About Work Matters

Lola Here

I've been working for "the man" since I was in high school. Even though I have been successful, the arrangement never really suited me. To some extent, I'm a misfit (proud GenXer here). In other ways, I'm just like everyone else. The corporate ladder is a huge ask for most of us. Employees rarely control the terms of employment, the projects nor the priorities, and if you're a neurodivergent woman of color like me, there is little incentive for your voice to be heard.

I tried everything to make it work for me. I switched sectors, working for nonprofits and philanthropy, government, private consulting firms and tech startups. I changed locations, going from the West coast to the East coast, and even working internationally. I consulted counselors and coaches and mentors, and the occasional fortune teller because why not? I took pills for my mental health and my blood pressure. To manage stress, I became a runner, a swimmer, and a gardener. I obtained undergraduate and graduate degrees in management, business administration, political science and psychology.

I networked and conferenced ad nauseum, and I collected trainings and certifications. The only thing that has worked is becoming my own boss and building my own business. Doing this has given me precious liberation—to be a better creative, daughter, sister, friend and dog mom, and to hold my people closer. I want to use my knowledge, expertise and experiences to help other women seek, do better, be better and live better.

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Mona Mona

Greetings, I am Mona Mona and here is my story: After dedicating a decade to obtaining a Ph.D. in Philosophy and then teaching at institutions like Stony Brook University and UC Berkeley, I found myself wanting to make a bigger impact in the "real" world. I pivoted into tech and worked as a software engineer and taught at several coding bootcamps. But then came the layoffs in tech, and I found myself having to pivot again, now in my fifties. I decided to go for it, to try and make a living by working online.

I believe that new online economies represent an incredible opportunity especially for us women. I had already been dabbling in side projects for some time, from writing vegan cheese cookbooks to creating early online courses. Then I found some measure of success with Philosophy Publics—a Substack newsletter focused on feminist existentialism, phenomenology, and critical theory and building a community of empathetic thinkers online. I have scaled this newsletter to 6.4k subscribers and growing. But I don't want to go at it alone.

Work Matters represents an extension of what I see as our collective journey to find meaningful, sustainable work that connects us to others. We can make work good again, together.

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