it’s not a hot Cab Dept for the media. These folks in MT need pres. disaster declaration yesterday.
I highly recommend watching the entire Time FIRSTS series. The takeaway from the Laddres article is nice but there are nuggets in all of them: https://time.com/collection/firsts/
Cheers –