CurrentMom

Yahoo Goes Retro

Truth Thursday

I couldn’t possibly write about being a working mom this week without honing in on Marissa Mayers and her decision to disallow all Yahoo employees from working at home, whether they have a full or part-time telecommuting schedule, or just need a day to be at home to wait for the refrigerator repair guy and could get some work accomplished in the quiet of their kitchen.

I have a lot to say on this matter.

First and foremost, of course, the story didn’t start with this pronouncement. The story started over the summer when Mayers accepted the CEO position at Yahoo and about five minutes later announced she was pregnant with her first child. 

I have no problem with this, in theory. I don’t think women should have to hide their pregnancies in order to job search (or be recruited.) An employee who is good enough to hire is good enough to hire even if she needs a three-month parental leave soon after being hired. Employers who want to recruit and retain top talent should not be eliminating a large portion of their potential employee pool based on gender and age.

And having a top Internet company hire a woman for its top position was exciting. There was much buzz about what Mayers might bring to the table for Yahoo, a flailing operation.

The End of the Consulting Line

Truth Thursday

As the countdown continues towards my returning to a full-time work schedule, I had a vision today of why I am still feeling reluctant to take the final plunge.

It’s kind of like taming a wild horse. She goes down kicking and screaming and whinnying. But ultimately, she goes down.

Anyone who has successfully worked for themselves knows the thrill of landing a new project, a new business contact, a new client. They understand the sense of satisfaction of doing it yourself, and not being reliant on anyone else’s timetable. The enormous relief of not being beholden to any boss but yourself, and a sense of freedom that you can never achieve at a 9-to-5 job.

Only someone who has been their own boss understands the fun in the complexity of figuring out how many client projects you can juggle in one week. Of the joy in networking that leads to a gig. Of the pleasure of commuting to your living room, and only committing to outside meetings when it's not rush hour. And then there's the added bonus of being able to exercise mid-day, and get much needed sunlight during the winter. (There's little more awful than being stuck inside a windowless office all day with nothing but florescent lights, dark when you leave in the morning and dark when you come home.)

Of course, there are also the down sides. The drop in the pit of your stomach, like being on a roller coaster ride, the first time (and the second and the third and the fourth) when you realize that you don’t necessarily know when your next check will come in. Or IF it will come in – will that new client adhere to the contract and pay on time?  There is also the feeling of never, ever truly being away on vacation. Your clients might need you, and they can easily rip the rug out from underneath you if you’re not available – you’re much more expendable than a staff person.

College Application Angst - It's Not What You Think

Truth Thursday

Click! That’s the sound of the send button on my son’s computer (and of my credit card getting a workout.) Four out of seven college applications have now been sent. 

He’s been a marvel, my son, during this dreadful season – the season of the application mania. He’s been working hand in glove with his guidance counselor since last spring, making sure he is thinking about the right things when choosing the schools to which he is going to apply. He has gotten all the transcript paperwork in, hocked us over the summer to make sure we submitted our “essay” to the guidance counselor that will help her formulate her recommendation, and has been working on his own essay with his grandpa the English teacher for months.

Turns out that he really needs three or four or five essays, or “personal statements,” as they’re called on the applications. That was a bit of curveball. But he has persevered, and in mid-October, he is more than halfway through his application process, and my husband and I have done very little except be supportive when he’ll let us. I am proud of his ability to manage this very complicated application process with little input from us - we're his final proofreaders, and have helped him think through his choices, but that's about it. 

Confessions of a Freelancing Mother

Family Friday

Guest post by Charlotte Foreman, of BestChickLit.com.

The majority of freelance writers need, to some degree, peace and quiet. So how do you achieve this when you have two school-age children, one preschooler and a husband who also works from home? I know it's harsh to say, but my heart sinks just a little when I hear that all-too-familiar early morning call of "Mummy?" from the top of the stairs, just ten minutes after I have begun work. How do they know I am up? I am deathly quiet every morning, but still they manage to interrupt my early work session every day. The mind boggles and I have, in desperation, come up with the following conspiracy theory: there is some sort of alarm/beacon embedded in my laptop that somehow alerts my children when switched on.

It's not that I begrudge spending time with my children. This is exactly the reason I rise at stupid-o'clock every weekday morning to try to get as much work done as possible before the children get up, and so "mommy's work" doesn't intrude too much on the rest of our day. But no, whatever my logic, my children simply do not share my reasoning and as far as they are concerned, as soon as I get up I am fair game. Apart from this situation leading to a rather frustrated mother, the early mornings can also lead to some very tired and grumpy children, which then has a knock-on effect on rest of the day. My life seems to consist of me sneaking in little bits of work here and there between outings, meals, games and housework.

Surviving the Freelance Roller Coaster

Work Wednesday

About 7 months ago, I lost my full-time job and experienced all 5 stages of grief just in time for Thanksgiving. ('Wallowing' is one of those stages, right?) Losing a job that you've gotten used to having is quite an emotional hit because it piles anxiety and depression on top of financial uncertainty, and the hard truth is that wallowing in misery--a perfectly reasonable approach--will not help you get employed again. 

So I set out to look for a new job, and started doing some freelance writing and editing in the meantime. The job search didn't go all that well at first, but after about 60 applications (with 60 tailored cover letters, thank you very much) I landed a few interviews, but nothing really panned out.

But at the same time, my freelance business was growing.