ThirdPath Institute
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"We really shouldn't have to choose between career aspirations and family aspirations. There's no one way to do this!
We need to continue to push for more flexible organizations, supportive public policy, and progressive conversations at home."—Jessica DeGroot This page is for anyone looking for a "third path" to create time for work and for life: for rewarding careers, for family, and/or for other personal pursuits. Too often we imagine an "either-or" scenario: Either we work and outsource more care than we'd li
May asked a lot. What did you learn about your capacity, your needs, and your systems? And what will you take into June?
What happens when one parent becomes the “flexible one” by default?
The one who always adjusts?
The one who always leaves work early?
The one who tracks the appointments, the school forms, the sick days, the shifting schedules, the invisible details.
At first, it may feel like the arrangement is working…until flexibility starts to become a strain and capacity runs out. Then resentment quietly enters the room.
In our May episode of Taking Your Third Path, Jessica talks with Kate Mangino, author of Equal Partners, about one-parent-flex families, greedy jobs, shared care, communication, and what it takes to build a more sustainable approach to work and family.
This conversation is for parents, partners, managers, and anyone who has ever wondered:
How do we make work and family feel less like one person is holding it all together?
05/27/2026
Burnout is not just about too much work. It's about too little support.
It's what happens when people are asked to keep showing up, producing, caregiving, leading, parenting, managing, and holding everything together without enough room to be human.
At ThirdPath, we believe well-being cannot depend on individual endurance alone. It has to be built into the way we work, the way we lead, and the way we care for one another.
Because when the only answer to burnout is “try harder,” we have already missed the point.
People do not need more pressure to be resilient.
They need workplaces, families, teams, and communities that make resilience possible.
So today, ask yourself:
Where are people carrying too much alone?
Where could support be made visible, practical, and shared?
Where can we stop treating exhaustion as normal?
Work-life integration begins when we stop asking people to survive broken systems and start building systems that support whole lives.
Join us in reimagining work, care, and well-being for everyone.
05/26/2026
Making time is not about finding it.
It is about choosing it.
We often talk about time as if it were hiding somewhere. As if one day we will finally “find the time” for rest, caregiving, connection, movement, reflection, or the work that matters most.
But time is shaped by choices. And in organizations, those choices are shaped by culture. When leaders treat every meeting as urgent, every email as immediate, and every calendar as endlessly available, people learn that their lives come second.
But when leaders model protected time, transparent priorities, real flexibility, and respect for caregiving, they create something different.
They create permission.
Work-life integration does not happen because people magically become better at time management. It happens when individuals, teams, and organizations make intentional choices about what matters, what can wait, and what deserves space.
Making time is leadership.
Making time is culture.
Making time is care in action.
Today, let's pause. Not just for remembrance, but for reflection on what matters. What do we want our time to stand for?
Work-life integration is a team sport, and if one person is always carrying the system, it is not working.
What are you doing to work better as a team, and not individually?
05/19/2026
What feels heavy this week? What feels supportive. Both are your data. Use it. And ask for the support you need.
Summer is supposed to feel lighter. But for many, it feels heavier. More logistics. More coordination. Less structure. You are not alone in that.
05/14/2026
The planning. The tracking. The remembering. Invisible labor is what makes everything else possible. When it stays invisible, it stays unequal.
This episode explores what sustainable careers actually require. Not more discipline. Better design. What needs to change in your current structure?
Before time off, work expands. Deadlines move closer. Expectations increase. What if preparing for time away did not require overextending?
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