Indonesian culture is one unequivocally driven by family. Many adult children continue to live with their parents until they get married, and many parents join their children’s families in their old age instead of taking up residence in a senior home. In Indonesia, it’s common practice for family to take priority over every other area of life, and in a largely conservative country, every role regarding the household has fallen to women, whether it be raising children, preparing food for the family or keeping the house clean in perpetuity. Consequently, we find that many women in business, especially in positions of leadership, end up facing the Indonesian dilemma of balancing life at home and life in the workplace.
Our CEO, Johanna Gani, is one of these women who carry the burden of two lives. Her position at Grant Thornton Indonesia, as well as being a chairperson in the Institute of Indonesian Public Accountants, provides her with more responsibilities than most. In addition, she has been living the life of an auditor for over 30 years, so she has had to switch between these hats for the better part of her career, and there are experiences she has had to sacrifice. When asked about if there was anything she missed out on in her career, Johanna mentioned that she felt like she could have been more present in her two children’s lives growing up. She was certainly around to take care of her son and daughter physically, but she spoke to the lack of quality time she had with them because of her demanding schedule. Now that Johanna is at a point in her career where she is much more in control of her schedule and responsibilities, she makes a point to prioritize her family whenever she can, using family dinner on Thursday nights as an example of a recent tradition that she holds dear and that remains unaffected by any amount of client meetings or work commitments.
While Johanna was able to reach an equilibrium between these two key areas of her life, each person has a different path to their own point of contentment.
For tax partner Juanita Pribadi, she initially chose parenthood over work, leaving a career of almost 10 years at a major international public accounting firm to focus on taking care of her two daughters. However, being a woman that gravitated towards the consulting industry, Juanita eventually started her own consulting company, and as her children grew older, Juanita was able to go about and handle business matters. In fact, she points to the support from her family as a critical reason for her success in managing these two priorities; not only from her husband’s willingness to take time from running his own business to help out around the house, but also from her parents’ caring nature and sacrifice in alleviating the burden of raising children while maintaining a career. Juanita’s husband dividing up chores and her parents helping raise Juanita’s two daughters became an invaluable asset to their family dynamic, allowing Juanita to achieve harmony between her career ambitions and her family, and as her daughters have grown older, they have started to realize the sacrifices their mother made and view her life as significant inspiration for their own aspirations.
Juanita held firm to the ideal that she would always choose her family over her career, but not all women fulfill their responsibilities the same way, nor should there be a consensus on which approach holds the most weight. For women who still choose to focus on their career and spend a larger chunk of their time at the office, it can be a challenge to come home and still be mentally prepared to engage with their family after a long day at work. Head of Audit and Assurance Hanny Prasetyo says she focuses on keeping the peace at home, explaining that since her and her husband have relatively limited time at home with their children due to their busy schedules, she tries to avoid unnecessary conflict so her family can enjoy the time they get to spend together. In addition, women in Indonesia often feel the pressure of the role placed upon them as caretakers, as Hanny would always make sure her husband was home if she was going to the office, while he would go off on his own because he would assume that someone, primarily her, would be home to take care of the children.
Hanny’s efforts speak to the importance a mother’s presence has on her children. Risk and Regulatory partner Renie Feriana recognizes the impact her being around her two sons has, explaining that though she might still be working from home and not have time to play with her boys, they display a marked difference when their mother is around, often asking Renie to stay and work from home despite not fully understanding the new WFO/WHO policy Grant Thornton Indonesia has recently instated. Despite feeling like she missed out, Johanna also did all she could to be around her children, and her experience of bringing a playpen to her office when she still an audit partner and having her kids there while she worked at her desk points to the effort that our female leaders at Grant Thornton make to nurture healthy environments both in the office and in the household.
For most women, balancing motherhood and a career is the extent of the balance between work and family, but Johanna’s family ties go a little deeper, with her carrying on the legacy of her father’s firm as a member of Grant Thornton International Ltd, and presently working with her husband, who is currently Head of Support Services at Grant Thornton Indonesia. Johanna understands the additional wrinkles working with a spouse might involve, admitting that it requires significant self-control and restraint that she hasn’t fully mastered yet. She cites separating life at home and life at work as a critical factor in juggling the roles of wife and of CEO, even though the pandemic made this tenet exponentially harder to adhere to. Johanna found it a little easier working with her father earlier in her career, with many of her values and ideals coming from him having provided a sturdy foundation to catapult her career into the position she finds herself in now.
All these layers to a working woman’s family dynamic makes it infinitely difficult to maintain a career, much less in a position of leadership, and yet somehow, our female leaders thrive and succeed at this firm while still fostering healthy relationships with their families. How did they do it? Hanny spoke to the most important attribute in any parent, emphasizing the need for a joyful and willing heart. All these women understood the challenges balancing the priorities of two lives would present, and yet they jumped headfirst into the deep end, albeit in different ways. Renie’s answers were often rooted in the mentality of determination, implying that no matter the roadblocks, this was the path she had chosen, and so there was no other way but through. Juanita encouraged future and potential mothers on her team to figure out what they wanted and fight for it, while Johanna highlighted the importance of prioritizing your family in the midst of all the other responsibilities that pop up throughout life.
These women took different paths to get to where they are, but through the difficulties and obstacles balancing these two aspects of their lives present, there are still immutable joys and rewards from these decisions, and none of our female leaders who have chosen to embrace parenthood regret their decisions, different as they may be. Johanna expressed a desire to encourage women who might be at the beginning of their journeys when it comes to motherhood, saying that they too will be able to achieve the equilibrium our leaders have found in their lives, and also adding that the experience of finding the best in both worlds will provide priceless memories and endless value to their lives that far surpasses the effort and struggle it might involve. As a result, each of them have lives that not only benefit them, but everyone around them as well, especially the families they built throughout their careers.