Have you ever wished you can fast forward the development of flexibility in the workplace for working parents? As a working mother I want to fast forward true flexibility in the Australian Workplace.
It is one thing to promote flexibility on paper, which by the way most companies include in the human resources company policy, but voicing your request to your employer is a whole different matter. I know that the majority of us have experienced the few seconds of silence after a request has been voiced. That in itself instantly creates excessive feelings of guilt. We all know that logic should prevail and it is a natural response after any request, but parenting is not always logic, is it?
Logic is the first thing that goes out the door when facing the pull and push effect, always the child/school/daycare being the one to push us to our employer for some flexibility and the employer being the one to pull us to do our part in the workplace. From a phone call from school to ask you to get your darling son or daughter because of a fever or because the school has the wonderful plan to show case your child’s musical abilities at 11 o’clock in the day, meaning you will be away from work for about 3 hours, after taking the hour and a half of travelling into consideration.
How this advanced thinking might work or look like, I don’t know but I am sure if all the working mothers in Australia stand together and put our thinking caps on we can be a force to be reckoned with. Maybe one of us can start a political party?? Something to think about. Feel free to comment with any ideas of how you manage the working mum balance??
Written By – Adri Van Rensburg
Adri is a supermom to two extremely handsome boys, ages 11 and nearly double digit; full time Engineering Underwriter between 8 and 4:30pm and loving wife to a darling husband? She is also the youngest of five children…….Did I hear whispers of being spoilt? She has two brothers and two sisters, all of them still living in South Africa where she was born and bred.
She is a mum, sometimes full of energy, sometimes lazy, sometimes professional and sometimes not so much, sometimes friendly and loving and sometimes not so much but always, always proud to call herself Adri.
