Work-Life Balance Lessons from Miranda Priestly

(Scroll down to listen to this article as a podcast episode)

On a recent plane ride, I watched The Devil Wears Prada 2. I loved the original movie 20 years ago, as I’m sure many of you did. I had heard a few grumbles about the new movie. People said it wasn’t as good as the first one, but I personally got something out of it I didn’t get from the original – interesting food for thought about work-life balance.

Let me start out by saying, if you’re the type of person who hates any sort of spoilers, does not want to know anything about a movie before watching it, and you intend to watch this one, hold off on reading the rest of this post until you watch it. I do talk about some specific scenes but have left out plot twists, so the spoilers are mild.

If you’re not familiar with what these movies are even about, here are links to synopses for the first movie and the newer sequel.

In my opinion, this sequel was more than just crazy antics of Andie Sachs trying to please her demanding boss, Miranda Priestly. Instead, they developed the Miranda character much more.

And in the surrounding discussions, they raised common work-life balance issues.

I recommend watching the movie for the mere entertainment factor of beautiful clothing, Italian landscapes, and catchy music. But here are the work-life balance lessons I took away from watching:

Treat coworkers, staff, admins and all people at your workplace with kindness and integrity

This will get you far when you ask for a unique schedule, decline a role, take a sabbatical, or whatever out-of-the-box arrangement you’re looking for in the name of work-life balance. Miranda Priestly spent years taking her art director and right hand man Nigel for granted, and it only becomes obvious to her near the end of the movie.

Many guests on the Lean Out Podcast have talked about the art of showing up with integrity and doing good work, being a team player and how that took them so far when they leaned out. Examples include Marjan Bolouri and Tracy McCarthy.

Balance looks different for everyone

If you’ve read my book Lean Out, you know that I talk about this in the beginning of the book, comparing two doctors – A and B. One of them has an extremely complex professional life that bleeds complexity into her personal realms… and the other craves simplicity as a foundation for physical and mental wellbeing.

Miranda encourages Andie to write an inflammatory biography about her in order to get famous. She says, “Put it all in there… How demanding I am, how imperious… how much of my children’s lives I’ve missed. Because people should know. They should know there’s a cost.”

In the same breath, she says, “But boy, I love working. I just love it! Don’t you?” It’s clear that her type of balance is different from someone like me… And that’s ok. As long as you understand the tradeoffs.

Acknowledge the losses related to a change in your work-life balance

In the movie, there is a scene with Miranda and her husband where she says, “How will I know when it’s time?” And I have to be honest, this is a question I’ve been asking myself lately about anesthesia.

She goes on to say, “If I leave, what happens? What will I have?” And when her husband answers with, “Your kids, your dog, and me,” she doesn’t seem super satisfied with his response.

The thing I’ve realized in my own pondering of retirement is that you don’t have to have everything planned out. You can take the directional decisions one step at a time. And the loss of identity is real, whether the change you’re making is a positive, intentional one, or it’s one that was thrust upon you. I talked about this in a solocast/article from last year about grief and loss.

Have you seen the Devil Wears Prada 2? What did you take away from it, if anything? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below!