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Episode 1: Work from home productivity
Lean In Malaysia had an amazing line-up of women speaking in this first episode consisting of Sharmila Ravindran, Stephanie Caunter and Nur Afifah Mohamaddiah. The three women highlighted a few major points, mainly on the successes and challenges of starting Lean In Malaysia as well as how people have been adapting to the “new normal” since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Lean In Malaysia has been a learning process for all involved. The pillars of the organisation are to educate, empower and enable women. Along the way, Lean In Malaysia has been agile enough to adjust its goals and targets and have gained success: for example, there has been an increase in numbers of women in senior management roles. However, there are still a lot more to be done.
The session also discussed on where does Lean In Malaysia stand against the virus. The group agreed that that needs to be a lot more support system in this crisis, as well a bit more understanding of the situation that staff are in right now. Bosses in particular need to be more personal at this time and try to be more understanding of their staff’s personal circumstances. The key is to stay productive while managing expectations because everyone is going through a crisis at this time.
The session also delved into managing family and work. It is important to think thoroughly about how life will be like when you get married and have children. You and your potential spouse must discuss expectations beforehand and make sure you both are on the same page. When it comes to responsibilities, the couple must give and take.
The session also discussed self-care: we need to be a little bit kinder to ourselves. We need to recognise the signs when mental stress is taking a toll. Give yourself permission to disengage from work for a while and give yourself a mental space if you feel stressed out.
To sum it up, we are going to come out of this pandemic stronger and more grounded than before. It is time for us to take a step back to rethink how we run our lives, our families and work.
Listen to this episode here.
Episode 2: Personal Finance
In this episode, Lean In Malaysia tackled on the topic of how women can gain freedom and power through taking responsibility of their finance. Women typically are the more vulnerable group in terms of financial independence. They lack power in the workplace and society as a whole. We can see this from the gender wage gap, harassment at the workplace, societal expectations as well as gender representation in the financial services industry.
The group discussed that it is important for women to have 3 to 6 months of emergency funds. However, during this pandemic, that may not be enough, especially if a person is freelancing. Therefore, it is very important to save even more money when there is no steady income and consider recurring expenses, necessity expenses and debt.
The panelists also advised to think of financial planning as a journey. Manage cash flow very well and start building up your portfolio. Take a look at your income vs. expenditure. For single mothers out there, you are particularly hit hard during these times as you usually have one income. Therefore, if you really need help, you should not shy from applying for government schemes.
The advice from Lean In is for everyone is to always make sure to live within their means. It is a difficult situation to be in but we have to make the most of our situation. The smaller the resource pool, the more you need to manage it better.
Perhaps the most interesting take-away from this session is that at the end of the day, we are humans with our own purpose, and not robots. Therefore, we need to invest in what we believe in - such as personal growth. It is a different journey for everyone.
To sum up the discussion, if women can maintain what they have without worrying about where the money is coming from and whether they can pay for things, then that is considered financial independence.
Listen to this episode here.
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