Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Lauren Sanchez gives his first interview since teaming up with Jeff Bezos, a company sues over state abortion restrictions, and a CEO learns what it means to be a caregiver. Have a thoughtful Thursday.
– From CEO to Caregiver. Sarahjane Sacchetti has spent three years as CEO of Cleo, a B2B family benefits platform. So if anyone is prepared to understand the impact that caregiving has on employees, it was executives who strategize every day how companies can support staff in dealing with just that issue. .
But understanding something is one thing and experiencing it is another. When Sacchetti’s stepfather was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) two and a half years before her, the impact that diagnosis had on her own life was a shock.
Sacchetti was the only child in the family who lived near her mother and stepfather in the Bay Area. She moved her parents closer to her own family and helped her manage the financial, legal, and logistics of home care to deal with a neurodegenerative disease that causes her patients to lose the ability to speak, move, eat, and speak. became the keeper of
In October 2022, her family decided that the level of paid support they were receiving at home was no longer sufficient as her mother’s health also began to deteriorate. Sacchetti began her leave of absence as her CEO of Cleo that month to coordinate her 24/7 home care and to give her full attention to her family. “All of Cleo’s spreadsheets turned into nursing spreadsheets,” she says.
Her stepfather died in December at the age of 79. “The decision I made [to take leave] It was probably the best thing I’ve ever made,” she says. “Because you don’t know how long you’ve been with people. But I was there every day.”
As she continued to care for her mother and mourned her stepfather, a veteran from California who had a career as a state farm agent, Sacchetti began to think about her future. She has since decided to step down as her CEO of Cleo and begin her new role as the company’s chief operating officer, announced today.
The responsibilities that come with a CEO’s job (frequent travel, long working hours, mental stamina to support staff) were currently beyond her bandwidth. However, she wanted to continue her work. Once Cleo’s board decided that her two executives, her Chief Clinical Officer, Madhavi Vemireddy, and her COO, her Tsion Lencho, would succeed her as Co-CEOs, they would have more scope. Settled in her Sacchetti CEO position, limited.
Courtesy of Cleo
Sacchetti would like to speak publicly about this experience. He had never seen in public an example of his colleagues who had similar experiences when he made his two decisions, first taking a leave of absence and then stepping down from his CEO position. Because. “We’re going in a straight line in our careers,” she says. “And I never saw it.” She had her two children, aged 9 and she aged 6, and took maternity leave, but to care for her sick parent. Taking a leave of absence was a whole different thing for her.
“It’s not understood,” she says. “During my maternity leave, I savor the small joys of being human and everyone says I’m cute. .
This is an issue employers will increasingly have to consider as life expectancy increases and the Sandwich generation takes care of their parents. Research shows that 73% of the workforce has some form of caregiving responsibility, including childcare. Her 15-20% of caregivers have acute conditions like Sacchetti, and the majority of caregivers are women. Rather than shy away from this topic or leave it to HR, employers should seek to understand the needs of their staff, from new hires to senior management, and come up with creative solutions, as Cleo did for Sacchetti. The aim should be to find a solution, she says.
Sacchetti’s experience influenced Cleo’s outlook on work when she returned to work. She shares some of her Caregiving Coordination her spreadsheets with her Cleo product team.
“Even as the CEO of a nursing care company, I had a very hard time navigating it all,” she says. “Let’s not be stigmatized. Let’s talk. Let’s not be ashamed that someone has to step aside or step outside.”
Emma Hincliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Kinsey Crowley. Subscribe here.
in the headline
– Constitutional Rights. GenBioPro files lawsuit in West Virginia, claiming state ban on abortion drugs is unconstitutional Because it violates FDA jurisdiction. If a court rules in favor of drug companies, it could allow people in other states where abortion is restricted to access the drug via telemedicine. new york times
– Not solo flight. In her first solo interview since her relationship with Jeff Bezos went public, Lauren Sanchez said she loved working, exercising and eating pancakes with the world’s third richest man. I said I love you. She also tells how her media background led to a career flying helicopters, and how her love of heights brought her to space with an all-female crew. I also explained how. wall street journal
・Childcare. New Mexico is set to pass sweeping reforms in the coming weeks that will invest millions of dollars in the state’s childcare industry. This victory is the result of Latinos organizing at the grassroots level for months, after which cultural integrity was key to community buy-in. 19th
– “Please be kind.” Pope Francis says homosexuality is not a crime and calls on Catholic bishops who support the criminalization of LGBTQ+ to have “as kindness as God has for each one of us” I was. However, he still considers homosexuality a sin and does not explicitly mention transgender or nonbinary people. Associated Press
Movers and shakers: Director of the Gates Foundation Vidya Vas Devan Appointed to the board of the UNICEF USA Impact Fund for Children. Amy Bricker Appointed EVP and Chief Product Officer for CVS Health’s Consumer Division.New Ocean Health Solutions, a provider of digital health management platform solutions, carries out promotion marnie hall Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. Hired by IPG’s Huge Urvashi Shivdasani As Global Chief Financial Officer.
in case you missed
– one step furtherTreasury Secretary Janet Yellen told congressional leaders that the Treasury Department would stop funding the federal bonds that make up the savings plan for some public employees. This is the latest “special measure” she has announced since the US hit its debt ceiling last week. Associated Press
– sing out loud Beloved Abbott Elementary School Star Sheryl Lee Ralph performs before kickoff of Super Bowl LVII. She joins Babyface and Chris Stapleton as opening performers. Rihanna will headline the halftime show. vanity fair
– Join forces. of Babylist, a registry and product review site, recently acquired Expectful, a mental health app for early parenthood. The two CEOs invested in each other’s funding rounds last year. TechCrunch
– DEI cut. Diversity, equity, and inclusion roles were among the cuts in recent Big Tech layoffs, seeing a drop in hiring over the past year. Affected people say that responsibility is likely to be distributed to others or to the leaders of employee resource groups without compensation. bloomberg
on my radar
In the midst of a black maternal health crisis, are midwives the answer? cosmopolitan
Why are toy commercials still like this? Atlantic
cat personBrett Kavanaugh, fair playand the wrath of entitled men vox
Meet the 14-year-old hockey prodigy who ‘will become a household name’ athletic
parting words
“Of course, if circumstances allow us to land on the moon, we would love to do it.”
— Samantha Cristoforetti, the first and only European woman to land on the moon.
