“Mom, do you have more work?”
This is my son’s usual question towards the end of the day on the days I work remotely. With this current pandemic, it’s been promoted to a daily inquiry. One that has made my mother’s heart tighten up a bit on one hand, but on the other hand has pushed me to better manage my work remotely, and show up better at home and at work.
Whether you’ve been working from home for quite some time, or have been keeping safe at home under the current coronavirus pandemic, managing your career remotely requires some adjustments. This is especially important for working moms, for whom home also rhymes with an entire other set of family and administrative commitments. As we’ve seen and experienced all too well, this pandemic is taking its highest toll on working moms whose share of responsibilities has now been multiplied while their share of equity is once again being put on the backburner.
While I do work from home some of the time when I’m not teaching, transitioning to being fully online under the current crisis has been quite the adjustment. Like so many, I’ve had to start thinking about my career differently, and pivot to devising more effective ways to produce and deliver my work without negatively impacting its quality as well as the fulfillment I get from it. For me, it’s been learning to teach online and set up ways to communicate with my students, colleagues and consulting clients in a way that allows us to still maintain a sense of connection and humanity despite the virtual nature of our interactions. From virtual meetings to remote classes, it’s been not just a practical shift, but also a mental one. As a working mom, it also means adjusting to the new normal of homeschooling, sharing a space with my spouse and kids, and adjusting to mine and our family’s new needs and expectations.
It is well-known that working women and working moms have had a notoriously challenging time with remote careers. The lack of direct contact and feedback, as well as the many false assumptions around working women, coupled with the perpetuation of gender inequity in the workplace, have created difficult conditions for remote work for women in general, and moms in particular.
Yet, managing your career remotely does not have to be an exercise in painful adjustments, or result in a career crisis altogether. Here are a few tips I’m learning to implement when managing my own career remotely as a working mom:
- Clarify expectations
In the whirlwind of email communications and remote assignments, miscommunication can easily occur and expectations can get lost in the shuffle. Whereas having a quick conversation to clarify goals and objectives in-between meetings can be easily achieved in person, doing so remotely is more challenging.
I’ve learnt to clarify expectations and assignments as soon as feasible, and preferably before planning for and tackling these. Ideally, doing so at the beginning of every period, be it weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly, helps set clear deliverables to strive towards. Keeping track of these clarifications via email or through another form of documentation can also go a long way to provide something to go back to in case of misunderstanding or if things veer off track.
- Request regular feedback
Working remotely increases the chance for miscommunication and missed expectations. This is where requesting regular feedback can help reduce the gap in communication, while also providing a reliable source of information and evaluation.
It’s also important as a way to protect oneself in case of misunderstanding and miscommunication. In addition to just requesting feedback, ensuring it is documented helps with keeping a valuable resource to go back to, in addition to powerful protection for the future.
- Keep track of your progress
When it comes to remote work, distance makes progress harder to track, especially for working moms, as we can be pulled in multiple directions at once. This is why keeping track of our progress becomes crucial. This can be done through regular notes, or by keeping a more or less traditional time tracker or timesheet.
Not only does keeping track of one’s progress help with addressing outside questions and requests, but also in terms of re-evaluating how we’ve used our time and if any adjustments are needed.
Overall, working remotely as a working woman and mom certainly carries with it its share of challenges. However, being proactive about clarifying expectations, requesting regular feedback, and keeping track of one’s progress, is key to not only ensuring that we’re productive and effective, but also to protect our careers.
What other tips do you have as a working woman and mom when it comes to managing your career remotely?
The Corporate Sis.
