Women in Demandbase: Finding Balance in Work and Life

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Shownotes

This episode of Sunny Side Up discusses finding balance in work and life for women in tech. The speakers share their career journeys and experiences maintaining boundaries while prioritizing demanding work. They discuss challenges like burnout and pressures to overwork without children or partnerships. The speakers appreciate Demandbase’s supportive culture that values employees’ well-being and personal lives. Flexibility, leading by example, and connecting with other women in the industry are suggested as helpful for work-life balance.

Best Moments

05:26

Moira discusses learning the importance of boundaries when becoming a mother.
09:19

Jennie shares an example of respecting a colleague's calendar boundaries after an initial misunderstanding.
14:29

Lea discusses the importance of scheduling breaks and protecting personal time to avoid burnout.

About the guests

Jennie McCormick

Jennie is a Senior Customer Success Manager at Demandbase serving the east coast region. She has been passionate about the customer experience and setting her customers up for success for over 15 years in various client-facing roles. From the worlds of customer service to B2C, to agency, to B2B, she has focused on being as well-rounded as she is being an expert in her fields.
She took an unconventional route in life starting her career at 19 years old, beginning university at age 25, living abroad, then moving across the country by herself to NYC in her 30’s. Jennie is proud to mentor women navigating their careers and loves squashing biases around child-free and neurodiverse women in the workplace.

Connect with Jennie

Moira Van den Akker

Moira van den Akker is a seasoned revenue marketer with a passion for MarTech. Working for organizations big and small, she has over a decade of experience driving growth and building high-performance marketing teams. In her current role as Director of Enterprise and Customer Marketing at Demandbase, she enjoys partnering with Sales to build and accelerate pipeline across the entire customer lifecycle. Moira lives in sunny Denver with her partner, two toddlers, and two pugs.

Connect with Moira

Lea Brown

Lea is an Employee Communications and DE&I Specialist at Demandbase. Before transitioning into the tech industry, she spent over five years in health care, higher education, and non-profit spaces.Although Lea’s professional background is in communications, her passion is building equitable workplaces where employees of all identities are respected, valued, and empowered. She is proud to have the opportunity to cultivate such an environment at Demandbase.
In her spare time, Lea enjoys travelling, reading, and sewing. She also serves on the board of directors for HEARTH, a Pittsburgh-based non-profit offering transitional housing for women.

Connect with Lea

Key takeaways

Finding balance is an ongoing challenge, especially for ambitious career-driven women without children.
Setting boundaries like calendar blocks and ending workdays is important to prevent burnout.
Companies should support work-life balance through flexibility, mental health resources, and leadership that prioritizes personal well-being.
Leading by example and respecting others’ time and boundaries helps set expectations for a balanced culture.
Connecting with other women in similar roles provides valuable perspectives on navigating work and life.

Quotes

“I particularly am passionate about representing those women. Because I think setting boundaries can be a little quite challenging, because you don’t have you know, societal excuses and I use air quotes excuse because I’m not, you know, I’m not shunning motherhood whatsoever, it is its own, you know, challenge in itself.”
-Jennie on child-free women in the workplace.

“I think in terms of kind of setting those boundaries, really protecting my time is huge. So I think because we work remotely, it’s so easy to get trapped in like back to back to backs and meetings, which I don’t know about anybody else that it’s so draining.”
-Lea on facing pressure to overwork without children or other commitments.

“I personally had to learn to have more boundaries when I became a mom. So I have two young children. I have a 10-month-old and a three-and-a-half-year-old and it was the first time being a mom that I had to learn like, Wow, I can’t be selfish completely and I have to actually have work boundaries.”
-Moira on learning to set boundaries as a new mother.

Highlights from this episode

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in maintaining work-life balance? And how do you think we can navigate through them?

Moira discussed facing challenges in maintaining boundaries as a passionate worker and new mother. She has learned to be more selfish with her time and set clear boundaries, though it remains difficult. Organizations allowing flexibility have helped her integrate work and life.

Lea discussed facing pressure to overwork without children or commitments. The pandemic helped her realize the importance of her personal life outside work. She protects her time by scheduling breaks and setting hard stops to avoid burnout.

Jennie has learned balance through meditation and dedicating time to self-care, which helps her focus less on a sense of urgency at work.

Have you ever faced a challenge when setting a boundary? And how did you deal with it?

Lea discussed facing implicit pressure in past work environments to overwork without distractions. She realized doing more hours didn’t make her a better employee, and prioritizing her personal life outside of work is also valid and meaningful. The pandemic helped her rethink her relationship with work and establish boundaries.

Jennie shared an example of respectfully communicating a scheduling conflict with a colleague who initially booked over her calendar. By leading by example of respecting boundaries and open communication, the situation was resolved over time.

Moira didn’t share a specific example but emphasized boundaries have been challenging for her as a passionate worker. Organizations allowing flexibility have helped her integrate work and life, though boundary-setting remains a learning process she’s continually working on.

How do you think the Demandbase culture supports or hinders work-life balance and preventing burnout?

Jennie said Demandbase does a good job of openly discussing burnout without stigma. Employees are given mental health days with no questions asked and resources are provided. On her team, managers are open to discussing burnout and ways to prioritize self-care.

Moira echoed that Demandbase values employees’ personal lives and well-being through supportive leadership like Sandra Freeman. The culture promotes efficiency while respecting health and family.

Lea agreed that Demandbase fosters a supportive culture prioritizing personal lives and work-life balance through leaders who care about employees on a personal level.

How do you envision the future of work and work-life balance? What changes would you like to see from companies?

Moira said she would like to see a four-day workweek implemented more widely. She also thinks companies should focus more on employees’ well-being by talking about work-life balance.

Lea sees flexibility continuing to be part of the conversation. Employees want autonomy over scheduling work around their lives, not vice versa. Companies need to offer flexibility beyond just remote/office debates.

Jennie emphasized flexibility per company and evolving work structures. Successful companies will attract employees who want that flexibility. Continued open communication about work-life balance is also important for companies going forward.