workingwomen | #womenatwork | #womenpower | #freelancework | # talentplatform
In most countries and cultures the onus of managing homes, raising children, providing elder care resides with women. There is a lot more acceptance and contribution from the men, but a lot of new moms or working moms struggle with guilt. Guilt for not spending enough time with their children, being away from their family, not giving their 100% at work while multi-tasking with the zillion things in their head. Hence, they often land up accepting stress and compromise as a way of life. Those with less ‘steely’ nerves and lack of support at home often succumb to giving up their careers or at least take a sabbatical. Many organisations, specifically investment banks, like Goldman Sachs have a returning program for women who have been absent from the workforce on account of other demands on them, as mothers or caregivers.
While the deep satisfaction of taking care of our families including children more than makes up for the challenges which come along with it, why can’t women have the best of both worlds? Meltdowns, missed events, junk meals are all part of life, the collateral damage should not be careers. After all, for example the more available moms also have to go through spells of ‘not so’ good parenting for one reason or another. So let’s start by asking why do we women work? Is it for satisfaction, financial independence, personal and professional goals? The ideal question should be why not, rather than why. All valid feminist emotions, but there is gap to be bridged between reality and our ideal world.
This is possibly the silver lining of the COVID 19 pandemic, which has shown organisations, leaders and professionals that work can happen remotely, with win-win outcomes for all. Organisations like Google are looking at their experience and research over this period to see how to make workplaces more inclusive. Not to let biases creep in while evaluating someone working from home or remotely versus someone commuting to work. These remain to be explored in depth another time.
For now, Imagine this! – What if, as a mother of a young child or children or a caregiver, you could log in to your work while running the timer on and off, basis your schedule. A cry for attention or a hug or an unscheduled need could all be handled with a guilt-free jump out, before logging back in. Yes, the interruption could mean a break in the thought process or flow, but that’s when the natural gifts and instincts of women kick in. They are inherently wired to multi-task and get the job done more efficiently.
Despite all the rife and pertinent debates, why can’t this collective experience and wisdom be put to use to make freelancing more mainstream – more acceptable not only to organisations but people at large. To my mind, a large part of making this happen is about causing a real shift in mindsets.
How can we ensure that this experience of making work happen from anywhere, on flexible schedules is not lost, but put to great use by enabling women in whatever phase of their careers to stay at it? By simply logging off and on for as many hours as you can clock on a platform like #pluckyourday – you are then able to continue building work experience, keep the money flowing, and all this while being a fuller parent, caregiver or partner.
With the above context and best thoughts, please allow us to launch the ‘Let’s ACE IT’ series. We are committed to take the hard road to bring people that matter onboard to make this change happen.
As a first step, we are inviting working women or aspiring working women globally to share their ‘Wishlist of employers’ and ‘Wishlist of a tech platform’ such as pluckyourday to make work happen. Your input will help us better curate projects, align employers, cherry pick fields of work basis your life stage, skills, preferences etc.