“Leaning in” is not the answer to our larger cultural problem and the unrealistic expectations the tech world sets for both men and women. Leaning in is an option, certainly. But, for most of us, “leaning in” will keel us all over into burnout. It will lean us all into lives we’re still inexplicably unhappy about living, always seeking the next way to “lean in” and “get ahead”, no matter what physical or emotional toll it may take. No matter what drugs you have to do. Never mind that you’re falling apart and haven’t had any time for yourself all week in between working and your commute back and forth to Palo Alto.
What Sheryl Sandberg ignores is that whatever we’re leaning in to is an arbitrary boundary that will lead us into nowhere. To “lean in”, as she describes, or as society has taken it to mean, is to push harder in the workplace and to keep going despite the fact that our laundry hasn’t been done in weeks and our apartment is hardly lived in.
And, personally, I feel that pushing into other people’s bullshit boundaries and arbitrary organizational frameworks is a waste of my time.
An Open Letter to Sheryl Sandberg from a Twenty-Something Woman in Tech | Techendo - Tech Life. Culture. News. (via slavin)