August 5, 2021 By: Sona Suzanne
Working from home comes with its pros and cons. With the pandemic, work from home has gained a whole new meaning. An unusual concept from yesterday has become the new normal of today.
With or without work-from-home, balancing work and motherhood isn’t easy. Undoubtedly, for a working mom, work-from-home is a blessing owing to the luxuries of no commute, better work-life balance, ability to focus on children and journey of motherhood, better lifestyle, and productive usage of time, thus a happy environment.
As amazing as the benefits are, work-from-home does come with its own challenges. It can become stressful beyond a point, home-life distractions can hinder professional goals, a feeling of the same work-family home routine may affect your mental and emotional health. Indeed, it goes without saying, work-from-home life isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some mothers need the distraction to separate work and life while some manage to balance every aspect of life in one place. It takes a certain attitude and personality to enjoy the pleasures of work from home. Some find it calm in chaos, while some find it chaos in calm. Even in the toughest of the situation, a mother proves to be a superwoman, taking upon each challenge while providing only the best to her family. Unfortunately, the coronavirus situation isn’t about to change anytime soon, as the new normal sinks in, for a work-from-home mom that means to keep up with the workload while juggling the needs and wants of her family while being consistently productive and efficient.
Here are few tips I have rounded up which you can try using, to make the most of being a work-from-home mom:
- Dedicate a Workspace: One of the easy ways to generate productivity is to physically dedicate a work-from-home station at your house. A dedicated work-from-home station creates the mental distinction of work and home responsibilities. It sets a clear boundary between work and home and helps enforce a strong message that you’re working and needn’t be disturbed.
- Design a Schedule: With or without work-from-home, having a strict schedule is crucial. It helps you to prioritize your tasks, increase productivity, give due time to work and family, and have the mental satisfaction of a fruitful day with all work accomplished. An easy way to set a schedule for yourself is to work on a to-do list along with dedicated timings, a day before. Another way to design a schedule could be planning your meals ahead of time. This helps you to allot time to work, save time and energy.
- Set your own Expectations & Boundaries: With work-from-home, you need to set your boundaries and expectations at home and with your employer. Having children and family at home comes with huge responsibilities which need to be attended to along with the increased workload of work from home. To keep your mental, emotional, and physical health, along with constant productivity and best work, you need to draw the line with the time and effort dedicated to each task of life.
- Share Responsibilities: Ask for help whenever needed! There’s no shame in asking for help and multi-tasking isn’t easy while being productive. Be open about sharing home responsibilities and duties with your spouse, family members, and children. A great way to share responsibilities is a chore chart and work timetable among the family. Not only does this give you uninterrupted work hours but also allows you to take small breaks with no pressure of work or house chores.
- Make the Best Out of Your Weekends: Start planning for your weekends, so that you spend your time in the best possible way. Divide the hours between chores and entertainment, and thus your weekend refreshes you well enough to get through another productive week.
For a mother to enjoy -working-from-home, she also needs to understand the perks provided by the employers for working parents. With the covid-19 pandemic, employers have now started to encourage and motivate work-from-home, along with definite mindset change and attitude shift towards work and working hours. A work-life balance must be respected and encouraged by the employer.
Being a successful corporate with working parents, here are some of the amazing perks JK Tech offers to keep productivity consistent while delivering top-quality work:
- Flexibility of Time: At JK Tech, we truly believe in results rather than working hours. This helps our employees to figure out a work-life balance for working mothers while maintaining all-around health. We understand the responsibilities of a mother to her child and family, hence at JK Tech, we support our employees with flexibility in work hours, thereby allowing them the freedom to customize their work schedule as per their duties and commitments. Especially for working mothers, we believe in the quality of work rather than the quantity of work time.
- Professional Development Opportunities: Along with mindfully focusing on results, we also allow our employees to allot their time to professional development, discover new learning opportunities and avenues of growth. At JK Tech, we have a unique concept of an “Innovation Hub”, a dedicated space to nurture employee curiosity, experiment with new technologies and trends, and freedom to skill-building. We also conduct personalised health, fitness, and well-being workshops for our employees to maintain a happy and balanced lifestyle.
- Women in the Lead: At JK Tech, we truly preach equality. Equality of pay, stature, & position. We believe our working moms are true superwomen, duly worthy of credit and honor. From the top management to the freshers, we support and encourage women to take the lead, deliver their best along with the best resources and family-friendly policies.
- Paid Parental Leaves: Here at JK Tech, we understand the pressures and responsibilities of family life and parenthood. Hence, we believe in being the underpin to such parents who try to balance personal and professional life by providing paid leaves to both, working moms and working dads. As previously stated, we believe in equality and we stand by our working parents as a strong support system and as our endeavour of ‘People First’ policy and gender-diverse culture. We strive to create a healthy, positive, transparent, inclusive environment.
As much challenging as it can get to be a working mother in India, we also believe it is a truly rewarding and satisfactory experience. Being a working parent need not be as scary and intimidating if you manage to find the right balance, focus on self-care, and reward yourself once in a while for doing a great job. Such positive reinforcements allow you to grow, learn, and set the spirits high towards work and life.
