Planning your ABCs
The Insight
As an Engineer and Project Manager, I like to think my organisational skills have played a huge role in my ability to balance my career and my family. In fact, having children has made me better at my job. My ability to multitask, plan and be flexible has flourished.
However, when I first started my family, it was like walking into a new world. There were new routes and experiences at every turn. For many people, starting a family means reassessing your career. There is a misconception that balancing career and family means neglecting one for the other.
There is no secret to balancing work with family, but the one thing that makes the journey so much easier is a supportive employer.
The Impact
What your employer controls:
It is hard being a parent and working, whether its full time or part time, gender aside. In the construction industry, heterosexual relationships tend to see woman fall into the dependant-parent role more often. There are a higher percentage of men working on site, making flexibility with hours rare and working from home impossible.
If your employer does not support flexibility or understand that family life comes with things that just happen, then you’ll never find the balance you need to thrive. Access to flexible working arrangements has been proven to boost productivity and wellbeing. It’s no secret that happy staff do better work and ultimately save the company money. Fortunately, business models are changing.
What you control:
As a parent, stop trying to fight the inevitable.
Your kids will get sick, especially the first 12 months of day-care or school so be prepared (mentally and physically) to work from home from time to time.
Day-cares and schools close. Plan your day well and leave on time. On those occasions when there’s a last-minute deadline, take the laptop with you and jump back on after bedtime is done. You will get your work done.
Stop thinking you have to do everything in one day. Your washing can wait another day.
Don’t feel guilty for not being able to attend a 7am meeting. Be honest with yourself and others, and don’t be afraid to tell people ‘because I have kids’.
Don’t miss those little concerts or plays because you think work won’t understand.
Yes, it is busy from when you wake until you get the kids to bed, but as you get used to it and your kids get older, it’ll get easier.