Making Work Work

Managing work and life

What to Give a Working Mother for Mother’s Day

May 12, 2013
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What to Give a Working Mother for Mother’s Day

After a long week at work, and the weekend filled with two soccer games, a dance recital and a birthday party, I’ll drive 75 minutes to visit my mother this Mother’s Day. There’s no time for breakfast in bed, a manicure/pedicure with friends or dinner and a movie. That’s okay; that’s not what this working mother wanted for Mother’s Day anyway. You know what I do want for all working mothers? I want: Paid Sick Leave. Almost half (48 percent) of private-sector workers do not have paid sick days. As a working mother, it’s common sense that occasionally you’ll need time to care for yourself or your child when they are too sick to go to school or daycare. It’s also likely you’ll need time to care for an elderly parent. I do. In fact, according to a recent Forbes article, more than 60 million families are caring for an aging or disabled family member. And do you know who does 80-90 percent of that caregiving? Women. Fair Pay. Women are at least partial breadwinners in more and more households, and the sole breadwinner in an estimated 23 percent of families. And yet, women still earn, on average, just .77 [...]

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Yahoo! Policy Can Turn Working Mothers Into CEOs

May 6, 2013
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Yahoo! Policy Can Turn Working Mothers Into CEOs

Due to work life imbalance last week, I am just catching up on the news that Yahoo has doubled its paid maternity leave for employees, added eight weeks of paid paternity leave to the company’s benefits package and will reimburse employees for up to $500 worth of “daily habits,” including laundry, house-cleaning and child care. Pardon the pun but, “Yahoo!” This is exciting news because most women who have had a baby will tell you it’s incredibly challenging to return to a work after a mere eight weeks. The one exception, of course, is the policy’s author, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, who infamously returned to work two weeks after giving birth. But most women aren’t like Marissa Mayer, with the flexibility and perks of the corner office (including building an on-premise nursery near her office). In fact, only 42 women are like Mayer. That’s how many women are leading Fortune 1000 companies today. And if we have any hope of getting more women in or near that type of position, we need to do a much better job of making work life more manageable. Extending maternity leave is an excellent move, but only part of what’s great about the company’s [...]

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A Woman’s Paradox: Work and Home

May 1, 2013
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Who can’t relate to the below infographic? A compilation of research about women and work tells a story that American women are  struggling to seek a balance between work and family and experience career burn out more quickly than their male peers. No real surprises there. But what can be done about it? Our partners can provide more help at home; women do approximately 50 percent more housework than men. Our employers can create more flexible and work-friendly environments. They can open themselves to the possibility that part-time contributors can deliver excellent results. Our representatives in Washington can champion legislation that supports working families. And women? Well we can create our own, unique definitions of success and work to strike a balance that fits our lives. Source: Great Business Schools

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Talking About Gender at Work

April 22, 2013
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Talking About Gender at Work

I used to be that woman. You know, the feminist, at work. I tried not to be. I resisted for a long time. But as I neared my 40s, things just started flying out of my mouth. I questioned men when they referred to “girls” in the office or at client sites. “Are they under 18? No? Then they’re not girls.” I explained to a male coworker why it was problematic that he said of a coworker on maternity leave, “She probably won’t come back.” I asked my CEO why, when he was scrambling for a fourth to play golf with a client, he didn’t ask any of the female executives to tee off. I began writing: op-eds about the wage gap, then blog posts about gender bias in performance reviews. I started this blog. I knew it was risky business, being that woman, but I just didn’t stop. And then Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, published “Lean In.” And in doing so she’s removed the stigma of being that woman. Sheryl Sandberg has created a safer environment for us to have important discussions about gender at work, and for that I’m grateful. Recently I attended a breakfast sponsored by [...]

