Work PAUSE Thrive

How to Pause for Parenthood Without Killing Your Career

By: Lisen Stromberg

Narrated by: Lisen Stromberg

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

We worry putting our family first means we'll be forced to abandon our careers. We're afraid if we pause our careers, we'll be forever off track. This thinking is outdated - forget what you've heard about how pauses are career limiting, about how those who pause lack ambition, or that if you do pause you won't be able to reenter the paid workforce. That's a flawed reality, one that doesn't reflect the truth of the careers of some of the most successful women in this country.

Author Lisen Stromberg knows this success firsthand. After the birth of her second child, she did something she never imagined she would do: She opted out to focus on her family. But her career didn't end there. Lisen paused, then pivoted to become first a social entrepreneur and then an award-winning journalist writing about women, work, and life in Silicon Valley. Along the way she learned she wasn't alone. Lisen met many highly successful women who told her they never "opted out" but who had, in fact, temporarily downshifted or paused their careers. Their hidden journeys revealed alternative nonlinear paths to the top that enabled them to achieve their personal and professional goals.

In Work PAUSE Thrive, Lisen shares their stories. Deeply rooted in social science research, cutting-edge data collected from nearly 1,500 women, and 186 first-person interviews, this book reveals how trailblazing women have disrupted the traditional career paradigm. What worked for them can work for you.

In this book you'll learn:

• Who pauses, how they do it, and why
• How pausing can enrich both your career and your life
• How to innovate your own nonlinear career path
• What we can - and need - to do as a society to make it possible for more people to achieve their personal and professional goals

Work PAUSE Thrive also reveals new and exciting trends in the workplace and offers targeted solutions for companies to help ensure they have cultures that will enable you to lead the life you want, a life in which you can build both a career and a family and ultimately your own version of a life well lived.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2017 Lisen Stromberg (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Every working person should read this

I love books read by the author, and Lisen Stromberg has proved herself both a talented writer and capable speaker.

I'm not a mother (not by choice), so through this book I've been enlightened about the impacts of our current work culture on parents. When I was caring for my dying mother, I was "lucky" enough to be allowed a flexible job arrangement (working remotely from the hospital and flexible hours). So I definitely realize how valuable that flexibility can be, and I see the need for all working people to be given the same, whether caring for children or any dependent in need.

Politically, I could debate the author concerning the role of government concerning caregiver leave and childcare; having said that, regarding the US being a country whose government designs and implements various programs because they're needed/wanted and also too big for any other group or organization, "that ship has sailed." Given that fact, I agree with the author in principle that more focus should be on these issues. I would prefer that employers take the lead, but we all know it ain't happening.

Also politically, I appreciate that the obviously feminist author acknowedges the shortcomings of radical feminism, demonstrating that being a mother was not, for a while at least, part of that agenda. Men and women are different, and both deserve equal treatment as new parents and as primary caregivers. Our arguably "patriarchal" society does have a way to go to exit the dark ages, and I agree wholeheartedly with that.

The one editorial comment: too much repetition. The book could have been half or two thirds as long and still made all salient points.

I believe every employer and employee should read Work Pause Thrive. Period.