Flexibility, Advocacy, and the Politics of Care

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Find yourself in.

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Hi, thanks for joining me.

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I'm Nola Simon.

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I'm the host of the Hope and Possibilities
podcast, and I wanted to just talk

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about the fact that somebody told
me the other day that they preferred

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not to be political, and I get
where they're coming from because.

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Especially if you're talking about
politics or anything political online.

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If you get into an algorithm and
people are engaging in outrage

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and shaming and all of that stuff,
it actually seems pretty scary.

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And you're worried about reputation.

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You're worried about how it
could affect your business.

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You're worried about all of that stuff.

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But the thing that.

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I have about that statement is it's
coming from an area of privilege.

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You feel safer not saying anything
than actually saying something, which

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means that honestly, in effect, you're
okay with the way the world is working.

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You're okay with the way things are
shaking out, and you are comfort.

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Is more important than your discomfort.

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So that's not my reality, and it has not
been my reality for a very long time.

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I'd say actually ever since I
became a parent, that has not been

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my reality because the world of
work in particular was not working

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the way that I needed it to.

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And so that's where I
started advocating for.

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More flexibility in my work.

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So work from home, remote work,
hybrid, or whatever you wanna call it.

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I needed more of that.

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Honestly, if they had been able to work
with me and give me time, flexibility.

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Time flexibility.

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I could have worked around and I wouldn't
necessarily have campaigned for location

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flexibility, but there was an absolute
insistence that I had to have set hours.

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And in particular, once I had my
kids, my hours were 10 to six,

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so that was okay in the morning.

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I could at least drop my kids off
at daycare or school or whatever

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it happened to be, but it didn't
work well in the evenings.

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And we were able to adapt to it for a
bit because my husband got laid off and

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he became self-employed and he therefore
had that time flexibility because he

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didn't have a boss he had to report to.

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But

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ideally, that's not the
parent that I wanted to be.

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And also moms take care of everything,
or at least that has been my reality is.

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I needed to be there because
I, my kids needed me, right?

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And that was the mother I wanted to be.

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And so standing up and asking for what it
is you want when it's not the norm is a

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political act and advocating and becoming
a subject matter expert and, changing your

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job to have better opportunities to do
what it is you need to do for your family.

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Those are political acts.

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Speaking about it publicly,
that's a political act.

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Being interviewed in media to share
your perspective, your point of view,

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your agenda, those are political acts.

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So somebody who says they
don't wanna be political.

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Congratulations.

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You are able to navigate the world in a
way that a lot of us can't in the current

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system as it exists right at this moment.

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So women historically have been
caregivers, but women also historically.

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Have not been the dominant
power in politics.

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And so speaking up is a radical act.

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For years, we didn't have property
rights, we didn't have access to

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financial systems, we didn't have
access to lending, we didn't have

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access to even create bank accounts.

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That financial independence, that ability
to stand on your own two feet, nevermind,

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speak about what it is you needed to
be able to stand on your own two feet.

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That was.

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Forbidden.

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And that's within my lifetime, right?

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The bank account thing, the
lending, the credit products,

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all of that's within my lifetime.

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So women, Cindy Gallup is a marketer.

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She has a company that she advocates for,
which is called Make Love not Porn, and.

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She has a quote that she mentions
quite frequently, which is women

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are not the status quo because women
have never been the status quo.

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So to be a caregiver is to
be fundamentally political.

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What I do involves real estate.

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It involves the way things work.

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It involves compensation, it involves
technology, it involves process,

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procedures, policy, how you are in
community, how that impacts urban

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planning, how that impacts commuting.

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All of that is political and
fundamentally, it's a part of my work.

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When you say that you don't wanna be
political, it's because that system

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works for you in lots of ways and
you don't wanna jeopardize that.

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Now, I also came from.

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A Canadian company that
owned a US division.

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And so my customers, for the
longest time I was there 16 years

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were actually in the States.

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Fundamentally, I know what that's like to
behave in a way when your politics, your

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beliefs don't match those of your clients.

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So I believe in universal healthcare.

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I believe in gun control.

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I believe in.

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Employment rights.

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I believe in pay equity.

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I believe in paid time off.

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I believe

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what I believe is really in
direct contrast to a lot of

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the things that Americans think
they're fundamental rights.

