Comments on: Reality Check: Women Want Work/Home Equality and Flexibility

By: Tami Vesek

Tami Vesek — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:14:29 +0000

As someone that worked for years for a company that embraced helping families achieve work/life balance, imagine my surprise when I left that company for another major CPG company only to find out they are the complete opposite. My experience makes it perfectly clear to me that we have MAJOR issues in the United Stated and women are still not recognized as equals and add a couple of children to the mix and WOW some companies discount those employees even more! I was penalized when my asthmatic daughter was VERY ill and I split the days with my husband caring for her and was slapped with “you have taken too much time off to care for your children”.. I was even told that if I took better care of them they would not get sick! We need to speak up and speak up NOW to stop our daughters from facing this legalized discrimination in the future!!!

By: curcuma

curcuma — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:08:19 +0000

Hello…
I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site. Thank you for this posting…

By: MidLifeMaMa

MidLifeMaMa — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:04:17 +0000

Although my struggle to spend more time with small children is on-going, I’m one of the lucky ones. I get PTO and used it this last weekend to volunteer for my daughter’s first field trip. My boss also has small children and she is very understanding. Also lucky for me, my kids haven’t been sick much this year (a first!).
There are still moments when I wonder why I have to keep at a 40-hour work week when some days are slow. Wouldn’t it make sense to the company to give me “free unpaid time” when my workload is low? It’s not a luxury I could afford to take often, but it would be a nice extra perk and would save the company money as well.
I need to work, but I love being engaged in my kids lives too. HR has to start moving towards more creative ways to support working moms.

By: Mojo

Mojo — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:24:56 +0000

Thank you for this article and insight. I was laid off from work in March of this year. I was employed by a small organization with an at-will termination process. I only took a few whole days off from work for the entire year of my tenure. I would use my leave in 1 hour or 2 hour or half day increments. I took a 2 hour lunch to spend with my 6 year old daughter on a class trip. I came back to the office and was told this was unacceptable. I did this as a way of not taking off a full day from work and was termed for trying to work and be an active parent in my childrens school life…which i deem important to the family and the community as a whole. There is a real need for more flexibility for working moms…..our rights are stifled by people who care nothing about fairness and family life as a whole.