The thing is… workaholism has its upsides. When I was in high school, I had handwritten “you can keep going long after you can’t” on a strip of paper and pinned it above my desk. I looked at it nearly every night when I sat late into the wee hours finishing my load of AP homework. And I could. I could keep going. I was praised for my work ethic and focus by, well, all of society. The other thing is… work works. Sure you can find productivity hacks and work “smarter not harder,” but on the whole, in my experience, hard work actually does pay off. It’s gotten me awards, an Ivy League education, job offers, grants, and approving nods. Probably even got me a few dates. But the most important thing is… it’s not everything. Hard work is good… and it shouldn’t always be the priority. We can feel proud of our work… and not center our identity around it.Work can be a source of joy… and be one of many in our lives.Hard work has indeed taken me places. I am a Senior Advisor at the transformation consultancy SYPartners, which for the past 30 years, has been working to create organizations and a world of work that are driven by humanity as much as performance. I have focused my career on transformation, employee experience, and the future of work, partnering with companies including Calvin Klein, Target, Google, Microsoft, and Pfizer. I love sharing my learnings on a stage, and have delivered dozens of keynotes around the globe on the human experience of work. Previously, I was the CEO of NOBL, a global change consultancy pioneering new ways of working.I have founded an innovation department, advised leaders as a service designer, and researched body language while working in the R&D department of a dating app company. In a previous career, I taught high school math and physics, and before that, was an undoubtedly unsuccessful LA actor. I hold a B.A. from UPenn and an M.S. in Organizational Learning and Change from Northwestern. But that’s just work, and it’s not everything. I have a super handsome and brilliant husband named Brad, a talented and hilarious 8-year-old daughter named Arden, and I see my dad almost every day since my beautiful mom passed away. When I’m stressed, my motto is “most things, most days” and sometimes that even means ending my day in bed eating takeout queso and watching reality TV. But most days, I’m healthy. Most days, I’m happy. Most days, I have a really, really good time at work. And every day, I’m grateful to open my eyes and spend another day on this extraordinary planet that has coffee and love and hot water bottles.
