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Chapter 8
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Careless People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Carelessness, Wealth, and Greed
Idealism and the Failed Promises of Technology
Sexism in the Workplace
Bureaucracy and Obstacles to Change
Summary
Analysis
When Sandberg publishes her book Lean In in March 2013, everything changes at Facebook as Sandberg becomes a celebrity. To Wynn-Williams, it seems as though during the promotional period of the book, the women in the D.C. office are expected to do low-level tasks that are much like the “office housework” that Sandberg criticizes so much in public. In general, Wynn-Williams sees little evidence of Sandberg’s Lean In principles in practice at Facebook. Still, Wynn-Williams is also amazed at how confident and charismatic Sandberg is whenever she meets with people. Wynn-Williams finds herself caught between older women in the office who think the book is “bullshit” and younger women who are starstruck.
The publication of Lean In marks a new rise in status for Sandberg, but it also helps Wynn-Williams to see how Sandberg in her day-to-day life doesn’t live up to the ideals that she espouses in her own book. Wynn-William notes that there is a sharp generational divide in the office and that the older women at Facebook, who have more experience with what to expect in a workplace, are more skeptical of Sandberg’s messages than the younger and more idealistic office members.
Active
Themes
Wynn-Williams’s pregnancy accidentally makes her a perfect symbol for some of the principles about women staying in the workplace in Sandberg’s book, so she ends up going to Japan as part of the Lean In international book tour. Wynn-Williams places calls at the Japanese government to try to convince Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that Lean In matches with a “womenomics” part of his own political agenda to encourage women to stay in the workforce.
Wynn-Williams’s pregnancy provides a tangible example of what it can be like to be a woman working in technology. Initially, Sandberg sees Wynn-Williams as an asset, not unlike the anecdotes she cites within Lean In. But Wynn-Williams is aware in this passage about how she is mostly acting as a prop for Sandberg, raising questions about how deep Sandberg’s commitment to solidarity really is.
Active
Themes
While preparing for the meeting with Shinzo Abe, Wynn-Williams heads to Sandberg’s room at their hotel and is surprised to see a Japanese woman crying outside it. Wynn-Williams learns from Debbie that this woman was Sandberg’s makeup artist and that previously, Sandberg already fired a different makeup artist. Wynn-Williams hasn’t seen this temperamental side of Sandberg before, but Debbie seems less surprised by it. The meeting with Shinzo Abe goes well, and Wynn-Williams even manages to get a photo of him holding Lean In.
Active
Themes
Sandberg praises Wynn-Williams afterward for setting up the meeting. But when Wynn-Williams reacts modestly, Sandberg gets angry at her for not knowing how to take a compliment. Wynn-Williams takes a van back to the hotel with Sandberg and Sandberg’s parents, and Sandberg gets angry with her parents when she learns that they took her children to get McDonald’s while she was working, believing they should never eat fast food—despite how Sandberg herself has posed for a photo eating Chicken McNuggets at the McDonald’s corporate headquarters.
Active
Themes
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On the way home, Wynn-Williams flies the budget airline Asiana and is surprised to land and get a bunch of messages asking if she’s OK. A different Asiana plane that left before hers crash-landed at San Francisco. Wynn-Williams sees a post on Sandberg’s Facebook page about how she was nearly on the flight that crashed and is thankful. But when Wynn-Williams later calls Debbie, she learns that Sandberg always takes United and never even considered Asiana. From then on, Wynn-Williams sees Sandberg differently.
