Work it, Mama!

Making work work for you—A review of resources for professional moms

The growth of discussion and tools for women who are balancing mom life with work life reflects a current trend. I don’t know if the trend is that more women are trying to stay in the workforce/return to the workforce after taking time away to have and raise children, OR if the trend is that work-life balance is now something that we actually talk about. It may be a combination of both—as a researcher at heart, I would recommend a mix of qualitative and quantitative research to understand the trend—but as a starting point to this topic, I would like to review some of the resources for women that inspire and support those on the quest to find balance and joy in doing things that matter—not doing everything (moms who actually do this successfully have learned the lesson that you can’t do it all and doing it all is not the end goal). So, come with me on this journey...

But first, some interesting stats…

• Less than 5% of top leadership positions are held by women
• 30% of women drop out of the workforce when they have a baby
• Of these women who leave the workforce, 70% say they would have stayed if they had flexibility

[Stats from Saywerk.com]

Apres

The name of Apres already defines its purpose, meaning “after” in French. This resource focuses more on women returning to the workforce, but it can also be for those transitioning within the workforce. While this website offers inspiring content and tools, it does not have an extensive list of job opportunities and the majority of the jobs posted are full-time positions without much flexibility.

Werk

I discovered Werk after Apres, and found that Werk fills a gap that hadn’t been a part of the discussion. Thank goodness for the founders who have defined flexibility as the new feminism. The lack of flexibility is what often puts women out of the workforce when they have a child because it is so difficult to work full-time with no alterations, especially with the at times unfathomable costs of childcare. Werk has effectively divided flexibility into six aspects—Remote, DeskPlus, TravelLite, TimeShift, MicroAgility and Part Time. Those who subscribe to Werk for $45/year can access job postings and search by each of these flexibility aspects. I am a huge fan of the concept of this site—especially in facilitating conversation. As a society, we tell women you can do anything you want to do, dream big, but then in the details of professional employment we do little to support women with their professional success while also choosing to be mothers. Women who are intelligent, capable, strong leaders leave the workforce and this is a loss for companies across the board. While the mission of Werk is right on, the actual usability could be improved (they are currently investing in product development). The filters need enhancement—you currently cannot filter job postings by location, level or sector (whereas Apres has detailed filter options), and similar to Apres, the postings are limited. I hope that the companies who post with Werk will increase as they see a direct result in ROI for keeping and attracting these women who know how to “work it.”

I had the pleasure of meeting with Werk Co-founder, Annie Dean, who clearly explained that flexibility is not a perk—“the words flexibility and perk should not even be used in the same sentence.”

Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu

Great read for Mamas who still think they can and should do it all, for those who feel overwhelmed, lonely or failing at their pursuit of happiness as a professional and mom. This book focuses on the author’s personal path to learning how to share home responsibilities with her partner and others, by dropping the ball so they could pick it up. Dropping the ball sometimes means that it just might not get picked up—but that is the risk that you need to be willing to take to let go of not only the physical work of running a household, but the mental and emotional investment that often burdens women. Tiffany wrote her book to respond to women balancing career and family who often wonder, “How can I manage it all?” In her book, she explains, “Drop the Ball is my honest answer to their question. It is the story of my three-year journey to figure out what really mattered to me, how to achieve it, and what structures of support I needed to put in place to make it possible.” I wanted to high-five Tiffany at various points in her book, because she got it, she did it—she is real and she is making work work for her.

In conclusion…

So far, what I have learned is that each mom has her own goals, her own barriers and her own balance. We can learn from each other and be real along the way. We can’t do it alone. We are a village. We can do hard things—but do not need to get burnt out trying to do it all. As Annie Dean from Werk said, “We are great at telling our girls they can achieve anything, but we are not taking care of our women.” These resources may be just the beginning of a wider trend to support and empower our women.