UBC Motherhood - Working Mothers

Shortly after Colin turned one year old, a former coworker called and asked how things were going. I told him how I was enjoying staying home with my baby and how I didn't miss the BS part of the corporate world AT ALL.

"So this is not a good time to offer you a job in that case?" he asked. 

Darn. He worked for an airline, an industry I had always had my eye on. 

It was a recruiting and general HR role. No admin, no payroll. Just hire and take care of people. Part-time. You need to speak German, English and French.

My dream job!!

Since I had been working in HR, I knew that positions like these were super rare, and there were going to be lots of applicants.

At least I had to try my luck!

In fact they told me they had stopped counting the resumes after 200. For some reason they picked mine, among a handful of others.

I had four interviews in total, and on the occasion of these meetings, I got to know six different people, including the department head and my direct supervisor. 

Meeting these people was very interesting for me. Between the lines they all told me so much about their personality and their needs.

Some just wanted to hire a competent, independent and likeable coworker. Some were really sceptical about my working part-time and being a Mom. The female big boss didn't say it in so many words, but she was worried about my being qualified to do her own job. My immediate manager had plans to take a leave of absence in fall. During that time I was going to have to work almost full time. 

So I had to reassure all these individuals: I knew my job, and I was a team player. I was a professional and would not drop everything because my kid had a cough. I was not here to steal anybody's job, and I thought volunteering for a lion refuge in South Africa was a fabulous project, and I'd be happy to work more during that time.

Done deal. Actually I had to negotiate my work days according to when daycare had open spots for a 16 months old: Monday and Friday. Every other week I was going to work on Wednesday, too, and on that day, my parents were going to take care of baby Colin.

I was excited.

The job was great, the people were friendly and helpful, the international environment priceless!

However, I quickly found myself slightly stressed out.

Mondays and Fridays were the worst days for my way to work. The distance of 42km (26 miles) would normally be covered in less than 40 minutes. Normally being between 10am and 3pm. 

Of course, just like any other employee in Switzerland, I had to be there around 8am. 

It was the commute of h***. 

Luckily Colin was an early riser. We had to leave shortly after 6am to make sure we arrived at daycare around 7:45. I had to help him take his shoes and jacket off, put his slippers on, talk to the caregivers for a few minutes, and drive ten more minutes to the office.

Daycare closed at 6:30pm, and kids had to be picked up by 6:15. I usually had my last interview of the day between 5 and 6pm. If the candidates arrived late, I got tense. I had to leave at 6:05, and even then, Colin was going to be the last kid left, which he understandably hated. 

Driving home took, just like in the morning, a good 90+ minutes. We usually stopped at a gas station convenience store where he grabbed a snack, so he was happily munching on something while I wanted to bite into my steering wheel out of desperation.

We usually got home around 8pm. Luckily I had the day off the next day. 

However, come fall, my supervisor left for her two months' lion tamer assignment, and I didn't have any days off. Departments were being restructured, and I had my hands full to say the least. I had to move my office to another building, which was great because I was now in the same building as most of the people I took care of. However, I was a ten minutes' walk away from the HR department, and if I needed files, paper resumes and other non-digital stuff, I had to go get it during lunch hour. 

Most of the people in my support area worked right at the airport. If I say right at the airport, I mean it. They were aircraft engineers making sure the planes were ready and safe for departure every single time. In order to meet with them, I had to take the bus for ten minutes, walk all the way to departures, get in line at security, flash my airport ID and slip out through a side exit beyond the gates. By that time I had to wear my fluorescent vest. 

Imagine you're flying somewhere. Usually you will use a train, or a bus, and several conveyor belts to get to your gate, right? Because some  can be really far away.

Guess what, down on the tarmac there are no escalators or conveyor belts. I committed the naive mistake of wearing nice shoes when I was new in my job. Nice as in fancy and with somewhat high heels. I almost died walking to the Operations Office that day. On my way back I had to stop at Airport Shopping to purchase blister patches and a pair of soft sneakers. 

So apart from our long commute, things were going well. 

Until one day I got a call from daycare. Colin had a fever and was crying. Could I please come pick him up?

I could not, I had back to back meetings, and yet I had to. 

This was probably my worst moment as a working mother. 

Some of my colleagues were already rolling their eyes if we had to meet on a Wednesday instead of Tuesday, because that's when I came to the office. They also kept an eye on me when I left early, meaning before 6pm. Of course they didn't see how often my lunch consisted in a sandwich at my desk while checking e-mail because they were enjoying a pizza at the restaurant, a trip that took up to two hours. They also didn't see how many times I was calling candidates and issuing employment agreements on my days off at home.

Anyway, I was aware that some people thought I didn't work hard enough. I was not going to ask any of them for help. The one I trusted enough to call was my supervisor. She had a migraine and said she needed to go home herself. My brain was working overtime. I had two interviews scheduled, one of them being with the CFO of the airline who was looking for an assistant. I could not cancel this one. 

In my desperation I had the following idea: I called Colin's Godmother who lives 20 minutes away. She gracefully offered to babysit him for the rest of the afternoon. I called the person I was supposed to interview in less than an hour, thank God she was still at home, and we rescheduled. Then I raced to daycare, picked up my poor baby and took him to his Godmother. I raced back to interview the CFO's assistant's candidate. 

Back at my desk, Colin's Godmother had texted me to please pick up some kids fever meds on my way to their place. Her children were older, and she didn't want to give him anything that may be too strong. 

After a stop at the drug store, I picked him up. He was doing much better. He had taken a nice nap, enjoyed some ice cream and was happily playing. Until that day I am eternally grateful how she saved my butt.

Another day I was so overwhelmed just by the work volume on my desk. I was not going to be able to finish before I had to pick him up from daycare. Pretty much everybody had left. I snuck out of the office, got Colin, and we went back to the office. I gave him paper, pens and fluorescent markers, and we both worked for another hour or so.

It didn't hurt that our office looked like a toy store to him. There were model airplanes, pilot uniforms and other interesting items to discover at every corner!

Were / are you a working Mom? Part-time? Full-time? How did / do you manage?