Lucy Werner wrote me a lovely review for Corporate Escapology when I shared an early version of the book with her. She’s the author of Hype yourself and runs a Substack community helping all manner of business owners promote themselves.
I think I got to this point at 40 not 50… but it took me 4 years to figure out what was going on for me and actually get out… I’m taking a break now and taking the opportunity to study and slow down…I might still go back to a corporate environment but as you say it will need to be on my own terms probably as a freelancer. Leaving corporate culture has felt sort of like getting out of a lightweight cult (culture!) and it’s taking me a while to deprogramme…I still have dreams about delivering slides and being late for meetings and I’ve been out for over 6 months now!
Thanks so much for sharing Sarra - that is hilarious "lightweight cult"! It was only when I write the book I relaised there were some rather siniister parallels between John Lewis (my first institutionalising corporate experience) and BP (my second) with the stately homes (the former where you could take holidays and I must have been institutionalised because I actually did!!!), the coded language and sense of being an insider (which I loved). I suspect it's taken me years to de-programme so you're doing better than me!
Agree Sarra - I hit that point just before I turned 40, aside from all the other reasons I left, the thought of another 25+ years doing what I was doing was de-pres-sing!
Corporate conditioning goes wide and deep, and I'm always finding new things to stumble over, but far prefer having a career on my terms now.
I think I got to this point at 40 not 50… but it took me 4 years to figure out what was going on for me and actually get out… I’m taking a break now and taking the opportunity to study and slow down…I might still go back to a corporate environment but as you say it will need to be on my own terms probably as a freelancer. Leaving corporate culture has felt sort of like getting out of a lightweight cult (culture!) and it’s taking me a while to deprogramme…I still have dreams about delivering slides and being late for meetings and I’ve been out for over 6 months now!
Thanks so much for sharing Sarra - that is hilarious "lightweight cult"! It was only when I write the book I relaised there were some rather siniister parallels between John Lewis (my first institutionalising corporate experience) and BP (my second) with the stately homes (the former where you could take holidays and I must have been institutionalised because I actually did!!!), the coded language and sense of being an insider (which I loved). I suspect it's taken me years to de-programme so you're doing better than me!
Agree Sarra - I hit that point just before I turned 40, aside from all the other reasons I left, the thought of another 25+ years doing what I was doing was de-pres-sing!
Corporate conditioning goes wide and deep, and I'm always finding new things to stumble over, but far prefer having a career on my terms now.
Thank you for the lovely tag AND plug for my workshop. AND HUGE congrats for the book!
Thank you Lucy - I would plug anything you were involved in.