Climbing down the ladder

In this time and age, there is nothing out there that the modern woman cannot achieve. At a young age, she is encouraged to explore the world and to compete with her peers - in attaining knowledge, in leadership positions, in sports, in music and art, in nearly everything. At every success, the high achiever is being recognised and rewarded. So she keeps on achieving in school, in college and in university.

She then steps into the workplace with hopes and dreams to climb up the corporate ladder; not only to fulfil her own aspirations but also that of her parents and everyone who knows her. How could she afford fail? There is knowledge to be attained and there is opportunity to generate financial wealth. There is no time to lose.

With the paper qualification, she competes for the prized job. With the prized job, she competes to work under the tutelage of the best bosses and to be given the best assignments. In such a competitive working environment, she will put in the extra hours, often 'eating' her time. Despite the exhaustion and the unreasonable working environment, she will always deliver. When recognised, she is proud and satisfied of her achievements. When not, she will go back to the grind, this time with increased intensity so that at the next round she will emerge a top achiever among her peers. Often, the motivation is not the financial gain but the recognition and the sense of achievement. Remember, that is the 'world' she grew up in. In that 'world' she must always strive to be the best. How can it be wrong to be the best that you can be?

The truth is that it can be wrong. Life will eventually fall apart when work takes top priority over all else. No doubt the human is designed to work but work is not meant to consume the entirety of one's life until it usurps the place of God and of the family. It is crucial for everyone to find a work life balance. About a decade ago, the hiring manager once said to us, the group of new recruits in a major accounting firm, "You can always find another job if you lose this one. But there are certain things in life, once lost there is no replacement." I have not forgotten her advice to this day.

The modern woman is no bionic woman. She is not a machine. She must learn to stop. She must learn to listen to herself and to be gentle on herself. In an often male dominated workplace, she often works herself extremely hard just to prove her worth and to prove that she deserves to be there at the top management level. She is expected to be vocal, aggressive and outstanding. Recently at lunch during a company training, this corporate trainer made a rather interesting but sad comment. He said that the reason why so many people had to work such long hours is because more often than not, there is a single or unmarried lady boss who dictates all that and she has no life of her own. Perhaps it is an unfair stereotype. Then again, perhaps there is a grain of truth in it.

The modern woman does not need the world to judge her. Whether she is the top executive, the working mum or the home maker, she is the one who ultimately takes charge of her life and she can choose to be happy wherever she is. It does not matter how the world looks at her. If she feels tired being at the top of the ladder, she could choose to climb down for a little while just to smell the flowers, have some play time and be refreshed. After all, girls just want to have fun. And they deserve it.