| it's sad that the unorganized, manager-by-manager, individual-case
based 'policy' that DEC has is among the best this country has to
offer. The OB policy doesn't _require_ the things that WM rated DEC highly
for; it _allows_ those things, on a case-by-case basis, as determined by
individual workers and their bosses. It has worked for me, largely,
but it has been an uphill toil for both me and my mgrs to figure out
how to work the part-time and mom issues. The OB gives no guidance,
and again it is individual growth by managers and workers that makes it
work.
does anyone else out there get Working Mother mag? I do, but do not
find it helpful to me much. Recipies and the occasional article, there
was one about parents' involvement in homework and getting the kid to
do it and take responsibility for it (but thankfully it's not an issue
<yet!> in my house) but it seems to address mostly new-mom issues, and
I'm not there anymore. Besides, if I see one more gorgeous celebrity
mom and her darling child(ren) that she brings with her everywhere on
the cover -- Mariel Hemmingway this month -- I'm gonna go fetal or
something. I feel that it feeds the super-woman myth. ("I can bring
home the bacon, fry it up in the pan, and never let you..." PLUS
super-mom.) I will probably let the subscription lapse.
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| the mag's name is "Working Mother"
reality testing shows that moms do the bulk of the work (the woman does
too, in a no-kids relationship, according to the rags & stats). Some
of that may be society, some may be the woman not giving up the role,
some may be in between. Some may even be due to free choice!
sure, the ideal is that it applies to PARENTS, including dads. reality
is different than ideal, usually, and here too. In this instance I'm
not interested in what's pc, or the way it oughtta be. I'm looking for
actual useful information, to make my day-to-day coping strategies more
effective. I don't give a hoot that Mariel Hemmingway hires a nanny to
care for her kids on the set during the day when she's making a movie.
Sheesh.
why isn't it PART-TIMERS issues? after all, someone might want to work
part time just cuz they want more free time! and I was once told that
a task was not suited to me, because it needed a "full time engineer's
attention". Since I was half-time, of COURSE I couldn't do the task.
Never mind that in that group the full-time engineer devoting 40 hours
to one and only one task was rare indeed. That's the kind of thing I
meant when I said it was an uphill climb. Our group was a good one,
and tried to be responsive, and in the end did learn, but it isn't
easy. In a group of about 50, about 20 women, I was the only woman
with small children. The group secretaries, and a tech writer, had
teen and grown children. There were men in the group with babies, and
they ranged from new-style-involved dads to wife-at-home dads
(stereotyping madly here, sorry), but they all worked full time.
My point is that it's depressing that this is as good as it gets
for the non-traditional worker. In reality that's almost always a
woman, almost always a mom.
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| >why isn't it PART-TIMERS issues? after all, someone might want to work
>part time just cuz they want more free time!
I think this is an excellent question. I don't have children, and
don't plan to *ever* have children - and that's ok. However, there are
things I'd love to do with my life that would be enriching and
valuable which working part-time would facilitate. My group has been
excellent about arranging part-time positions for engineers with
children to care for. But I think if I were to ask for part-time hours
for a year so that I could {make jewelry|build aviaries|study classical
Greek|climb mountains|whatever - you pick} my management would send me
to EAP! :-) I think this is unfortunate. I suspect that after a
certain number of years in the industry (this one or any other)
employees might be more productive if they took some time off to do
something else... A solid, corporate-wide policy on part-time work
would be a positive thing, and perhaps not just for parents.
/Rita
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