Credit: StickBus, Flickr
By Amy L. Hatch
A story about Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, has been making the social-media rounds this week — all because this high-powered female exec and mom confessed that she leaves her office at — gasp! — 5:30 p.m. every day.
In a video for Makers.com, Sandberg says:
“I walk out of this office every day at 5:30 so I’m home for dinner with my kids at 6, and interestingly, I’ve been doing that since I had kids. I did that when I was at Google, I did that here, and I would say it’s not until the last year, two years that I’m brave enough to talk about it publicly. Now, I certainly wouldn’t lie, but I wasn’t running around giving speeches on it.”
What’s crazy about Sandberg’s “bravery” is the fact that leaving the office at 5:30 p.m. used to be considered perfectly civilized, and it certainly didn’t mean you were slacking off or putting your family before your work (and what’s so wrong with that, anyway).
I grew up in a company town, the northeast city that gave birth to what we called the Big Three: Eastman Kodak Co., Xerox Corp. and Bausch and Lomb and everyone knew that if you worked at Kodak, you were home by 5 p.m. — no matter what your gender.
My dad worked for Xerox his whole life, and while he stayed at the office later than most of the other fathers I knew, he never went to work on the weekends and rarely worked past the bedtime hour.
I did a stint at a gig that required a life led on call, a 24-hour a day job that left me very little time for anything else in my life. Working at a newspaper is to be ready to get to that event, scene, press conference and, in my case, endless evening municipal and school board meetings, not to mention holidays, weekends and plenty of other off-hours work.
It takes a toll and it prevents you from having a life.
When I left that job for corporate America, I left my office at 5 p.m. on the dot most days, and earlier if I had nothing left to do that day. I raised eyebrows left and right doing this, although plenty of the other cubes were empty at the same hour.
But the offices with the doors? No one left earlier than 6 p.m.
Surprise! I had trouble getting promoted.
Our society is more competitive than ever and staying late at the office is just one way we try to outdo each other in our relentless — and exhausting — quest to be and have the The Very Best. But to what end?
Some professions demand a serious time commitment — doctor, fireman, newspaper reporter/editor, even plumber. But how many of us can really say that our jobs are so important that we need to sacrifice our personal lives in order to do them?
Are you with me? Are you in favor of the eight-hour workday? Let’s start a revolution — go home on time tonight.
I think it’s great that she leaves “on time” but I’m guessing she is still checking email at night, early in the morning, etc. Because of technology, we all have 24/7 jobs, it seems.
The flipside of this is the people who have flexible jobs, who can be with their kids when they want and work when they want. Part-time jobs, off hours, telecommuters — more technology has led to more pressure, which has opened the door for more flexibility.
Yesterday I toured the first factory town, now known as Chicago’s Pullman Historic District. In addition to the first “model” company town, it’s the site of a famous strike in the 1890′s, one that led to strikes around the country—makes one think about Occupy Wall Street. At any rate, I snapped a shot of the steps of a building (now in disrepair) where labor leader Eugene Debs made his famous speech calling for an 8-hour workday. It’s an issue that’s stood the test of time (no pun intended).
My husband sent me that article last night, since we spend so much time talking about the differences between men and women when raising a family and working. He also sent me a related article, from Forbes magazine: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sabrinaparsons/2012/04/11/is-modern-motherhood-working-against-women/
Whatever your beliefs about the article’s message, this quote really bothered me:
I get up at 5am so that I can work out, check in on email, and get to the office by 7:30 am. I can still see the kids in the morning, help them gt dressed and start breakfast. My husband then finishes morning duties and drops kids off at school, so that I can get to the office early. I never “take” a lunch. I always work through lunch, but I leave the office everyday by 4:45 in order to get home, start dinner, and get the kids to their late afternoon/evening activities (swim practice, soccer practice, etc.). Our whole family eats dinner together, and spends time after dinner doing homework, reading, playing, and relaxing before bath time. The kids are in bed and asleep by latest, 8:30pm. That gives me another hour or so to get some work done before I’m exhausted and need to head to bed (and if possible read for a few minutes).
This mom is AMAZING to fit this all in. Really amazing. But at what cost to herself? It doesn’t sound like she gets (or takes) even one second to for a deep breath…