"I would never put my job before my family"
About this Quote
The absolutism matters. "Never" isn’t how most people actually navigate work-life tradeoffs; it’s a moral word, not a logistical one. That’s the point. In a culture where ambition is praised until it looks unfeminine or "selfish", the sentence performs innocence: yes, I’m successful, but I’m not the kind of successful that makes you uncomfortable. It’s also a subtle rebuke to the workplace norm that treats devotion to the job as the highest form of virtue. If your employer expects family to come second, the quote implies, that expectation is the problem.
There’s context baked into the speaker, too. For a woman in broadcast news, family talk is often compulsory - a soft-focus counterweight to authority on camera. Guthrie’s statement pushes back while still playing the game: it affirms care, signals limits, and protects her image from the suspicion that power requires coldness. The real intent isn’t to describe a perfectly balanced life; it’s to claim the right to one.
Quote Details
| Topic | Family |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Guthrie, Savannah. (2026, February 11). I would never put my job before my family. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-would-never-put-my-job-before-my-family-185270/
Chicago Style
Guthrie, Savannah. "I would never put my job before my family." FixQuotes. February 11, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-would-never-put-my-job-before-my-family-185270/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I would never put my job before my family." FixQuotes, 11 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-would-never-put-my-job-before-my-family-185270/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.