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Work Life Balance: It’s Not What You Think

April 17, 2013
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Work Life Balance: It’s Not What You Think

While writing “Mogul, Mom & Maid,” several women told me there was no such thing as work life balance. I disagree. From the time we open our eyes in the morning, until the time we fall asleep at night, working women are balancing competing priorities, constantly weighing everything we do against everything else we should be doing. We live our lives on a virtual tightrope. Read my thoughts on balance and having it all over at the Huffington Post. Click here for the post. Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/imuttoo/6445116271/

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6 Ways to Position Yourself for a Promotion

April 13, 2013
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6 Ways to Position Yourself for a Promotion

Showing up on time, meeting deadlines and doing exactly what’s asked of you are all important requirements when it comes to getting — and maintaining — a job. But in order to take that next step (or leap) in your career, you have to excel above the rest and exhibit true leadership skills that will indicate you’re ready and deserving. Check out these ways to show your workplace superiors that promoting you is something they won’t regret. Demonstrate your ability to proactively solve problems. Your boss doesn’t have time to micromanage you, so show her that you’re manning your own tasks. Anticipate what your boss will ask you to do next, and do it before she has to make the request. Frequently challenge yourself on how you could be improving your performance. Bring ideas to the table, think critically, and always ask yourself: How can I do my job better? How can I help my department or company continue to grow? Where are we lacking, and how am I going to fix it? Don’t climb the ladder — embrace the jungle gym. Years ago, it was common to get a job at a company and work your way up the [...]

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Can You Afford to Lose $11,000?

April 9, 2013
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Can You Afford to Lose $11,000?

What would you do with $11,000? Women today earn, on average, just .77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That adds up to approximately $11,000 per year. The wage gap isn’t shrinking. Women’s pay for equal work has been holding at .77 cents since at least 2005. In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, women earned just .60 cents for every dollar a man earned. When he signed the legislation, Kennedy remarked, “Our economy today depends upon women in the labor force…It is extremely important that adequate provision be made for reasonable levels of income to them, for the care of the children which they must leave at home or in school, and for protection of the family unit.” And yet in fifty years we’ve only gained .17 cents. In 2009, when President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act he stated, “In this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month’s paycheck to simple discrimination.” And yet the gap remains the same four years later. And that gap is even greater for [...]

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The Slow Road to Equal Pay (infographic)

April 7, 2013
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The Slow Road to Equal Pay (infographic)

  Source: Women on Business  

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A Parenting Book for Working Parents

April 2, 2013
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A Parenting Book for Working Parents

I never read parenting books. I didn’t read any pregnancy books either. I prefer to use my instincts knowing some of them will be wrong but hoping more will be right. I think too much input can be a bad thing in certain cases – and parenting is one of those cases. However, I recently made an exception and read Minimalist Parenting: Enjoy Modern Family Life More By Doing Less by Christine Koh and Asha Dornfest. While I only opened the book because I share a publisher with the authors, I finished the book because it was chock full of good stuff – and I found it particularly relevant for working mothers. While researching my own book, I spoke with scores of  working mothers about how they balance work, marriage, and kids. And a major theme that came out of those discussions, was how these women reconcile their own parenting styles with the other parents in their communities. Worrying about how you’re doing as a parent isn’t unique to working mothers, but stressing about not being able to take your kids to an after school practice or lesson, being unable to reciprocate a play date, or not hearing about the leprechaun [...]

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Woman Fired After Complaining About Sexist Jokes

March 22, 2013
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Woman Fired After Complaining About Sexist Jokes

  Last Sunday, Adria Richards was at PyCon, a technology conference, on behalf of her then employer, email company SendGrid. Two men sitting behind her made comments Richards found to be sexist and inappropriate for a professional event and so she took a picture of the men and tweeted it along with this tweet, “Not cool. Jokes about forking repo’s in a sexual way and “big” dongles. Right behind me ‪#pycon” Then she tweeted, “Can someone talk to these guys about their conduct? I’m in lightning talks, top right near stage, 10 rows back ‪#pycon” According to reports, PyCon staffers saw the tweets and escorted the two men out of the exhibit. Conference organizers tweeted, “Thank you ‪@adriarichards for bringing the inappropriate comments to our attention. We’ve dealt with the situation.” A few days later, one of the men was fired from his job. Richards was threatened and harassed on Twitter with death threats, requests for her to kill herself, and many other ugly, ugly comments. And then, Richards was fired. SendGrid explained its decision in a blog post writing, “To be clear, SendGrid supports the right to report inappropriate behavior, whenever and wherever it occurs. What we do not support [...]

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