Practical, honest advice for UK working mums on managing a career alongside family life. Covers flexible working rights, returning to work after maternity leave, negotiating pay, dealing with redundancy while pregnant, and making the most of your professional skills as a mother. Written from real experience, not corporate HR speak.
Social stereotypes are everywhere and the workplace is no different! It’s amazing how, even in 2018, women as men do not have a level playing field when it comes to their expected behaviours. If a man is assertive in the workplace, he’s a great boss, or an asset to the team, but a woman doing exactly the same is labelled bossy, confrontational or a b*tch.
Despite common belief, it’s not always easy to move jobs when you fall out of love with it. Whether it’s because there just isn’t anything else available in a small town, or because you need to upskill or get more qualifications (that you’re either working on or can’t afford to pay for) there are a number of reasons why a job change may not easily be on the cards.
So, besides throwing the towel in or sinking into panic mode every time you walk into your workplace, what can you do about it?
Managing both a successful career and a happy family can be tricky for parents. In a recent article, Forbes refers to “mommy wars”, this intense divide between stay-at-home mums and working mothers. It may sound rather unimportant, but it’s actually a complicated societal issue with gender inequality at work, guilt brought on by motherhood at its core.
As enticising as it may be to spend every waking hour spying on your colleagues’ LinkedIn profile to see how you can trump them on a job promotion, or looking at your competitor’s Facebook page to see how many comments they’re getting for posts, when it comes down to it, it’s just unfeasible to spend your every minute of the day doing it.
Every year, half the planet probably draws up a list of must-dos. You can guess them already, can’t you? The infamous bucket-list of things to do that will revolutionalise a part of or all of our existence. Nah!
Come the end of January, when all the guilt of slipping up on the faddy diet, ditching that impossible exercise regime, telling your boss to take a hike and whatever else, we’re either consumed with guilt (for a millisecond) or have given up completely. at this point, the gym membership, exercise equipment ad smoothie blenders are taking up much-needed space.
Egg timer…check! Twenty minutes to spare…check! Phone on silent…check!
Ok, well that should have given you an insight into what this article is about. A big tick if you’ve worked out that it has something to do with time management. Isn’t it always these days?
Balancing work and parenting can be hard for most people, but there can be a multitude of additional challenges if you are the parent of a child with special needs. Ensuring that you are supported throughout this process and beyond is incredibly important:
According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, women who return to work after maternity leave are more likely to experience discrimination than women did a decade ago. Put into context, 54,000 new mums lose their jobs every year: one in nine are dismissed, made compulsorily redundant, or forced out of their jobs because they are treated so badly that they quit.
If you’re one of those working mums who manages to hang on to your job, or grin through the craziness, give yourself a pat on the back. Here are some of the good effects that motherhood impacts on your career – so you can gloat:
