Book Review: LEAN IN
Just finished reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg.
The book is about women in the work place and how nothing has changed in several decades, how the home place also needs to change to enable women to get to the top. She makes a lot of valid points, but says nothing new. Hopefully a new voice taking up the rallying call will galvanize some change.
Granted, my “career” in the corporate world has come and gone (see bio link above), and I was lucky enough to work in a business that allowed for flexibility when it came to my children. I am also married to great man who was a very hands-on dad. When something came up, we would compare schedules and adjust things as needed. If that meant I worked mornings while he stayed home with a sick child, then he went in in the afternoon, we did it. He prefers working late anyway, so I would drop the children off at after school activities/classes (or car pool with other other parents to do this), then he would pick them up on his way home.
Sandberg is lucky (she doesn’t like that word, but what’s true is true) in that she works for innovative companies (Facebook, Google) that are changing the world starting with the workplace culture. Her maternity leave options were way different than mine were. I do recall telling the first woman general manager of my company that we needed access to personal products in the restrooms. A week later a machine was installed. And that was cutting edge at the time.
I think Sandberg’s relative youth bothers me, too, because she doesn’t always connect the dots, especially if the dots were drawn before she was cognizant. Example: why people are working more hours. She blames technology. I blame reduction in workforce, spreading more tasks to few people. The work still has to get done, even if you do lay-off your entire graphics department. DUH!
If I were a younger woman, I might find this book valuable. I found nothing new, some ignorance, and probably shouldn’t have read it because it mostly annoyed me.
Attitude is a decision.
