Change the work world or work around it?
June 7th, 2010 | by Leanne
I was recently solicited with another at home business opportunity. I get them a lot, which is understandable considering I run this site. And while it’s an interesting concept as are so many other opportunities like this, it’s just not what I’m about.
There have always been ways around the system…Tupperware, Mary Kay, Amway…but what I’m trying to do is change the system. I want to change the way the work world works so that people can have outside interests and personal obligations and still work in corporate America.
I’m not judging…goodness knows I have my share of Silpada jewelry and Worth clothing – and love them! It’s just not the kind of work I’m interested in.
- I want to navigate the corporate lattice going up, going sideways, maybe even going backwards.
- I want the next generation and the generation after that not to have to work 9 to 5, M-F if that doesn’t work for them, but still be able to work in the corporate environment.
- I want corporations to understand that with autonomy comes greater engagement and productivity
and I’m not really interested in stopping until we get there.
Yes, I’m tired…and my head hurts from bumping up against many a stone wall. But I’m not interested in a work around. I mean after all – we’ve been throwing Tupperware parties since 1948…it hasn’t changed the corporate world, it has just given them an out for we square pegs who don’t fit into their nice round holes so they do not have to deal with the realities of work/life.
4 Comments
I am the daughter of a Tupperware lady (my parents helped launch the product in a large portion of New Zealand in the early ’70s). I grew up literally in the back of a warehouse, where we built batcaves out of Tupperware boxes and stole cash from the money bag (oh boy did we pay for that). It was it’s own kind of intense, but my brothers and I often went to work with our parents, and went on many of their business trips.
When my Mum just went back to being an ‘ordinary’ Tupperware lady in subsequent years, I would go to parties with her on weekends and evenings and do my homework in the corner. It wasn’t perfect, but it certainly gave us a working mother and an at home mother all at the same time, and often the same for my father. Thanks for the reminder! Oh, and I can still do a pretty good demo for you. I was taught by the best
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I’d love to see @chrysula demonstrate the trademarked seal ‘burp’ of Tupperware.
But on a more serious note, !Change the work world!
People can indeed make a positive difference through subtle but dramatic changes in the way that they do conventional jobs, but they still need us to work on changing the system too. (Tupperware) Party on.
cv
Changing the system takes a long time–and you’re doing your part (head-banging and all
to nudge corporate view points and practices to a better way of working.
But my guess is that your blog posts are giving individual women the confidence to make changes in their own work-life world in the near-term and that’s making a difference now. Press on!
Chrysula – I love it! The next lunch will include Tupperware talk clearly. I love what these kind of businesses did for moms before women entered the work world in force and it’s still great for so many…but I’m ready to move ahead.
CV – We will change the world – I do believe that.
Pat – Thank you for your words. I need to hear that now and then. Sometimes I feel I’m talking to no one, it’s so nice to hear that my words resonate and change is happening…even if it is more slowly than I’d prefer (I want it and want it NOW!)