All About The Moms

With Mother's Day just around the corner, it's a great time to consider the specific challenges that working Moms face in many workplaces. Having a full-time job and a family can be hectic, challenging, rewarding and exhausting - sometimes all at the same time. 

For better or worse, many working Moms serve as the primary caregiver in their household. What that means in the real world is that many women must balance the stresses of the workplace along with the day-to-day activities that come along with being a parent (including sick kids, making dinner, teacher conferences, etc.) [Kudos to men who share equally in this area, but we'll celebrate you in June.]  

How do you keep high performing Moms in the workplace?

Author Georgia Collins offered some suggestions on how to make your workplace parent-friendly in an article in Fortune magazine. Here are some of her tips for those who manage working moms:

• Allow for flexible working hours for everyone, not just parents
• Manage and measure performance based on results, not necessarily on "face time” at work.
• Provide positive reinforcement. Letting people know when their contributions make a difference helps keep them motivated

Huffington Post contributor Selena Cameron offers similar suggestions, emphasizing the importance of creating work environments where parents are not punished for utilizing flexible work arrangements:

• Work is fulfilling for women, and it satisfies something important inside of us. But once you become a parent, you realize that for it to remain fulfilling there has to be a balance. 
• I can't be fully present in a meeting, for example, if I'm worried that I rushed off too quickly that morning when I dropped my kids off at school because I was afraid that I'd get looked at sideways if I didn't walk through the door by 9 a.m.
• What I think working moms truly appreciate is flexibility without trade-offs.

Supporting fellow women:

Earlier this year, PowerToFly president Katharine Zaleski made headlines when she confessed "I didn’t realize how horrible I’d been – until I had a child of my own.”  She admitted that as a manager at two major newspapers she committed a long list of infractions against mothers or said nothing while others did:

• I secretly rolled my eyes at a mother who couldn’t make it to last minute drinks with me and my team. I questioned her “commitment” even though she arrived two hours earlier to work than me and my hungover colleagues the next day.
• I didn’t disagree when another female editor said we should hurry up and fire another woman before she “got pregnant.”
• I scheduled last minute meetings at 4:30pm all of the time. It didn’t dawn on me that parents might need to pick up their kids at daycare. I was obsessed with the idea of showing my commitment to the job by staying in the office “late” even though I wouldn’t start working until 10:30 am while parents would come in at 8:30 am.

Zaleski now wishes that five years ago, she had known that mothers are the people you need on your team. There’s a saying that “if you want something done then ask a busy person to do it.” That’s exactly why I like working with mothers now.

Sending a message to the next generation:

Clear Path's Anna Aceto-Guerin shares her thoughts on being an entrepreneur and a busy Mom:

• "Even though it is challenging at times, I feel that I am giving my daughter the message that there are many, many options for women in the workplace - including how she could even start their own business and succeed. My mother was much more traditional as a new Canadian, so that wasn't a message I often received myself."

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Remember to show your appreciation to your own Mom this weekend if you're able to -- and don't forget to appreciate the working Moms in your own organization.

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