A San Francisco-based founder and CEO praised his wife for taking a work-related call from the hospital, hours after giving birth to their son. Eric Rachmel, CEO of tax filing and compliance firm OLarry, shared a LinkedIn post last month where he praised his wife’s dedication to her work.
He shared a photograph of his wife Sarah Voutyras Rachmel, an insurance attorney, sitting on the hospital bed with a phone in hand. Her newborn lay next to her.
“This photo was taken a few hours after our son was born last year,” Eric Rachmel explained. “While recovering in the hospital just a couple hours after child birth, Sarah took a call with a client about a motion she was working on. A few weeks later she obviously won it.”
He went on to praise Sarah as one of “sharpest insurance attorneys in the country” and appreciated women at large who “quietly carry more than most people ever see.”
Post draws mixed reactions
In the comments section, some people praised the new mom’s dedication to her work. Although the LinkedIn post was shared last month, it gained wider attention after it was posted on X by an account called “SMB Attorney” yesterday. Reactions were more critical there.
The X user called it “insane behaviour” in his post. In the comments section, several people concurred, but others countered the argument.
“If you enjoy work and what you do makes you happy, as well as being a parent makes you happy, who cares? Some people legitimately love working and car run on numerous cylinders,” wrote one X user.
“It’s not that serious. A good client is like taking a call from a friend,” another agreed.
“No one should expect this from any employee. Leadership or not,” a user added.
CEO clarifies
As the post sparked a debate about work-life balance and reached a wider audience, OLarry CEO Eric Rachmel posted a clarification on LinkedIn. He tagged the SMB Attorney who had been critical of the post and wrote, “Eric B. Pacifici woke up today and chose violence. I’d rather debate this with a real business audience than with bots on Twitter.
Rachmel argued that there isn’t a single correct way to build a successful career or company, especially when it comes to intensity and work ethic.
“He [Eric Pacifici] took offense to a post where I was celebrating my wife for loving what she does and working incredibly hard to be excellent at it. Eric, on the other hand, runs a small M&A firm and has built a public brand around a very different philosophy; anti–big law work ethic, anti-grind, and skeptical of the idea that real excellence usually comes with real intensity,” the San Francisco-based founder said.
Rachmel argued that choosing to work more is a deeply personal choice, and acknowledged that it can have an adverse impact on health. “If you love what you do, it can be deeply rewarding. It can also be deeply stressful, and over time it can absolutely take a toll on your health and your life. Or you can choose a different path. Work less. Protect more balance. Enjoy life in a different way. It’s is a deeply personal choice,” he said.