{"id":1539,"date":"2015-03-13T16:38:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=1539"},"modified":"2015-03-13T16:38:13","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:38:13","slug":"is-telecommuting-the-answer-for-working-mothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/is-telecommuting-the-answer-for-working-mothers.html","title":{"rendered":"Is telecommuting the answer for working mothers?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So says an article at The Federalist\u00a0this afternoon, \u201cWomen Can\u2019t Have it All, But They Can Have What Matters<\/a>,\u201d in which the author cites another piece, at Fortune, \u201cFemale company president: \u201cI\u2019m sorry to all the mothers I worked with<\/a>,\u201d which promotes the idea of working at home.<\/p>\n

The author of the latter article,\u00a0Katharine Zaleski, talks about her experiences as the head of a start up with a remotely-working workforce, PowerToFly.<\/p>\n

If they work from home, it doesn\u2019t matter if a kid gets sick. Yes, they might not be able to Skype with me as often through that day, but they can still be productive because they can work from home while keeping an eye on their child. (And, like me, many have childcare. There\u2019s no way you can work from home without support, usually from another woman.) Moms work hard to meet deadlines because they have a powerful motivation \u2013 they want to be sure they can make dinner, pick a child up from school, and yes, get to the gym for themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So I thought I\u2019d share my experiences with working at home.<\/p>\n

In itself, working at home does nothing but eliminate the commute \u2014 though, as I was commuting into the city via train prior to the WAH arrangement (a minimum hour and a quarter each way, depending on whether it\u2019s the good express train or not), this is a huge benefit. \u00a0At the same time, for the first year, it reduced but didn\u2019t wholly eliminate the commute, as I still had a kid to take to daycare.<\/p>\n

The other perks of working at home tend to come in conjunction with a flexible and, especially, a reduced schedule. \u00a0I am able to take a long lunch or get a late start on my day to run an errand, clean up the kitchen, or, yes, blog about something I read in the paper. \u00a0I can go over to school for a special event, whether it\u2019s \u201cmystery reader\u201d or a school mass where my kid has a special role, or if I need to pick up my fallen-sick kid. \u00a0And \u2014 a plus for my employer \u2014 if I\u2019m having a hard time focusing on what I need to do (whether it\u2019s due to bad news on the homefront, or even an e-mail telling me I made a mistake I didn\u2019t anticipate), I can take a break, do a chore around the house, and come back later.<\/p>\n

But \u201cthey can still be productive because they can work from home while keeping an eye on their child\u201d? \u00a0No, not really. \u00a0Maybe some parents can block out their kid while working, but it is very difficult. \u00a0(Maybe it\u2019s just me? \u00a0Do I need a Ritalin prescription?) \u00a0On weeks when I know my kids have a day off school, I try to put in extra hours on the other days, to minimize the amount of worktime needed, and then make a point of checking out a movie for them, and even then, I find that I\u2019m recording time in an adjusted sort of way (\u201cLet\u2019s see, I\u2019ve been up in the home office for two hours, but I had so many interruptions, I really can\u2019t claim to have done more than an hour of productive work.\u201d) \u00a0And promoting the idea that you can do two things at once on a regular basis does a disservice to the remote-working \u201ccause.\u201d \u00a0The only women who should attempt it are those who are paid in a piecework manner of some kind, when they can be measured by their output rather than number of hours worked, and, used to be, at least, at my employer, they reserved the right to ask for documentation of childcare arrangements when an employee would ask for a work-at-home arrangement.<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the story with my employer: \u00a0it is not about the \u201cfacetime,\u201d but they are becoming increasingly insistent that exempt employees be measured based on how many hours of overtime they work. \u00a0For many years I had flown under the radar, even though\u00a0the recurring joke was \u201cwe\u2019re flexible . . . you can choose when in the day\/week you want to work you\u2019re overtime,\u201d but now I\u2019m beginning to get that pressure, too.<\/p>\n

For a job like writer, as with the Federalist author, you set your schedule and are paid accordingly. \u00a0For most mothers \u2014 most parents, heck, most employees \u2014 paid on an exempt, overtime-ineligible basis, the bigger issue is how many hours they are expected to work per week. \u00a0If you\u2019re lucky, you have a job you like and can convince yourself that your extra work hours are like a hobby you pursue. \u00a0But the compatibility of these work hours is the bigger question, not just your workplace location.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So says an article at The Federalist\u00a0this afternoon, \u201cWomen Can\u2019t Have it All, But They Can Have What Matters,\u201d in which the author cites another piece, at Fortune, \u201cFemale company president: \u201cI\u2019m sorry to all the mothers I worked with,\u201d which promotes the idea of working at home. The author of the latter article,\u00a0Katharine Zaleski, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nIs telecommuting the answer for working mothers?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So says an article at The Federalist\u00a0this afternoon, "Women Can\u2019t Have it All, But They Can Have What Matters," in which the author cites another piece,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/03\/is-telecommuting-the-answer-for-working-mothers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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