Returning to corporate America doesn’t mean you failed
When the Great Resignation began, some women already held the role of entrepreneur. Many of those women were hit hard during the pandemic, which made it challenging to continue to build and scale. Therefore, they decided to turn to corporate America to find a little more security during this time.
I’m one of the women who decided to return. As someone who is high risk during this time, I was shook because I didn't have good healthcare coverage as a full-time freelance writer. Media outlets had pushed pause on assigning new articles and were laying off staff. My event series lost its brand partnerships for 2020. Therefore, I decided to start looking for a corporate role that best aligned with my goals and needs. I found one, and I’m not the only woman to make the decision over the last few years to return to corporate life.
I share more about looking for ease in my life on Calm.com. Ultimately, I wanted something different for my life. Like many women, as they enter their thirties and forties what they want for their lives looks a little different, which can change your professional plans. Paris Tyler wants to make her personal goals of becoming a homeowner, being married and becoming a mother a reality. "While I know it can work, and I know it can happen. I wasn't necessarily fond of the idea of still building a business and still trying to attain and have those things in my life," she explains.
Inspired by other women being open about their return
One reason I wanted to write the Glamour.com article on women returning to work is, because the story around that return was nonexistent. I personally knew women who were suffocating from trying to build a business, but fear experiencing the same work culture they left and or carrying shame for not sticking entrepreneurship out. My hope is that hearing and reading more stories about women making a decision about their future would help free women who were at a crossroads.
Paris has been inspired by other Black women leaders like Valeisha Butterfield and Michele Ghee for their transparency around returning to corporate after being an entrepreneur or experiencing job loss. "People must be open and comfortable in seeing that people have journeys. Like they might go independent or may go back to corporate. I wanna go back and do this work because this company's aligned with my own values is okay," she explains.
Overcoming a sense of failure
Although not much is being reported about women's return to corporate, a few women have taken to social media to acknowledge those returning and admit that shaming those who have full-time jobs has to end. With inflation on the rise, the housing market becoming a challenge and a recession looming, many women are considering stability or another source of income by going back. However, some women feel that making the return will be admitting to failing at entrepreneurship.
Ashley Garth was afraid to share with people that she had returned to corporate but shared a post about her return on Facebook. "I was afraid to share because for the past five years, I've been a full-time entrepreneur, and I've been preaching about us creating businesses for ourselves and not working for someone else," she explains. Ashley started her social media agency in 2018 as a solopreneur and eventually built a team of contractors that works with an average of 20 clients. However, she realized the benefits of a virtual workplace, and one of them was doubling her income. Ashley can be a CEO and an employee because of her team and the systems she has put in place. "If I had not trained my team to run the agency without me, I would've had to say goodbye to Garth Media," she says.
"I think there is also a stigma of failure if you promote on social media and in your personal life that you are becoming an entrepreneur. If you decide to do something different, like go back to corporate America, it is easy to feel like you failed," Abigail Gibbons shared. However, Gibbons believes that the innovation and evolution that entrepreneurs do to solve problems may lead you back to corporate to access resources and industry leaders that can fuel your next idea. It's one of the reasons why in 2022, Abigail returned to corporate. “I saw a new problem to solve when it came to working to close the gap in gender equality," she says.
Paris, who had three clients during the pandemic, was challenged as an entrepreneur. The scope of her work with each client had to change, affecting her pay. When the pandemic hit, she was about to sign a six-figure contract with a beauty brand for event media relations and production. In her return to corporate, she has learned that doing what is best for you is not a failure. "You have not failed if you decide to make that return. I believe it's a matter of doing what's best for your path, your journey and even your desires for your life," she says.
Whatever you decide, remember you have to do what is best for you. "You are the narrator of your own story,” Vannessia Darby says. “Don't ever be afraid to change. You can rewrite whatever chapter whenever you need to."