My oxygen mask report...

In addition to leading a team of HR professionals across Asia Pacific and Japan, I’m also the mom to two teenagers and the daughter of 2 ageing parents.

If you’re a professional like me juggling work, home and life I’m sure you will agree that COVID has made these experiences more difficult. Our time-honored support systems of school, childcare and parents have disintegrated. Life felt like an ongoing rollercoaster and somedays I’ve felt like I’m hanging on to a ledge like an expert rock climber.  

They say women are shouldering the additional household responsibility, and despite my family’s best intentions, I found myself in the same scenario. This translated to the additional pressure of housework; online schools; monitoring homework; figuring out meal planning under curfews; catering to parents needs and trying to manage emotions of housebound, rambunctious teens, all on top a full-time job. 

None of my pre-covid strategies applied and I found myself getting tired and frazzled when after a long days work every interaction with the kids became a battle with clenched teeth, anger and the inevitable slammed door. I needed new strategies and approaches, but where would I go for this? 

I''ve heard this said before on all the countless flights I took last year.

"Make sure you have your own mask on, before helping others."

I didn't realise how important it was to do this when grounded as well!

Luckily my talent team and leadership at ServiceNow was recognising this reality and helped us out with some amazing programs. In addition to the regular Employee Assistance programs, we took the pressure off by extending to our employees the choice of not/returning to the workplace through June 2021. We provided a perk program to help them invest in their wellbeing and get reimbursed for wellness equipment, classes, etc.

I’m also sharing a few differentiated resources that I found hugely helpful in case you need a helping hand to reset, reframe, refresh.

1.   Our Chief Talent Officer, Pat Wadors held a conversation with Dr. Ronesh Sinha (aka Dr. Ron) where he introduced us to the idea of resetting our internal immunity using 5 buttons – 

A - Activity

B - Breathing

C - Cardio

D - Diet

S – Stress/Sleep

Take a look at his blog Cultural Health Solutions which is loaded with great tips to manage mental health and wellbeing.

2.    We held a fireside chat with Eve Rodsky who taught us the concept of Fair Play with strategies for how to rebalance home life and reclaim time for joyful pursuits. 

3.   We offered up coaching via BetterUp where we gave employees the ability to leverage up to 6 coaches at a time – Personal, Nutrition, Working Parents, Communication, Sleep and Navigating uncertainty coaching.  I found that I needed the personal and the Working parents coaching the most. 

COVID has brought out so many stressors for our children as they process the lack of school and social contact and go online more and more in a weirdly artificial world. As parents we need new ways to understand, bring compassion and engage in meaningful dialogue with our children so they (and we) emerge well from this experience.

Parenting coaching is a terrific resource for families who are struggling with the changes and stresses on their kids and want to learn more effective ways to navigate. Through my incredible coach Galina, (whose FB page is here) I learnt ways to more accurately identify what was bothering my kids and how to gently coach them into a more productive path. 

Galina introduced me to new resources that taught me about tween brains and how they are different from adult brains. I learnt how become a more conscious parent at a time when digital devices seem to have taken over our minds and consciousness completely. I learnt how to reframe language to bring about a more productive conversation. 

We don’t know how long the uncertainty of this time will continue. I feel so much better equipped to navigate and that is a huge gift ServiceNow has given me as a working mom. 

Working women are at a higher risk of dropping out of the workplace due to the pressure of this time so it behooves us as talent professionals and leaders to help our employees handle these situations better.

What strategies have worked for you? I would love to hear your ideas.