The pandemic has led to conversations about the future of work--and for some reason, it has drawn a line in the sand between those who think all-remote is the way to go vs. those who insist in-office culture is crucial to operations.
@jwmcclel Same! I went in office 2-3x a week and the other days were from home. I miss the office, straight working from home is draining the life out of me. I actually went into the office earlier this week because I needed a change of pace.
I’m fortunate that pre-COVID, I had a lot of flexibility anyways.
@rachele14 No. I like working from home. i wouldn't want to unnecessarily expose myself or my family to the coronavirus. I am fortunate that my employer is being pretty flexible now that we are in this new normal. My husband and I try to have a system where we both take time for ourselves and with the baby and it works, even if it is hard some days.
@curiousgirl98 Oh, I don't mean going back in a pandemic--I am talking about when it's safe. And I think what the future of work looks like post-pandemic is happening right now, which is informing decisions about how to move forward. Undoubtedly, working at home full-time is ideal for some. My concern is this assumption that it's ideal for all working mothers.
@rachele14 Gotcha. In that case, I'm an event planner so I know I'm going to be in person eventually. It'd be nice to be partially at home. It's saving us almost $2000 a month in daycare. And because we're saving to move abroad, I don't want to stop saving that huge chunk!
@deelo00 My baby is almost one year old and has two nearly 90 min naps a day so I feel like that is a cheat code. He wakes up at 5:30am/6:00am and goes to bed at 8pm. I let my husband sleep in and will take the first few hours of just watching my son. We both work hard during his two naps. I'll take over for a good two hour chunk in the middle of the day from my husband, then I may work until 5pm. Then after my son goes to bed I may work for another 90-120 min, while I watch TV with my husband. On weekends if I want to get caught up, I'll work three-four hours and have things teed up so I can breathe a little.
My son will leave my husband alone when hes working but will bother me to kingdom come so he kind of takes the brunt of it during the day while I do the stupidly early shift and husband sleeps in. We set up the living room to be a toy and work area so the baby can run around and crash into things while we work. I do crazy hours because sleep doesn't like me anyways. Also, my job is super flexible as long as we get things done. I'm an event planner so I need to be present at specific times but other than am not bothered as long as things are getting done.
@curiousgirl98 Nice! We are at a similar age with a similar schedule but I love sleep. My husband has flexibility similar to you but we both love and need sleep. That might be our downfall. I'm happy you have made it work though!
@churchbuilder It sounds like that person, based on their response, has a husband also at home with at least some flexibility and a good nap situation. They also don't sleep as much. I have the flexible husband but we can't do without sleep. Honestly I commend you for dealing with multiple children. Hard is an understatement.
@curiousgirl98 As an event planner, how are you doing these days? My Director of Conferences is neck high in learning about virtual platforms and trying to pivot from our old days of in person conferences. She’s doing great at the pivot but I know she misses the actual physical conferences. I do too.
@savemefather I work for an association and we don't do a lot of conferences but have a lot of in person meetings. Most of our revenue is from dues so we're still with jobs luckily. We left the office mid March and went full force into online events starting April with lots of success. It's finally slowed to one or two a week so I can breathe but there were definitely some tears and frustration in the beginning while we figured it out. I became the defacto expert even though I had only been back in the office 90 days from four months of maternity leave.
@curiousgirl98 Out of the U.S. We were looking at Australia but they have also closed their borders. Both the Bahamas and the country of Georgia are offering 6 and 12 month visas for those who can prove income from remote work (at least $50k).
@rachele14 If we're talking post-pandemic, we have a vaccine, death rate is dropping, everything looks like it's back under control, then yes.
We just had our annual reviews at work and I included this as part of it. Once we are back to "normal office work" that I want to negotiate a half office/half work day when I can. Leave the office around 1-2 and finish out the rest of the day from home. My family life has just improved so dramatically with being able to not have the rough transition between Work Person and Mom Person from 4-5pm that I want to hold onto that as much as I can.
@ambi3333 I am so glad to hear you expressed this to your employer. My husband negotiated alternative hours with his employer so we can both balance work and kid (without burning the midnight oil at the computer) and they were fine with it.
I'm happy you have made it work though!