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And for 16 years I had to.

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Work with people who fundamentally had
different beliefs than my own, and work

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with them in such a way where you were
helping them, but at the same time not

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completely undermining your own beliefs.

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And that is a dance.

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I can tell you that is

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a skill that.

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It can't really be taught unless you're
actually working within that environment.

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You have to live it.

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And so I know what that's like to
work with people who don't wanna be

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political, who work who think that their
political view is the dominant view

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and they don't want that threatened.

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I've learned that I've lived
that from the inside out.

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Now, add into the fact that.

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My parents were born in World War ii.

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My mom was born in 1930.

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My mom, my dad was born in 1932.

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My mom was born in Glasgow.

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My dad was born in Burg, west Germany,
so they were on opposite sides of

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World War II, even though they were
children When the wars started,

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my dad was seven, my mom was nine.

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My mom was evacuated up north to Scotland
to stay safe from bombing, and my dad.

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Lived through the Nazi regime.

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I don't talk about that a lot
because people fundamentally

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don't understand what that's like.

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I never knew my grandparents.

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I met my grandparents
once when I was seven.

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I don't speak German.

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I don't know a lot of the history.

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My dad doesn't like to
talk about his childhood.

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He's not a Nazi.

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He lived in Germany, so he was one of
the millions of regular Germans who

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learned how to survive in an environment
where you don't agree with the politics.

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Now, I don't know the full story, I
gotta tell you, I don't fundamentally

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I don't agree with fascism.

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I have always been exposed to history.

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That's actually why my minor in
university was history, because

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from the very, my very earliest
memories, I remember debating World

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War II from both perspectives, right?

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And again, it's not that my dad
ever believed in the Nazi cause,

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but he lived through it, right?

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How do you survive something like that?

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Especially as like in that
family, they had six kids, so

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what are you risking if you don't comply?

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It's a very delicate thing.

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And then of course, what it is
to be German after the war when

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you were on the losing side and
the comp, the country is paying.

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Penalties worldwide.

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Not just in, financial cause, but also in
reputation and what it is to be German.

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It's been an interesting education and
that's actually having that ability

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to see both sides of that allows me
to navigate politics in a way that not

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necessarily a lot of other people do.

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And I wanted to say that it is not
a bad thing to be political because

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what you are doing is advocating
for the type of life that you want

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to live now and in the future.

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And if what you're seeing doesn't
represent the future that you

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want, it behooves you to get
comfortable with speaking up.

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Now, should you do this in such a way
where you're not constantly debating.

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Political beliefs on online with random
strangers who have no idea who they are.

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Yeah I don't think you should do that.

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It's not productive.

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You're not gonna shift their beliefs.

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How do you show up in a way that's
going to have the most impact and

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make the most change to help you
create the type of future that you

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want for your life and your work?

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That's really what my goal is personally.

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And so I thought that was important
to do a podcast about because

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politics are not inherently bad.

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They have a bad

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connotation, and the loudest
voices, the people who are.

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You benefit from making
politics uncomfortable.

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Those are the people that you wanna
watch for because debate and discourse

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have are a fundamental human.

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And if you go back thousands of
years of human history, debating and

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discourse is at the heart of what it
is to negotiate and navigate life.

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And so the people who are allowed and
basically tell you that you shouldn't be

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political and you shouldn't express your
opinions and you should play it safe.

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Those are the people who benefit
from silence and silence.

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Nature does not like a vacuum.

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Neither does power.

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They will fill it with
what that is that you want.

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They want to hear, do
you benefit from silence?

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How does that actually help you
create the impact that you feel

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you need to have to create the
life and the work that you want?

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And I personally don't feel that silence.

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It benefits me.

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So thank you for listening.

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I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Rules of engagement are respect and
concrete facts and polite discourse.

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If you care to comment, I'm more
than willing to hear your comment.

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I will not tolerate trolling, abuse,
shame, anything like that because

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I've been very clear in terms of what
my views are and what my goals are.

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And if your comments don't help me
achieve those you're entitled to what

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you believe, but at the same time,
I don't have to amplify your reach.

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So that's the way it works on my.

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Social accounts, which includes a podcast.

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Anyways, thanks.

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Love to hear from you
and have a great day.

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Find yourself in.