Working Moms Are More Productive Than You Think!
Are working moms more productive in the workplace and would it be better to hire them?
I am thinking here of moms who are on part-time flexible work mentioned in an Australian Ernst & Young report. They found that these women were only wasting about 11% of their time while male part-timers were wasting 14.2% of their time. This report goes on to state that Australia and New Zealand could actually save $1.4 billion on wasted time and salaries just by choosing women over men.
This is sexist, I hear you exclaim.
It is also a sweeping generalization as my father used to say!
But the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis produced a 63-page report. Their findings show that being a mother is not a handicap. Rather, it makes mothers more committed to the workplace and that is more than canceled out by having to look after sick kids or other burdens of parenthood.
Instead of arguing over sexist statistics, why don’t we list where working moms often shine in the workplace. This is why we have to support and praise them more often.
1. Time management
Working mothers just have to manage their time better or else they are lost in the water. They know about how to delegate tasks to kids at home and get them more involved. They also get better and better at saying no to requests. They are also very good at setting up routines. These are the features of good time management skills.
I know a few working moms who have told me that their time management has improved greatly when they ask better questions and improve how they direct conversations.
“Time management is about life management.” ― Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability
2. They are good at multi-tasking
I am not so sure I want to multitask all the time. I need to concentrate on some tasks and I have to be focused. But when moms are doing several household chores at once like meal planning, laundry and shopping, they can easily do that. Many moms can even answer a standard email on their phone while helping a kid get ready for school. Usually, they have no choice.
I do not believe that they are actually better at multi-tasking as this Motherley’s 2019 State of Motherhood Report shows. It is just that they do a lot more of it!
3. Flexible working hours are great but…
What happens when a working mom asks for flexi-time and cannot get a few hours of that to make her life easier? The answer is that she just has to be more flexible than ever and get better at juggling all the things she does anyway.
Wise working moms go for a functional, well-organized home rather than a perfect one. That helps a lot.
4. Nothing like a motherly figure
Empathy counts for a lot now in the working place and with good reason. An empathic person can get much more out of staff and team members.
Respect, loyalty and morale will shoot up and that means a much more productive team. Mothers have plenty of empathy and they can use it to great advantage at work.
5. Happier working moms are more fulfilled
Being able to manage work and kids is a challenge. When this works out, happier working moms are able to realize their career ambitions and this can be very satisfying. One report in the Journal of Family Psychology found that working moms suffered less depression and had better overall health than stay-at-home moms.
6. Moms need a break from their kids
They are always asked the same question at interviews:-
“How will you manage your family and this job?”
Very often the best answer is:-
“I like having a break from my kids during the day … just like you do.”
Many Moms are disappointed when they approach HR for sympathetic support to organize flex time when kids are ill or when there are problems at home.
7. They know how to set goals at home and at work.
Moms soon get an idea of how to streamline schedules, routines, and meal planning. They soon realize that the perfect household cannot be one of their goals.
The best way of all is to get your partner involved and to make sure there is a more equitable sharing of all the chores, childcare and chauffeuring. Very often, the planning can be helped by their work experience and that is great.
But ask any working Mom what her greatest problems are. She will very probably mention that paid family leave, family help programs and childcare credits would all be a great help.
The USA is certainly way behind many European countries when it comes to supporting working Moms as this article from The Harvard Business Review describes.
Germany, Italy, and Sweden are leading the way in how they support working parents.
“You know you’re a mom when you open the door to the dishwasher mid-cycle and think, ‘This is the closest I’m going to get to a spa treatment till next Mother’s Day.’” — Judy Gruen