Listen to Your Mother

This month has gotten me thinking a lot about the fellow mothers in my life and what it takes to support them in the workplace. For me, becoming a mother of two and the challenges I faced balancing that role with work was a huge factor my decision to make a career transition. I took women’s history month as the opportunity to share my own experience and hear from other moms in my life about theirs. I was touched by the stories, resources, and insights that were shared back and particularly struck by what has and hasn’t changed on this issue through the generations. Here are some of the thoughts that my circle put together on what we can do better. Working moms know what they need to be supported. Ask us, listen to our responses, and do something about it.

1. Flexibility in all forms - measure success in outcomes not time.
2. When working moms ask for help, figure out how to help them. It's not easy for us to do, so when we do it, it means we really need it and you should listen.
3. Don’t make us justify things that are obvious.
4. Just because someone has been able to do it before, doesn’t mean that it was ok or that it should continue.
5. Bow down to nursing parents, treat them as sacred - don’t make them sneak around you - provide well-stocked, comfortable pumping rooms. Include pumping essentials so we don't need to cart our own supplies back and forth.
6. Let us talk about our kids and our families, ask about them even. 
7. Provide childcare on site and/or support for arranging childcare. 
8. Write parental leave into clearly your policies AND PRACTICES - don't make us search hard for the information.
9. Write return-from-parental-leave flexibility into your policies and practices. (For example, part-time schedules).
10. Restructure roles and teams so no employee has to work over 40 hours per week. Even better, restructure any position that is possible to a 32-hour work-week (at the same annual salary).
11. Don't make people feel guilty about taking parental leave, plan for it. Build teams with the assumption that someone will go out on leave and proactively create structures for coverage.
12. Know that my struggle is not unique. This is a system failure and should be treated as such.

What would you add to the list?