Happy Friday. As we enter the “new normal”, let’s talk flexibility: ways to get the flex that’s right for you – and that will make working parenthood easier and better in the months ahead….
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When’s the last time you had a full day, fully off? Not doing laundry, correcting homework or catching up on work email…but off? If you’re not taking off all the time you feasibly could: why – and how is that approach serving you, your career, and your family?
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Happy Friday. Here’s a new idea, a practical tool, and some inspiration to make working parenthood easier and better in the weeks ahead….
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Covid-19 has created a working-parent crisis. Since you’re reading this, you’re probably an HR practitioner, senior leader, or enterprising parent who wants to get your organization’s employee resource group (ERG) for employees with children up and running — or make the one that’s already in place more visible, active, and useful. But you’re probably also…
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If working parenthood was tough before, it’s significantly harder now, for all mothers and fathers, in every function, family structure, and phase of parenting. But while we all want relief, we can’t let that desire lure us into short-term thinking. We’re working, and we’re parenting. We’re in this. We have to find ways to make our current situation less miserable, to take back some measure of control, and — importantly — to re-shape working parenthood for the better in the future.
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Dinnertime is one of the danger zones of working parenthood, where the strains of your dual role feel the most acute.
Fortunately, by using simple, specific tactics — 13 of the most powerful are below — you can go a long way in taming the logistics, reducing your sense of strain, and making more family meals happen.
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You’re a leader with ambitious goals for yourself and your team in 2019. The plan is set, the performance, growth, and efficiency targets committed to. But, to be fully prepared for the year, there is one issue that should be at the top of your priority list: the Working Parent Problem.
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It finally happened: You got the buy-in to launch a (much-needed!) working parents’ network in your organization. You’ve done everything needed to get this thing up and running. But as the energy and excitement from that first event fades, you’re left wondering: Now what?
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For working parents with school-age children, this time of year is especially chaotic.
Your task list is endless, your stress level high. And a lot of the work and worry seems to be coming from one place: your child’s school.
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If you’re a working parent, chances are excellent that at any given time, your to-do list stretches on, and on, and on — an endless, and eternally growing, list of deliverables. Is it any wonder that research shows that most working parents feel stressed, tired, and rushed? Or that when you look ahead, you feel more than a little overwhelmed?
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Finally: You’ve got the chance to work remotely. Just you, a comfortable home office, and the opportunity to spend more time with your kids.
Now comes the hard part.
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“Mommy/Daddy, I don’t feel so good.”
It’s a phrase that, along with its nonverbal equivalent – that glazed, pale, listless look that your kids get when they’re coming down with something — that you’ve learned to dread. Because whatever the ailment, be it flu, stomach bug, sprain, or other, two things are now certain...
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There are three things that all working parents have in common: (1) a lack of time; (2) a feeling that we should be spending more time — at work, with our kids, at the gym, or engaged in any number of important activities that get squeezed when we have too much to do; and (3) an uneasy, guilty, powerless, nagging feeling about all of it.
There’s a better way.
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There’s an unexpected source of insight, solutions, and resolve for all working parents grappling with the dual failure-is-not-an-option challenges of managing career and kids — and for every organization struggling to find meaningful, practical ways to support its working-parent employees.
That source is the U.S. military.
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You’ve decided to leave the organization, and the decision was driven by your needs as a working parent. The question now is how – how to leave in the right way, how to be credible, honest and transparent while acting in your own best interests, and how to preserve the long-term career capital you’ve worked so hard to create.
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Most working parents look to their networks of mentors, coworkers, and professional contacts for advice on balancing the competing demands of work and home. But the off-the-cuff guidance that most new working parents in the U.S. get, even if it’s candid and well-intentioned, isn’t always helpful. Too often it’s contradictory, vague, out of date, unactionable, even downright disheartening. With so many professional fathers and mothers depending on this common wisdom, it’s no wonder workforce opt-out rates aren’t budging and so many working parents report feeling exhausted and overwhelmed. Although it’s a go-to resource, the working-parent grapevine doesn’t always provide the most useful or can-do support.
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Unlimited leave. Executive coaches for new mothers. Food takeout vouchers. “Flying nannies” who join their executive employers on business trips. In their efforts to do the right thing and woo talent, organizations of all kinds are reaching for headline-grabbing solutions. But what if your organization can’t offer glossy, cutting-edge benefits? What if they’re too costly, don’t work structurally, fly in the face of your corporate culture — or don’t have senior management’s support?
Not to worry: The most powerful work-life solutions are ones every organization can implement. They’re low-intervention and low-drama. Managers can spearhead many of them, even without institutional backing. And none of them cost an incremental dime.
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