Comments on: The Top Five Things Employers Can Do To Keep Their Employee-Moms Happy

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:51:28 +0000

Hi there!!

I am a junior at Boston University’s School of Management and am in a product development class. My team of 8 other students and I are developing a new doll that promotes sun safety for girls. We need as much feedback as possible from mothers with daughters. If you fit that description we would greatly appreciate it if you could answer our survey at the following link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Mw5v6V3Hvfh3s7AzrJ5n0g_3d_3d

Thank you so much for your time!! You are helping us greatly with our semester long project!!

By: Steph in ATL

Steph in ATL — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:04:52 +0000

For my husband and I, who are both self-employed, we ostensibly had maternity and paternity leave without pay. For people who run their own businesses, you don’t show up, you don’t do business, you don’t make money. I guess that’s why we bust our backsides the rest of the time, so we can have that sort of ‘flexibility.’ It hurt my business more than his, because mine is younger.

By: bloggingmom67

bloggingmom67 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:04:55 +0000

Totally agree with your list — and I’d add another one: Don’t expect moms to work harder than everyone else to “make up” for the flexibility. Most working moms I know — myself included — work thru lunch, come in earlier than everyone else and do a lot at home — because they are being pulled in so many directions. Yet, it’s never enough because once in a while you need to go home early with a sick kid. Every employee — regardless of whether they are a parent — should get flexibility. Don’t begrudge us ours.

By: Dem Mom

Dem Mom — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:20:47 +0000

I just put in my notice at a not very flexible organization to work for one that I expect to be the exact opposite. The new job will require some travel, which is a change. But the trade off is that I work at home when I’m not traveling, and my new boss doesn’t care if I work in the middle of the night, or 8-5, or whatever. He also said in the interview, “Family is always first!” Then he missed my second interview to take care of his sick mother. Totally worth the juggling of travel to deal with an organization with this culture. Not to mention 3 weeks of vaca and 30 sick days/year!! It’s about so much more than money when you have kids!

By: ikate

ikate — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:48:32 +0000

I am so so lucky to work for a major hospital where 70% of the employees are female so there are great “mom/parent” benefits. For example, for maternity leave we get 4 weeks full-pay (disability) and the remaining 8 FML weeks at 60% pay and you can use your vacation time to fill in the pay gap if you want. There are nursing/pumping rooms in every building (with hospital-furnished pumps, we get discounted parts). I don’t even work at the actual hospital but an administrative campus and they provide a room on every floor!

The only thing missing is on-site daycare. Our building is connected to a bank office building that has it but we can’t use it (insurance issues). The hospital does have a contract with a national daycare chain that provides employee discounts and there is one near all of our campuses, but it would be the icing on the cake to have it in my building!

By: swistle

swistle — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:47:02 +0000

Oh, man. Do I ever agree with this! Especially flex hours: so many women could work if they could go earlier and leave earlier, or go later and leave later, or work four 10-hour days. WHY OH WHY is this not standard?? And the on-site daycare! It would be so much better for ALL OF SOCIETY! It makes me so mad that it’s not mandatory in companies of a certain size. And it would be relatively easy to set it up so that nearby smaller business could share the daycare.

By: Lylah

Lylah — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:34:35 +0000

I hope every working mom at this site emails this post around to other moms in their companies. All five of these suggestions are right on the money!

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:14:43 +0000

I think these are right on. And, by the way, my understanding of Federal Law is that it PROHIBITS employers from specifically managing the work hours of exempt (salaried) employees. They may set guidelines (the office is open from 8 am to 6 pm, for example), but they may not micromanage. (Not that this doesn’t happen all the time, but I’m just saying.)

And you know, this stuff isn’t just for moms. How awesome would it be if companies treated everyone as if they were adults capable of making conscientious decisions?

I have a great example from the company I still work for (more than 8 years later). Not even a week after I started an internship (not even a regular job) with them, on a Thursday, my mom had surgery to remove what turned out to be a malignant, ovarian cancerous tumor. I flew home for the weekend and called my new manager Monday morning to check in. I will never, ever forget what a huge load off my shoulders it was for him to tell me to stay as long as I needed to, that the job would be there when I got back. And furthermore, HIS manager came by the day I got back, both to introduce himself and to assure me that a lot of people had been there, with sick parents, and to let him know if the time came that I needed more personal leave. You better believe my loyalty and desire to do a great job for them was set in stone that day.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:22:08 +0000

Holy crap, fabulous piece, Karen!

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:09:15 +0000

I used to work in the field of employee engagement. Research shows that the more flexible and understanding employers are, the happier and more productive their employees are. Plus, they’re more loyal to the company. Unfortunately, a lot of times companies can have policies in place providing a more flexible lifestyle, but typically it’s up to the manager on how to implement those policies. That’s where the real breakdown in flexibility occurs, I think.