My Story

So you get that I am passionate about people loving what they do.    My life purpose statement is “To re-humanize the workplace.”  I’ll tell you why now.

I grew up in Vancouver in the 60’s and Toronto in the 70’s.    The hippy movement was in full swing.  I didn’t realize how much I took on the values of that time until much later.    Vancouver had very much a “California North” feel to it.  Even conservative Toronto couldn’t escape the movement towards freedom and love.  I went to university in the late 70’s when the economy was booming, my parents were well off, and the sky was the limit.  My professors told me that I was entering a marketplace where I would have a solid career full of successes including raises and promotions.

What actually happened was that I was the lowest woman on the totem pole and treated like a servant (slave).   I was a junior administrative assistant.  Here were some of my duties:  serve tea and coffee to a boardroom full of men who watched me carry the tray to the boardroom table; buy my boss’s wife a birthday present; pick up his dry cleaning.  I asked myself – did I go to university for three years for this shit?   The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I noticed all the partners (male) going to the bank of elevators and leaving the admin staff (women) at their desks.  When I asked the receptionist what was going on, she said there had been a bomb threat!  How despicable.

In admin jobs that followed that, I continued to be frustrated that no one wanted to hear my ideas, and I really wanted to be involved in decision making.   Even when I was a middle manager, one Director told me, “I’ll do it, you’re just a small cog in a big wheel.”  Wow!

I wanted to be heard.  I wanted to be respected.  I wanted to contribute.  I wanted to be part of something BIG.  Instead, I was made to feel small over and over again.

Now, I run my own business and I try daily to live “on my purpose.”

What I want for the world is for people at work to be heard, to be respected, to feel like they are contributing, and to be part of something bigger than themselves. This is an achievable dream if those of us who feel the same make changes in the way we behave and state what we expect in the behavior of others.