Working Worried While My Child Is Walking Home

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is part of The Return-to-Work Debate Series: What Organizations and Allies Need to Understand About Women's Point of View

As many organizations demand employees return to the office, research indicates that women and people of color are less willing to be physically present onsite. If more women decide not to return, or we return under duress, what impact will that have on equity, opportunity, and our ability to contribute the best of ourselves?

In this multi-part series, we hear firsthand from a broad spectrum of?women who have worked in Sweden, the USA, China, Mexico, and India.?

When the clock is about to strike 3:00 pm on a weekday, my pulse begins to race, my concentration on my work falters, and all I can think about is my child’s safety.?For parents/caregivers of brown and black children, this can be the most stressful hour of the day. Will our children be safe on their way back home from school?

This sense of insecurity did not emerge for me until the time of the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, I dropped my son off for school in the morning, and there were after-school childcare options for working parents available, so he never walked home alone. During the pandemic, the after-care options were extremely limited and many parents, like me, were placed on waiting lists.

School buses were limited too. This created a dilemma for many working parents trying to figure out how to balance it all. It required creativity scheduling each day as I adjusted meetings to ensure I had space to pick up my son from school. There was another option: my son could walk home from school. This should be such a simple solution. However, as a woman of color, living in our heightened racial and political climate, it was not simple at all.

My anxiety was at an all-time high every time my brown son left the house.

Leading up to and following the murder of George Floyd, the vulnerability my child incurred “walking while black” caused very real fear for me and many of my friends.

My anxiety was at an all-time high every time my brown son left the house. And when it was time for him to come home, I wanted to be there, promptly, to ensure he was safe.

I would not have been able to manage work and home life as successfully as I did during the pandemic had I not been working remotely, and for that I am grateful. Nevertheless, I could not coordinate my schedule every day and my son still had to walk home alone sometimes. Eventually, I purchased an Apple watch just so he could text me when he was leaving school and I was able to track his location.

While this somewhat put my mind at ease and it became my new normal, it is an oversized solution for a relatively simple problem. My family is fortunate enough to be able to purchase a tracking device for my child, but what about the families who cannot afford that kind of expense? ?

Organizations can help reduce this sense of anxiety employees feel while working worried by following these three practices:

1. Be Aware. Learn about the diverse challenges that employees face. Lean into curiosity and not judgment. It’s easy to make assumptions around an employee’s level of commitment or engagement. Ask questions without sounding like you’re “questioning” a person and you may be surprised by what you discover.
2. Be Empathetic. There are so many life experiences unlike your own. Consider what it might be like to truly walk in someone else’s shoes by mentally taking off your own shoes first. How would you feel if this was your experience every day? How would that change how you navigate at work? What would you need?
3. Be Flexible. Support work-life integration. While balance is important too, work is now integrated into life since the pandemic and working consistent core hours has become a thing of the past. Having the autonomy to run errands, attend appointments, and more helps employees be more present and show up as their best self and do their best work!

With this knowledge, organizations have a unique opportunity to implement change management initiatives that support employees who experience this 3:00 pm weekday anxiety. The return on investment of discretionary effort by employees impacted will be exponential because they feel valued, seen, and heard.?

What is the first step you can take to begin influencing changes within your organization today?

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This contribution to the deconstructed digital magazine VOICES comes from the Women's ThinkTank at Korn Ferry.

This Series Includes:

• We Are Erasing the One Silver Lining of the Pandemic for Women by Cathi Rittelmann
• The Cultural Expectations of My Ethnic Community Have a Cost on My Career by Jay Sukumaran
• Empower Working Mothers - Give Us A Choice by Jennifer Petersen Ugwu
• A Partner Saying They Are “Helping Out” with Home Life Is not a Partner by Marie Nilsson