Monday, May 19, 2008

The Critic's Report on OnRamps and Detours Forum

I had been waiting in great anticipation to attend last week's OnRamps and Detours Forum at Bentley College in Waltham, MA. This forum was to be the "meeting of the minds" for women in the boston area on the topic of women returning to the workplace after taking a career break to care for their families. I couldn't wait to hear what was going to be said. There would be Keynotes, break-out sessions and rubbing elbows with local women in business. What could be better for a budding Working Families' Issues politician such as myself?
(cue the Star Spangled Banner, please)

Bright-eyed and somewhat bushy-tailed (I could have used more coffee and a printer that actually printed out my directions which ended up making me a little late), I practically ran into the Executive Dining Room at Bentley College. Bentley is a gorgeous small campus school that is known for Business and Financial studies. The first up was keynote speaker Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Founder and CEO of Care.com. They are a wonderful solution that helps families find quality child and elder care. I listened intently to her story of how and why she started her company. She is a vibrant, tidy intellectual who knows how to deliver a motivational talk. I was entranced, she was me I was thinking, right up until she started talking about her hours worked per day. A mere 12-15 did she say? Wow, that is a lot of hours spent at the office. I checked my program, she did have children, right? Doing my math, factoring in my hellish commute and hours my daughter spends sleeping that would equate to zero hours spent with Carli during the week. That's right, I said zero.

I was thinking she was the exception to the norm, unfortunately I was wrong. Plenty of women who spoke that day were working long hours, some had full-time nannies, or travelled very often. By very often I mean at least a week to sometimes two each month. Oh my stars!

I had recently turned down two job opportunities because I was required to be travelling a minimum of 5-7 times a quarter. That really means 5-7 times as long as nothing else comes up. That comes out to 7-9 times a quarter because, let's face facts, with Client Management something always comes up. Were the salaries sky-scraper high? You bet they were! I was just not willing to be away from my family that often no matter what they paid. To me, it just wasn't worth it. My pursuit is to help educate employers to get their heads around the idea of work/life balance not "say good bye to your family".

I realize not everyone shares my thoughts on travel and hours worked. Here is my conundrum. Do these mother/leaders in business offer real work/life balance solutions at their workplaces given that their sense of balance and involvement may be a bit skewed in light of their back-breaking schedules? I hope so, I really hope so. Otherwise, we really aren't offering much hope. It is up to us, gals, to make a better place in business for our daughters, should they choose to have children and also a career. I am convinced you can still do both. Do both sides have to give to make it work? Yes, they do. You can't pour two 2-litre bottles into a 16-ounce glass and not have a lot of spillage and mess! The point is, and I will pseudo-quote Sheila of Care.com here, you have to accept imperfection. If you want to do it perfectly, just save yourself a lot of frustration and accept that you won't. And it's okay.

Overall, the forum was wonderful. The forum's creator Meghan McCartan, was engaging, smart and amazingly hospitible despite running around like a crazy person, making sure everything was going smoothly. (I think Mom's have a PhD in that though) She brought together some great talent and tremendous role models who had very relevant things to say. The caliber of attendee was also outstanding. The group was big enough but not too large to be intimidating.
Well, done indeed, Meghan. One thing I would like to see is some Mom Business Leaders speak about successful Work/Life Balance programs for next year. I really don't feel like that happened last week.

Some sites of mention:

www.onrampsforum.com -find out more about an OnRamps forum in your area
www.forms4parents.com -founded by an attorney, legally sound agreements for childcare
www.educationandjuvenilelaw.com -specializing in Special Education law and consultation

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Is The Part-Time Working Mom Really Helping?

Work from home part-time?

I am not talking about the mom who works part-time somewhere to fulfill a part-time role. I am talking about a mom who stays at home and works part-time to fulfill part of a full-time role for next to no pay so she can fill some weird void.

I have been conversing with a gentleman lately who is also pre-launch with his company. He had been asking me about my mission. He was very excited to forward me an article from the Wall Street Journal on Stay-at-Home Moms who are filling part of full-time roles by doing the work for this role that can be done via the Internet. These particular women mentioned in the article were MBAs working for $21. an hour. $21. an hour!

Why am I upset? Well, my gentlemen friend was pretty taken aback himself. The problem is this. Moms with MBAs re-entering the workforce full-time are having a hard enough time finding jobs that pay what they deserve, meet their needs in flexible scheduling and desire to accommodate their child's schedules as well. With moms working for the same job for much less than the full-timer with the same degree would make, I hope you can see the very big problem here. The salaries will decrease as this trend gains popularity. We need to move forward not backward! What in the world is going on here. Stay home or go back to work. Don't cut the legs out from under the ones who need to or want to work full-time.

What do these trendsetting companies think of this new twist on job filling? Well it is an astounding success of course! I mean, to hire a collective group at a great discount to fill one job role with no benefits is truly the best scenario that a stockholder and budget manager could ask for.

What do the women who are being passed up for a full-time job think of this brilliant plan by Corporate America? Why don't you ask one? Women @ Work Network is a consortium of local groups geared toward helping the currently at-home mom who would like to re-enter the full-time job market. On Ramps and Detours is also a Boston-based forum and conference for the same demographic. I love their mission but I see this new trend as a knife in the tire of their new car.

Clearly my stance will be controversial to some. My appeal is to the masses. Try to see this from the point of view of those who struggle in the full-time realm. It is a great struggle, if you are one of the Stay-at-Home and yet want to work Moms you obviously don't get it. There are lots of things you can do at home or outside part-time that would utilize your skills without taking away from others. You made a choice, now stick with it.

For the article:
http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2008/05/02/stay-at-homes-moms-fill-an-executive-niche/?mod=WSJBlog