Excerpt from Disruptors 4
My Dad decided to leave his high-pressure legal role in the city to work from home and run his own consultancy. He wanted to be there to pick my sister and me up from school at 3.15 pm every day. He was seen as losing his mind or ‘mad’ by colleagues, giving up the big salary and swanky office for a rickety office chair at home but it was the wealthiest I think anyone can be. To be able to provide for your family while being there for them. That was truly where Flex Appeal, my campaign to fight for flexible working for everyone, started — watching my Dad make decisions in 1984 that served us all and went against the 9-to-5 blueprint.
I played the game for years. Pretended not to be engaged in interviews for fear they would see pregnancy on the horizon and never spoke about my kids at work. Until one day, I realised I could not continue that way and asked for flexible working when I could not make it work with nursery and work times. It was denied because my request would “open the floodgates” to anyone else seeking flexible working. That was where Flex Appeal began. Out of sheer frustration. I wanted to open the floodgates because people were drowning behind them.
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