[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.In fact, the training that Harriet had received at school had long sinceceased to serve her best interests; but she had yet to recognise that.Fromthe age of 6 on, Harriet had served the school s best interests, just as shenow served those of the companies for whom she worked, tirelessly.At school, Harriet had learnt always to do her best.She had been a loyal all rounder , an academic high-flyer, but also a useful member of thenetball and hockey teams.She was universally liked, so it was no surprisewhen she became Deputy Head Girl.The skills she showed in liaisingbetween staff and pupils served her well in later years.Her university career was similarly distinguished.She was alwaysefficient, organized her work well, and played an active part in a numberof societies.She was not one of those young women who used theiruniversity years to have a wild time.Harriet was always focused on themedium to long-term.That kept her on track.She graduated,unsurprisingly, with a good 2 1.By the time she took up her first post in the corporate world she had apartner she was living with.She managed the demands of her personaland professional life with her usual efficiency.She was always neat, wellorganized, good humoured, and always willing to give that extra 10% tothe company.Her business and her private life were equally well ordered.In the conventional phrase, people work hard, and play hard.InHarriet s case the phrase would have to sound more like her schoolreports: Harriet works and plays conscientiously .During the first few years of her working life Harriet progressed smoothlyup the corporate ladder.There were different challenges, of course, but onthe whole, her strategy such as it was - seemed to serve her quite well.She simply kept doing the things that she had always done: she workedhard, interacted well with her team, and showed loyalty and commitment.__________________________________________________________________26© 2012 Dr Annie Kaszina - All Rights Reserved www.anniekaszina.com Is There Something I m Missing? In short, she was outstandingly good at her job and, basing herself on herpast academic experience, waited for her talents to meet with their justrewards.It was then that she first found herself hitting her head against the glassceiling.It probably took her a couple of years to become aware that whileshe was working flat out, and staying put exactly where she was, some ofthe men in the company, with less experience and a less impressive skillset, were being promoted over her.For the first time in her life Harriet felt disgruntled: disgruntlement didnot normally feature in her emotional register.But she started to feelbaffled and confused.She had grown up with a simple equation in herhead:Hard work + loyalty + commitment + ability = successShe had a good job, a good salary and, overall, a good life although herwork-life balance had become more than a little skewed over time.Stillshe had thought that that was a worthwhile trade-off to make, in order toget to the next level.Instead, she was hitting her head against the glassceiling.Her biological clock was starting to tick noisily, and her partner,bless him, seemed to have come up against his own ceiling.Lovely manthough he was, he lacked her drive and commitment.But he was verysupportive of her, and really quite ambitious for her.The only downsidewas that he could become irritated about her lack of availability for him.Harriet sometimes thought that humouring Martin had become one moreitem on her never ending to do list.For the first time in her corporate life Harriet started having some ofthose water-cooler conversations with other women in which she ventedher frustrations
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
