Career Connections

Colleen's Career Corner

This month Caitlin Friedman ’92, and co-author, Kimberly Yorio, provide answers to the question: Is it my imagination or is this recession making things harder for working moms? – submitted by Diana ’91

As we all know by now, the current recession has resulted in more men being laid off than women. What this means for many families is mom is now the main breadwinner, new moms on maternity leave are returning to work earlier than planned, and everyone is adjusting to the sudden presence of stay-at-home-dads. These days, the pressure on working moms is more intense than ever and frankly, it wasn't a cake walk before.

As the co-owners of YC Media, a boutique public relations firm in Manhattan, the authors of the Girl’s Guide series of career books, and parents of young children, we know this pressure all too well.  We know it’s easy to feel alone when you sit at the kitchen table looking at a personal to-do list that’s twice as long as the one you left on your office desk. Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to interview hundreds of other working moms for our new book, HAPPY AT WORK, HAPPY AT HOME: The Girl’s Guide to Being a Working Mom. We wanted to take the opportunity to share a few of the tips with you in hopes that it will help you navigate all of this change and remind you that we are in this together.

  1. You can’t do it all, so set reasonable expectations for yourself when it comes to your household and workload.
  2. You can’t run a house, a family and a team alone, so start delegating to your spouse, your babysitter and your employees.
  3. You need to get yourself organized so you can run your home and work teams efficiently.
  4. Take a little downtime for yourself, even if that means negotiating with your partner for a Saturday morning to sleep.
  5. Ask for what you need-from your job, from your partner, from your childcare provider.

The bottom line is that this economic climate—longer hours for less pay, fewer job opportunities, the down-sizing of many industries—puts pressure on you to make the most of your current job. But that doesn’t mean that you should sell yourself out at home or at work. If you are feeling overwhelmed by parenting as a professional then revisit your responsibilities and see if there are people around you that can (and maybe should) take some work off your plate, make it a priority to still do the things you love, and don’t forget to take time to see your friends because in challenging times, personal networks are just as important as professional ones.