If so, do you find that the status of “parent” makes him or her more sympathetic when your daycare calls demanding that you pick up your puking, feverish child NOW… and NOW is 10 a.m.?
How does your boss react when you consistently leave the office at 4:30 on the dot to pick up your children from their after school program while the rest of your colleagues remain at the office until 6 or 7 p.m.?
Does your boss feel your pain as you struggle to juggle career and family or does he or she resent your late mornings and early exits?
I have worked for single bosses and ones that were married with children, and personally I’ve found the ones that were single were more sympathetic to employees with children.
I worked at various TV stations for the better part of 12 years before becoming a work at home mom. For six of those years I worked under a boss, who expected his employees to keep the same hours he did, which was basically 24/7.
I’m not kidding. This guy got to work by 7 a.m., and on most days he didn’t leave until 11 p.m. Did I mention he was married with two young children? In fact, his wife gave birth to their daughter about two years after he started at the station. He was at the hospital for her birth at 10 a.m. and was back at the office by 4 p.m. to oversee the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts. Despite the fact that there were a slew of other perfectly capable managers holding down the fort in his absence.
Then there were the days when I worked the morning show and had to be at the station by 3 a.m. I can’t tell you how many times I rolled up into the parking lot to see my boss’ car sitting in the same spot that it had been when I left at 1 p.m. the day before. The guy lived at the office and embraced those who did the same.
As for the rest of us (who actually had lives outside of work), we were considered “slackers.” Which meant the entire newsroom was made up “lazy” employees in his eyes because our 9 to 14 hour days paled in comparison to his 18 to 20 hour ones.
This is the same man who rolled his eyes each time I had to take off an hour early to go to an obstetrician appointments during my pregnancy. The same guy who demanded that I stand on the side of a highway to report on weather conditions when it was –5 degrees (with a windchill of –25) while I was eight months pregnant (and there were five other perfectly healthy non-pregnant reporters who could have covered that particular story).
His work ethic was legendary and believe me there wasn’t a single person in that entire newsroom (married or single), who respected him for it. His drive to succeed failed to ingratiate or inspire anyone. In fact, it did the exact opposite. It made all of us feel sorry for his wife and kids.
To be fair, the TV news business is no place for a working mom or dad, who needs a flexible schedule. You are on call 24/7 and need to be ready to hit the ground running whenever news breaks—-regardless of whether your children have chicken pox, mumps or measles.
Still, now that I am employed by companies that are mainly comprised of working parents, and work under bosses who are extremely sympathetic when it comes to familial issues, I can’t help but feel sorry for my former colleagues who don’t enjoy the same situation.
Is your boss sympathetic to your childcare issues?
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