Made for more

Last updated on: September 25, 2014 at 10:35 am by Mission:Work

Made for more 2014-09-24T16:09:05-05:00 Mission:Work

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In August of 2014, Max Scheirson, CEO of MongoDB, quit his job. Not in itself unusual, but perhaps unusual for the reasons why, as he wrote in “Why I am leaving the best job I ever had:”

Earlier this summer, Matt Lauer asked Mary Barra, the CEO of GM, whether she could balance the demands of being a mom and being a CEO. The Atlantic asked similar questions of PepsiCo’s female CEO Indra Nooyi. As a male CEO, I have been asked what kind of car I drive and what type of music I like, but never how I balance the demands of being both a dad and a CEO…..

I have 3 wonderful kids at home, aged 14, 12 and 9, and I love spending time with them: skiing, cooking, playing backgammon, swimming, watching movies or Warriors or Giants games, talking, whatever.

I am on pace to fly 300,000 miles this year, all the normal CEO travel plus commuting between Palo Alto and New York every 2-3 weeks. During that travel, I have missed a lot of family fun, perhaps more importantly, I was not with my kids when our puppy was hit by a car or when my son had (minor and successful, and of course unexpected) emergency surgery.

I have an amazing wife who also has an important career; she
is a doctor and professor at Stanford where, in addition to her clinical duties, she runs their training pr
ogram for high risk obstetricians and conducts research on on prematurity, surgical techniques, and other topics. She is a fantastic mom, brilliant, beautiful, and infinitely patient with me. I love her, I am forever in her debt for finding a way to keep the family working despite my crazy travel. I should not continue abusing that patience.

Friends and colleagues often ask my wife how she balances her job and motherhood. Somehow, the same people don’t ask me. A few months ago, I decided the only way to balance was by stepping back from my job.

Scheirson’s post went viral, and he was eventually interviewed by the Wall Street Journal on the topic in an article called “Quit a Job to Spend More Time With the Family? You Bet:”

Last month, Max Schireson announced he would give up his job running a billion-dollar startup to spend more time with his family. And he couldn’t be happier about it.

Mr. Schireson’s departure from the helm of Internet database company MongoDB Inc., revealed in a blog post that quickly went viral, became a catalyst for a discussion that rarely takes place at the highest corporate levels: the challenges faced by fathers as they attempt to balance work and family.

The father of three is now vice chairman of the company, which he has said will entail a “normal full time” schedule as opposed to a “crazy full time” one. His wife is a doctor and professor at Stanford University.

Two weeks into his new role, Mr. Schireson talked to The Wall Street Journal about his decision and the many challenges faced by working fathers…..

WSJ: In my experience, there are many dads who have made it two-thirds of the way up the corporate ladder and then feel stuck and unsatisfied that their careers are getting in the way of their desire to be involved fathers. What advice do you have for these dads who may be at similar crossroads in their lives?

Mr. Schireson: When you are climbing the ladder it can feel that reaching that next rung and that next rung is always critically important and you must be hyper-focused on attaining it.

However, sometimes the best decision is to stay one rung below, and think through the trade-off between the next rung and what your family life could be if you stay where you are for a while. There will absolutely be a stigma of not being ambitious or dedicated enough to one’s company and career. We need to really think about how we feel about that perception and the trade-offs involved—and I don’t think it is a free decision, there is a trade-off involved.

As a result of my choice, I may have fewer career options going forwar
d, but I will still have really good options. As I said before, this decision was easier for me considering the good fortune I’ve had in my career than it may be for most other working dads.

On our own channel, Will Messenger reflected on Schierson’s decision at Theology of Work Project:

Schireson didn’t say how he developed his perspective, but a view like his could easily be drawn from scripture. In biblical times, households were where the vast majority of work was done, including growing crops, weaving cloth, making pottery and furniture, and conducting business. Parenting was an integral part of the household’s work and primary to recruit and train new workers. Passages such as Proverb s 31:10-31 depict executives—in this passage an astute business woman—moving seamlessly from negotiating deals, to running to operations, to parenting, to providing financial security in their enterprises. Most people today don’t work in family businesses, but family and paid work are still simply aspects of our overall suite of work.

Recognizing that spending more time parenting is a re-allocation of work time, rather than working less, is as significant as it is unusual. If parenting is a leisure, or non-work activity, then a decision exchanging family-time with paid work pits career against family, commitment against laziness, achievement against triviality. In those terms, every such decision becomes lose-lose. Resentment by family, colleagues or self is a foregone conclusion. But if parents recognize that the results of work include not only products, services and business returns, but also a new generation of humanity, then reallocating work time is basic strategic planning, a routine activity that high-performing workers do on a daily basis.

As did Joseph Sunde on Oikonomia:

We can all learn from Schireson’s sacrificial act, men and women alike. But for men in particular, his example offers a healthy challenge to a mindset that I fear has been ingrained for far too long.

Perhaps it’s because men aren’t pressed with the same physical demands as women in those early stages. But for whatever reason, we seem particularly adept at finding ways to justify our work at the office, farm, or factory that, in one way or another, diminish the hard and necessary work of fathering.

This isn’t to say that doing so necessarily makes us bad or neglectful fathers. But by assuming such a position and distorting our attitudes and imaginations when it comes work in general and work in the home, we only make it harder for us to integrate these worlds in the ways that we ought. And if we do get it wrong, failure here or there is bound to impact our service as a whole, to our families, churches, communities, and the economy as a whole.

What do you think? Join the conversation here and elsewhere on the channel!!!!

Images: TOW Project, Oikonomia, and Flickr.

work-life integration

Previous Post

September 23, 2014

The infernal machine?

Next Post

September 27, 2014 Made for more, part 2

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Audio posts Bible and Work Book Review Books Budgeting Calling Common Good Community Development Conferences Discipleship Economics Entrepreneurship Ethics Faith and Family Faith and the Marketplace Faith and the Workplace faith and work History of Work and Vocation Leadership Local Church Meaning New Blogger News Prayer Relationships Seminaries Theology of Work Uncategorized Video posts Vocation Worship Resources

Select a Month April 2026 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 April 2025 January 2025 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 August 2023 July 2023 April 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Revelation, what is the name of the city that comes down out of heaven?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Zion The Holy City The City of God New Jerusalem