When to lean in

I’m not sure if quiet quitting is still a thing these days, but I have been thinking about the meaning and timeliness of leaning in recently.

As a cursory comment: my feminism aligns much more with the ambiguity reflected by Annie Ernaux than with the corporate straightforwardness of Sheryl Sandberg. But for today, I’ll go with the concept of “leaning in”, as it has been popularized.

So, when do I decide to lean in? When do I show up, take the trip, go lecture for a colleague, or decide to give that online presentation?

I have been saying “yes” to opportunities more frequently in the past months and year. Here are some of the thought processes that underlie this decision:

• Research cycle: When I am wrapping up projects, I obviously have more work to share with others. At the same time, I may be working on my next cycle of projects through proposals, which often require consortium formation and collaboration.
• Expand network: It only took me 11 years to realize that I work in Latin America and should work on developing a network of colleagues and collaborators here… I have been taking more invitations from colleagues in the region to given online presentations.
• My agenda: What do I want to achieve? World domination, obviously… All joking aside, I have some general research lines and idealizations of my next career years, so if something fits well in my Agenda, then I will be more inclined to say “yes”. (This description does sound as if I am a very cold and calculating person…).
• Collegiality: Many people have stepped up for me to support my career in the past years, and also when my daughter was younger and I could not travel much. I don’t keep the score, but I find it at least collegial to pay it back and pay it forward now where I can. And, Sennet’s “Corrosion of character” left a lasting impression on me, so I try to lean in to values that get undermined in late capitalism, such as collegiality for the simple sake of it.

How do you decide when and where to lean in?