128: Building a Life on Our Terms with Jane Johnson
Have you found that full-time corporate life just doesn’t work for you? Long hours, commutes, expectations that you will be available at all times when it really isn’t convenient for you, stress. There can be many reasons why the rigidity of corporate jobs does not suit women. And when that happens you can feel like you have been effectively thrown on the scrapheap. You invested all that time and energy on building your career and suddenly it can feel like it counts for nothing. This is the experience of many women when they have a baby. They will try to negotiate better terms and find that they get turned down, or that despite having been told they can ‘have it all’, actually, work and family aren’t as compatible as they had hoped. It’s a harsh experience to go through. And this needs to change. Women need to be able to build life on their own terms. In this week’s podcast episode I am talking about why I am so fired up about this fight. My guest is Jane Johnson, the founder of Careering Into Motherhood. When she returned to her role as global director at a major bank she negotiated a job-share. She was the first person at her level to do so. This was successful but when she looked for the next step in her career, recruiters weren’t interested in talking about flexible working. Jane went on to found a highly successful recruitment business helping women to find senior roles that offered flexible working. She was inundated with candidates and could not meet demand, so rather than turn away women who wanted to work, she started the Careering into Motherhood community in 2019. It began as a Facebook group and membership has grown to more than 8,000 women. Jane has run mentoring programmes for 60 women, online coaching programmes during lockdown, launched the award-winning Careering into Motherhood podcast, She was invited by 10 Downing Street to advise the Department For Business (BEIS) on flexible working. We talk about: Challenges women face about wanting to have a career and being around for their family How coaching is an enabler for building a life that works on our terms The importance of financial independence for women How women building businesses and negotiating better terms builds a more inclusive society Making workplaces less toxic for women Women being able to make choices that work for them Useful links Careering into Motherhood Join Careering into Motherhood’s online community Get in touch with Jessica to discuss your consulting business Jessica’s LinkedIn profile