Episode 18: Jo Part 2
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In Episode 18, we have Part 2 of my interview with Jo who is balancing a high-level career and being a single parent to twin girls. We talk about the structure of organisations that do not work for employees or the company, how commitment and good work in the workplace is measured and the scope of Carers Leave.
The Lowdown
– Family of 3
– 1 working parent (0.8)
– 2 school-aged children
– Grandparents providing after-school care
3:44 Do you feel like you have had a choice in your path?
4:00 Many constraints, very finely tuned and any small change will have a large impact
4:30 Financially really need to be working full time
4:40 Work 0.8 for sanity
5:20 Would love to work from home – to do full time hours or do school pick up
5:42 Work flexibility to do more work
6:00 Assumption is always that people looking for flexible work options are trying to do less work
6:28 Inflexible hours don’t allow you to make up time
7:00 Working from home with sick kids would actually allow me to work more
7:48 Assess work on output not hours at work
8:08 Part time staff feel guilty and over deliver
8:18 Being present doesn’t mean you are working
9:00 Rules or culture?
10:12 The advantages of offering flexible work
10:52 It’s not doing less work, it’s a better fit for the same work
11:00 Individualised work structures
12:12 Very hierarchical institution that has single point of failure built it
12:40 Actually puts individuals under more pressure because they can’t be away on x day
13:18 Leadership potential but hard to break through to leadership
10:02 The funnel is blocked
14:20 Change the way we structure organisations
15:20 Mining companies with women in the executive teams make more money (Source: http://www.miningglobal.com/operations/study-mining-companies-need-more-women-board-room)
16:20 My work less about profit but all about return on investment and doing a good job
16:54 Sought out current employer due to robust EBA and strong focus on women’s workforce participation
17:34 Referee who made a point of candidate being a single mother
18:40 Berated for not disclosing single parent status…..wonder why anyone would not disclose that!!
19:00 Why disclose and give them the opportunity to discriminate against me?
19:14 Always apply for full time roles and negotiate your way down
20:24 You do know this is a full time role?
21:22 Can a project based contract role be done differently – part-time over a longer time period.
22:00 Need to have the conversations to challenge and change mindsets
22:20 Why are we locked into this view about when and where work happens?
23:44 Sportsperson allowed time to participate in sporting events
24:48 Acceptable reasons for flexible work
25:52 Number of hours at work is not an indicator of work commitment, you could be at work full time and not give a toss about the workplace
26:34 The placenta switches off career ambitions doesn’t it?
27:06 The mummy bucket
28:08 Request to work full time but work from home 1 day. It was a NO.
29:28 If we give you work flexibility we would have to allow others to do so also (shock horror!)
30:10 We all become each other’s timekeepers, pitting staff against each other
32:10 Carers Leave – only for emergency sickness and injury
32:56 There is caring of children we have to do that is not emergency related
33:10 Applied for Carers Leave for school holidays
34:34 Carers leave balance (12 days a year) would allow for more planned care during school holidays rather than fake sickies.
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