Blending working and parenting
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- July
- 30
Picture this: A summer afternoon listening to the happy shrieks of your kids on the swing set in the backyard. Now picture this: Working on sales reports and staying in constant touch with colleagues. If you think the second scenario means you can’t enjoy the first, just talk to Brewster mom Chris Arnold. Chris has been a work-at-home parent since 2000. She’s a full-time IBMer and couldn’t be happier with the way her life and career are in balance. She meets her kids at the bus stop  and meets her deadlines.
Stories like Chris’s make a lot of moms and dads think: Could it work for me? The answer, according to experts and parents I spoke with, is probably  if you have the courage to ask for it.
Check out this story I wrote about how working from home is gaining more respect. At Armonk-based IBM Corp., one in five employees works from home. Here is a photo of Chris working in her backyard, taken by Stuart Bayer, a photographer for LoHud.com and The Journal News.
What makes working from home possible today for Chris and others is the prevalence of high-speed Internet connections and the way that so much of our work has shifted to the Web. I am writing these words at 10:20 p.m. at night from my home computer. When I’m done with this post, I’ll simply log into WordPress, our blogging tool, and upload it.
One of the most intriguing interviews I had for my story was with Kathy Kane of Mercer Human Resource Consulting. She said the new generation of workers in their early to mid-20s aren’t even asking permission to work from home: They are demanding it. “While they are not yet the ones having children or work-life balance issues, they just expect to be able to work from wherever, whenever. That’s the way they grew up. That’s the way they went to college. They are completely at ease with technology and embrace everything that comes with it,” Kathy told me. “They are different from their parents, or even from Gen X. They are not going to ask permission about telecommuting. They are just going to assume they can.”
And for all the baby boomer angst about technology forcing work upon our private lives, the new generation welcomes the integration, Kathy said. “The Millennial Generation wants to feel life has purpose and meaning. They are going to have a lot less problem toggling back and forth between work and personal life.” Taking a break to have lunch with the kids, for example, even if it means spending a few hours back in the home office after their bedtime, can be well worth it for some parents.
What about the moms and dads who read this blog? Do you work from home? Do you wish you could? Does your employer allow flexibility, or would this be considered asking for too much?
This entry was posted
on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 10:45 pm by Julie Moran Alterio.
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Category: Childcare, Parenting, Working parents
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That was a nice and pleasant article to read. I’m glad to hear
that Home Base Businesses are gaining credibility. To work from home and spend time with your family… it’s just a great feeling.
Al
http://www.workforyourselfonline.com
I work from home and love it. I have many irons in the fire, including a part time position with my Church. I proposed the concept of working from home to my supervisor, convincing her that I would be much more efficient in my work if I didn’t have to contend with office distractions. One of the keys to making this situation work has been remaining in close contact with her and keeping open lines of communication. I love working from home!