Working Moms Dilemma: Determining if a Prospective Employer Offers Flexibilty on the Job

Flexibility in the workplace is clearly one of the top concerns for working moms. But for moms re-entering the workforce, or looking to switch jobs in search of a more family-friendly employer, flexibility on the job is the concern.

Two questions that often come up when working moms are looking for a new job are: 1) how they can determine if the company is supportive of job flexibility and 2) how, and or at what point, should they tell a prospective employer that they want job flexibility.

I recently spoke with Marcee Harris, the director of advisory services for Catalyst, a research and advisory organization to advance women in business. Of course, there’s no simple answer to either question. As is the everyday life of a working mom, determining if you can obtain flexibility in the workplace is a true balancing act.

The best tip Harris offers can be summed up in one word: research.

The Mom Ramp: Beth Blecherman Jumps Back on the Working Mom Highway

Beth Blecherman is the “chief technology officer” for the popular Silicon Valley Moms Blog and the publisher of a hot new tech blog for moms, TechMamas. In her pre-kid days, she worked in corporate finance, systems development and then systems auditing for a company that was purchased by Roche Pharmaceuticals. She later worked for Deloitte & Touche and when she was pregnant with her first baby, Beth was the senior manager of computer process integrity. After her son was born, she worked part time for the company.  But it was her second pregnancy with twin boys –- and two months of bed rest following the delivery –- when she decided the Partner track at Deloitte needed to take a back seat. She retired.

“Even though I knew it was the right decision, it was still difficult,” she said.

Beth recently decided to jump back in the working mom world. She’s moving towards the on ramp, starting with the brave new world of blogging. Beth is a fellow blogger and friend, and every time we see each other, I always come away with new ideas about working motherhood, parenting, and truth-be-told, the best celebrity gossip (sorry, Beth, your secret is out!).

Going back to work is as tough as deciding to leave your job to become a stay at home mom. I asked Beth a few questions about this new life adventure, her new tech blog, TechMamas, and how she's doing with work/life balance.

JobMom (JM): Why did you decide to get back into the working mama game?

Beth Blecherman (BB): After spending years building a career, I found it hard to become a full time mom. I realized that spending time with my kids was the most valuable part of my day, but that I was not good at doing it all day. Having time to myself made me a better parent. I decided that for me to get the right balance in my life I needed to go back to work. I talk about this in my blog post called, "I Surrender." (Ed. note: A must read for all moms.)

JM: Did you hit any roadblocks?

BB: The first roadblock in going back to work was timing; managing three young boys was too complicated for childcare so I waited until my twins went to preschool. The next roadblock was changing careers. My last job at Deloitte was in project management, which required a big time commitment and involved rigid time deadlines. So after years of building a career, I had to find a new career that had flexible work arrangements. I only wanted to work while my kids were at school or at night. I started to wonder if that type of work existed.

I kept current on technology news after I retired and found the concept of blogs very interesting.  I was lucky to work with Jill Asher, Pamela Hornik, and Tekla Nee to establish the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Once I started blogging, I became completely hooked. We then joined the BlogHer network, which served as my new “work” network. I am still working to make blogging a career -- the path is not as clear as in technology consulting.