Mums Returning To The Workplace

As a mum of two having worked almost my whole life, I can empathise with mums who have to juggle a career and raising future law-abiding citizens.

With my first daughter, I was lucky because I didn’t have a job to go back to and my little girl was a year old before I re-entered the workforce. Even then the feelings of guilt strangling me every morning when I dropped her off at daycare, were overwhelming.

With my second daughter I worked right up to the day she was born. I called in the morning, having birthing pains, to tell them I didn’t think I was going to make it in that day… and I went back to work two weeks later! In those days in South Africa we didn’t have the best maternity leave schemes and you were afraid they will replace you if you took the available three months leave. Financially I couldn’t afford not to have my job back. That didn’t make the decision easier and I cried every night when I held my little baby and my toddler. I know many people will say I had a choice and they are right, but the fact is I made my choice not knowing if it was the right one. At the time it was the best one for our family.

Looking at my two beautiful daughters now, each with their own children, having to make the same choices I had to make back then, I am happy to see things are slowly changing. There are more options for mothers returning to the workplace such as flexible hours, working from home and job share. A lot more support and understanding. But still not enough!

Mums returning to the workplace still find it extremely difficult. The pushback from employers saying their skills are outdated, (seriously, how much can administration change in one or two years, or Information Technology for that matter). Yes, recruiting and working in the IT industry I know it is a fast-changing, moving environment, but most employers are happy to take on graduates who studied for an IT degree which is already ten years outdated because the curriculum has never been updated! We never mention graduates’ skills are not up to par!

Other excuses such as: new mums will be distracted, thinking of their baby all the time – as if any millennial has an attention span longer than a guppy. Yet we are quick to employ them, because they are the new generation with fresh insights and innovation. Show me a new mum who hasn’t come up with a few new innovations herself, better time management, quicker risk assessment and quicker decision-making skills under pressure! Always learning on the run.

What I find hard to understand – every single person on this earth either has one, knows one, employs one or is one – a MUM! So why is it so hard for us to support mums getting back into the workplace and give them a fair go?

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