by Trudi Lebron
It’s early in the morning and I hear my phone ringing. I reach over, prepared to press the snooze button when I realize that it’s not the alarm, it’s a phone call…. At 5:23 a.m.
I recognize the 1-800 number instantly as the RoboCall number from my son’s school. They are calling to tell me that school is closed!
Panic set’s in.
How am I going to go to work? Despite the fact that I work in a school, my district only has a 2-hour delay. I will be expected in work. I don’t have any non-working family in the area, no non-working friends who can watch my son, and my fiancé is out of town. On top of that, I didn’t go to work yesterday because I took a personal day in order to tend to some appointments.
My options are to call out completely or to call in to let my supervisor know that I need to work from home. I am not confident in either of these options and immediately start picturing being called into the office to be spoken to about my supervisors concern regarding my availability. I decided to take the work-from-home option—an option that I am grateful to have—but all day I am afraid to miss a phone call or email. I worry that I haven’t accomplished enough, and that when I report on my to-do list for the day my supervisor will not be satisfied.
So here is the question:
Do all moms, single or not, feel bad about needing to take time off of work, or needing to work from home? Is this feeling job insecurity common among my fellow working mothers? How does this impact the way we feel about our jobs? Also, as a woman who is building a business, what can I do to make sure that my future employees don’t experience this fear?