向前一步:第176期 全能女人是个神话(9)

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When my son arrived, I wanted to take the three months of maternity¹ leave Google offered, but I worried that my job would not be there when I returned. 儿子出生时，我想休3个月产假，又担心休完产假我的工作岗位就没了。

Events leading up to his birth did not put my mind at ease. 生孩子之前，所有事都让我感觉不轻松。

Google was growing quickly and reorganizing frequently. My team was one of the largest in the company, 谷歌正在快速成长，公司结构常常会重新调整，我管理着公司最大的团队。

and coworkers often suggested ways to restructure, which usually meant that they would do more and I would do less. 同事们常常建议重新调整团队结构，这就意味着他们将做得更多，而我会做得更少。

In the months before my leave, several colleagues, all men, ramped² up these efforts, volunteering to "help run things" while I was gone. 在还有几个月就到预产期时，有些同事（都是男人）愈发努力，主动要求在我离开期间“代理我的工作”；

Some of them even mentioned to my boss that I might not return, so it made sense to start sharing my responsibilities immediately. 有些人甚至跟老板提到，我可能不会回来工作了，所以有必要开始着手让大家分担我的职责。

I tried to take Larry Kanarek's advice and draw my own line. 我试着采纳拉里·卡纳里克的建议，为自己设定界限。

I decided³ that I wanted to focus entirely⁴ on my new role as a mother. 我决定把精力集中在母亲这个新的角色上。

I was determined⁵ to truly unplug. 我下定决心要真正地放松，

I even made this decision public — a trick that can help a commitment stick by creating greater accountability. 甚至还公开地表明这个决心——这是个策略，可以提高它的可信度，从而促使我更坚定地执行这项决定。

I announced that I was going to take the full three months off. 我宣布，我要完完全全地休假3个月。

No one believed me. 可是没人相信我。

A group of my colleagues bet on how long I would be off e-mail after giving birth, with not a single person taking "more than one week" as his or her wager⁶. 我的一些同事还互相打赌，猜生完孩子后我能坚持多长时间不查邮件——没有一个人下注选择“一周以上”。

 

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