- The CEO of Fortune 500 company TIAA explained why she gave up on work-life balance.
- Thasunda Brown Duckett takes a more methodical approach to making time for her personal life.
- Her children typically get about 30% of her time, but her system is adjustable, Duckett said.
The top executive at a financial services company said she’s abandoned her attempts to have true work-life balance.
Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO and president of financial retirement services company TIAA, explained that she’s accepted that she can’t give 100% of her time to both her professional and personal-life roles during a fireside chat with Fortune CEO Alan Murray on Tuesday.
“Work-life balance is a lie,” Duckett said. “The reality is that my children do not get 100% of me.”
She once felt like she was “failing as a mother” because she couldn’t always be there for her children, Duckett said in a July interview with Essence Magazine.
But, instead of trying to give her all to everyone, Duckett told Murray that she now lives her life “like a diversified portfolio.” The CEO allocates time to fill the roles of wife, mother, sister, executive, and more. Sometimes, that means her children only get about 30% of her, according to Duckett.
“By understanding this allocation, I gave myself permission to respond to market volatility and have to recalibrate my portfolio. Sometimes you have to short the stock,” Duckett said.
Duckett said that she works hard in her role as an executive, but her lifestyle allows her to adjust how much time she allocates to her family and friends. She also said the shift in perspective has allowed her to be 100% present during the time she sets aside for her children.
“In any given market or season, I may not be a great mom because I’m here and not at home. But over time, I’m a really good mom,” Duckett told the audience.
Tech billionaire Jeff Bezos is similarly not a big fan of the phrase “work-life balance.” The Amazon founder said workers should focus on work-life harmony instead of balance if they hope to fulfilled at the office and at home.
“It actually is a circle,” Bezos said in 2018. “It’s not a balance.”
In recent years, some workers have adopted practices like quiet quitting and Bare Minimum Mondays to stave off burnout and keep a balanced schedule. Instead of carving out time for the important things in life, they’ve opted for a more chilled approach to working. An approach that means they only work during business hours and not a moment longer.
Duckett claimed her method of treating life like a diversified portfolio has allowed her to do it all, even if she doesn’t always thrive in every role. She’s been the CEO of TIAA since May 2021.
“You can live a joyful life if you are intentional about what you put in your portfolio and how you respond to volatility,” she said.
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