For the WordPress Prompt of the day, I present to you something I would consider on par with a Unicorn. Being a mom in the workplace and having it all really is a legend. Here is my take on it. Enjoy!
No, unfortunately you cannot. Look, I don’t know your profession but if you work in retail or corporate retail, you cannot skyrocket to the top without sacrificing your relationship with your family. If you or someone you know works just 40 hours a week, is a ridiculously big, big wig and is able to participate in the scholastic book fair, I want to hear about it.
In most of my jobs I’m sure I’ve been labeled lazy or not really a go-getter. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. I am the most ambitious individual you’ll ever meet but I know what it’s like to have a workaholic parent. I grew up in the restaurant business where my father tended to the restaurant morning, noon and night, 6 days a week. Even then he sold real estate on Sundays. I called the restaurant my father’s fourth spoiled child as it always required his time.
So who are my co-workers? It’s always a twenty-something, vowing never to have children while saying “it was lost in translation” when she actually meant to say, “it was lost in transit.”
I am always the minority at any job with children by a landslide. While the single, young girls are staying late, I am packing up immediately. Not because I don’t understand there are things to be done but because I value my time with my children. After they go to bed I log back on and work. Just did an hour right before writing this post. But see, it will never be seen because it’s not the face time.
When I have people report to me I always ask them this: when you are on your death-bed, who will be surrounding you? Will it be your co-workers at this time? Probably not. It will be your children, your family, they come first.
The thing that drives me batty is when I see my friends able to be off for what it seems to be every single day our kids are off school. Then I realize they are teachers and sometimes nurses who work 32 hours but paid for 40. How sweet of a gig is that? My mother’s schedule was like. She was a nurse Saturday and Sunday for 2 12 hour shifts but was paid for a 40 hour week.
What are your thoughts on this? Are there other industries that are filled with childless women and you’re in the same boat? I’m just trying to gauge how bad this situation is.
Not where I work. I never wanted children, but when I had Munch my life was forever changed. He comes first. Not work. I let them know that. It’s hard when you’re a working mother because people think you’re not giving your all when in fact you’re giving more than the childless chick because you feel like you have something to prove.
Thank you for this and you are right! They have no idea EVERYTHING we have to go through just to get our kids fed, clothed and educated and those are just the basics. The slap in the face is when they talk about their pets as kids. I want to rip their face off really.
LOL. They know not what they mean.
I work 40 hours a week. It’s for a software development company, and I am the admin. I am the person who orders supplies and lunch for the dudes. I get to work 40 hours a week because I am not essential, but I am helpful.
This isn’t my passion or what I went to college for, but NOW this is my dream job. My positions before this in hiring/HR, I did work 50+ hours a week. It was fine when I was single, but after the kiddos came, I couldn’t do it anymore. I’m okay with where I am at and what I do because it means going home less stressed an on time.
You are so right. It’s so frustrating when you feel like you have to choose. You know? You’re so lucky.