In tech, “work-life balance” gets reduced to a planner hack. Block your lunch. Color-code your day. Optimize for focus. But behind the curated calendars and productivity tools, there’s a more urgent reality—especially for women.
One where “balance” isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing the right things, at the right time, in a way that lasts. Because in a high-performance culture, burnout is expensive—and avoidable.
At Forte Group, we decided to stop pretending anyone has all the answers and instead ask a better question: How do you build a career you’re proud of without losing yourself in the process?
In the latest edition of Forte Group's Women's Club, our women—leaders, engineers, recruiters, moms, mentors—didn’t talk about stepping back. They talked about stepping into clarity, structure, and the kind of personal discipline that fuels long-term success.
There’s a myth that setting boundaries means lowering the bar. But when Valeriia Verbova moved her entire work setup into a spare room with a closeable door, it wasn’t about hiding from her responsibilities—it was about protecting her focus.
That door did more than separate home from work. It gave her a way to operate at her highest level without sacrificing everything else that matters.
“Boundaries aren’t selfish. They’re survival.”
This wasn’t a story of opting out. It was about taking ownership of energy, focus, and attention—three resources that drive performance as much as technical skill or time in the seat.
Larissa Fernandes’s early career was shaped by being the only woman in a room full of engineers. The bar wasn’t just high—it was invisible, constantly shifting, and almost always higher for her. So she got used to pushing harder than everyone around her, long after it was sustainable.
Now, she’s rewriting that pattern.
“I overwhelm myself. Not because others expect it, but because I think I should always be doing more.”
Her version of leadership today includes rest—not because she wants to slow down, but because she knows that sprinting all the time leads to collapse. So she schedules breaks with the same rigor she once reserved for pitch decks and pipelines. Because showing up sharp matters more than showing up constantly.
In an industry that rewards fast response times and relentless iteration, Anastasiya Naumova chooses stillness on purpose.
Her days are structured down to a Trello board that balances professional goals with personal needs—but she ends each one by doing nothing at all. No inputs. No noise. Just stillness.
“It’s okay to do nothing. You don’t have to earn your rest.”
This isn’t disengagement. It’s recovery. It’s the mental white space that fuels creativity, clarity, and precision the next day. In high-performance teams, that kind of cognitive reset isn’t indulgent. It’s strategic.
Eliana Farelo doesn’t believe in leaving things to chance—especially not her own resilience. Her secret weapon? A weekly ritual every Monday where she maps her work, workouts, and parenting logistics into a single, visible system.
“When I feel overwhelmed, I organize something small—my desk, a drawer. It’s like rebooting my brain.”
Her version of balance is built in layers: therapy sessions logged like meetings, shared calendars with her family, and an unapologetic approach to protecting what fuels her. It’s not rigid. It’s responsive. And it’s how she continues to lead, grow, and show up—without burning out.
Jane Perederey doesn’t frame rest as optional. She treats it like an executive function. Her calendar is structured not just for output, but for recovery, thinking time, and clarity.
“Coffee is not a food group. Burnout isn’t a badge of honor.”
When someone with Jane’s output says “slow down,” it’s not because she’s disengaged. It’s because she’s done the math. High performers who build sustainable habits outperform those who grind until they break.
She’s not doing less. She’s doing what matters—with focus, energy, and consistency.
If you zoom out, the patterns are clear. These women aren’t pulling back. They’re building systems—emotional, physical, relational—that support the pace, depth, and complexity of the work they’re doing every day.
It’s not softer. It’s smarter.
They’re still leading teams, shipping code, scaling functions, mentoring others, and driving innovation. But they’re also logging off when it’s time. Going for a run. Saying no when they need to. Blocking out time for a therapy session instead of squeezing one in between meetings.
That’s not underperformance. That’s elite-level self-management.
At Forte Group, this isn’t just a conversation, but a true commitment. We’re proud to be certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the gold standard for women-owned businesses in the U.S. That means we’re at least 51% women-owned, led, and operated, with the systems, leadership, and strategy to back it up.
Supplier diversity matters. But so does representation, decision-making power, and ownership. Being WBENC certified isn a signal that we believe in building a culture where women don’t just participate. They lead, shape, and scale what comes next. Read more.
"These stories aren't about slowing down. They're about showing up—with intention, resilience, and personal leadership. Boundaries, rest, and flexibility aren't weaknesses. They're strategic tools for sustaining excellence. This is what a high-performance culture looks like in the real world. And we’re proud to be building it with women like these."
— Executive Leadership, Forte Group
In a world obsessed with hustle, this conversation is something else: a map for how to sustain momentum without losing yourself.
So if you’re looking for permission to build structure that supports—not suffocates—you, here it is:
You’re not doing less. You’re leading better.
And we’re here for it.
If you're a Fortie and would like to learn more about this conversation, watch the recording.