{"id":151532,"date":"2025-11-24T18:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T18:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/151532\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T18:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T18:04:12","slug":"founder-nicole-bernard-dawes-encourages-employees-to-unplug-from-work-says-they-didnt-sign-up-to-be-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/151532\/","title":{"rendered":"Founder Nicole Bernard Dawes encourages employees to unplug from work, says \u2018They didn\u2019t sign up to be entrepreneurs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid the raging work-life balance debate and as Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy<\/a> reignited the 72-hour workweek row, two-time founder Nicole Bernard Dawes believes employees should unplug from work.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Fortune, on success with her businesses, building her $100 million company and pushing through economic downturns, Dawes said that her employees are encouraged to have work-life balance. The reason? \u201cThey didn’t sign up to be entrepreneurs<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dawes founded two companies, Late July (a non-GMO tortilla chip brand) in 2003, which was bought for $100 million by Campbell’s in 2017; and Nixie (a zero sugar, packaged soda brand) in 2018. Nixie attracted $27 million early in 2025, with products sold in more than 11,000 grocery stores in the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Constant work \u2018a self-inflicted situation’<\/p>\n

Explaining her thought process, Dawes told Fortune that she herself finds it hard to disconnect from work<\/a>. \u201cI think I probably am a little bit of a hypocrite, because I don\u2019t unplug. I never do. I never want to be the person that\u2019s holding up a member of our team,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever unplugging is my life. I signed up for this. I am the entrepreneur; I did this to myself\u2014a self-inflicted situation. (My employees) didn\u2019t sign up to be entrepreneurs<\/a>. I am very comfortable taking downtime, but also making sure I\u2019m available,\u201d Dawes added.<\/p>\n

\u2018Important to be passionate about mission, products\u2019<\/p>\n

Dawes added that experience with her own family’s business obligations and work timings have shaped her views on work-life balance<\/a>, noting that not all leaders may agree with her thoughts on the matter. \u201cI think that where a lot of [leaders] differ, is extending that to their team. I feel very strongly that it should not extend to the team,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dawes shared that growing up her father missed a lot because of work, and she was determined not to do that, adding, \u201cI wanted to be present at things for my kids, and I wanted [it] to be okay for our team to be that way, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working at her mother’s health-food store as a child also built up her experience with what to expect while running a business<\/a>, she told Fortune, adding that passion is key. \u201cWhen you decide to become an entrepreneur, there\u2019s a lot of people [saying], \u2018It\u2019s stressful, it\u2019s lonely, it\u2019s all these things.\u2019 And that\u2019s true, but this is where I was really fortunate: I grew up in this business, so I entered eyes wide open. That\u2019s why it\u2019s really important to be passionate about your mission, passionate about your products. Because you do have to sacrifice a lot on the other side,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

How does a million-dollar founder balance work with family?<\/p>\n

Dawes in the interview highlighted the importance of prioritising matters. \u201cYou have to choose what\u2019s the most important thing in that moment. I don\u2019t think as an entrepreneur\u2014at least for me\u2014I\u2019ve never really, truly, been able to shut off completely. But I also make time to have family <\/a>dinner almost every night. There were things that were priorities to me, and I still make them priorities, like going out for a walk every day or exercising,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when I wake up in the morning like, \u2018I can\u2019t even believe I\u2019m this lucky that I get to do this job<\/a>\u2019. And because I feel that way, it doesn\u2019t feel like working. I\u2019m getting to do something fun all the time,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid the raging work-life balance debate and as Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy reignited the 72-hour workweek row,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[101153,38501,138,101151,30008,4484,627,336,25485,311,232,101152,101154,111,139,101150,69,1037,101155,22891],"class_list":{"0":"post-151532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-72-hours-work-week","9":"tag-breaks","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-consumer-packaged-goods","12":"tag-downtime","13":"tag-employees","14":"tag-entrepreneurs","15":"tag-entrepreneurship","16":"tag-family-life","17":"tag-founder","18":"tag-jobs","19":"tag-late-july","20":"tag-narayana-murthy","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nicole-bernard-dawes","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-startup","26":"tag-work-hours","27":"tag-work-life-balance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}