I think everyone would love to have less clutter- this is a great starting point with tasks for every month and rules like "if you haven't used it in a year, get rid of it!"
http://www.oprah.com/article/home/homeimprovement/challenge_clean_rituals
Friday, July 25, 2008
Moms find balance
(CNN) -- Ashley Hewitt spent 16 years rising through the ranks of corporate human resources, reaching manager and director positions. But after having her third child, a full-time career proved too much.
Ashley Hewitt left a corporate career to raise her three children. She now works as a high-skilled temp.
Even cutting her hours back to 36 a week turned out to be more of a problem than a solution.
"I was trying to be a full-time mom and a full-time employee with part-time hours for both and it just wasn't working well," Hewitt said.
In 2006, she took a voluntary severance package from Duke Energy, her longtime employer, and became one of many professional women who leave the work force at the peak of their careers to focus on their families.
But such new stay-at-home moms can also be the perfect match for companies seeking highly-educated and skilled workers for temporary work.
"They're realizing that ... this is a talent pool that's experienced and professional and efficient and ready to work as long as they're given a little bit of consideration to their personal needs," said Allison O'Kelly, CEO of Mom Corps.
The Atlanta, Georgia, company is one of several staffing agencies formed in recent years to connect career-women-turned-stay-at-home moms with employers. On-Ramps, Flexible Executives, Flexible Resources and FlexWork Connection have similar missions.
Hewitt, 40, said she didn't want to quit working "cold turkey." She submitted her resume to Mom Corps in 2006 and currently works about 10-14 hours per week out of her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, doing human resources work on contract for Wachovia.
"I like the fact that I can do this work and the people that I'm working for... understand that it's only one aspect of my life," Hewitt said.
"They also understand that I'm trying to do this flexibly so I may not be available at 2 o'clock for a conference call because all the kids are coming off the bus."
Money not the top motivator
Mom Corps founder O'Kelly, 35, knows first hand about the tug of war between career and family. The Harvard Business School graduate was a manager at Toys R Us when she had her first child. The baby had health problems that forced her to frequently miss work.
"I was having a really tough time with that because that just isn't my style," O'Kelly said.
Working Moms• 71% of U.S. women with children work or are looking for work • 55% of U.S. women with children under a year old are in the labor force • 24% of U.S. working mothers have a part-time job Source: U.S. Department of Labor
She left the company and began working on contract as an accountant. She ended up with so much work that she offered some of it to her friends. O'Kelly said she soon realized there was enough demand to expand beyond accounting and her circle of acquaintances. Mom Corps was born in 2005. The company now has 25,000 job seekers in its database, many with marketing, human resources or accounting backgrounds. About 90 percent have a college degree and more than a third have a graduate degree, O'Kelly said. Most are 30-44 years old. Once placed, they typically earn $30-$70 an hour, O'Kelly said.
While the earnings can be high, the money isn't the primary motivator for many of the stay-at-home moms seeking flexible work. Some simply want to stay plugged into their industries and use their skills. "I think it's probably something that they're missing from a personal, professional point of view, just part of their self-identity is very attached to their career and having to let that go is a big struggle," said Jessica Riester, founder of FlexWork Connection in Irvine, California. Riester, 35, launched her recruiting business earlier this year after deciding to take some time off from her career to have children. The former finance manager at a start-up company soon landed a part-time corporate job, working 20 hours a week, and realized other professional women were very interested in the arrangement. "I was telling my friends about this new setup and they were all jealous and wanted something similar," Riester said. "[They] all kind of struggled with wanting to have some kind of career going but also have the time to spend with their kids, not working the crazy hours that we had been."
'New normal of flex careers'
The demands of a full-time job appear to be taking their toll on working mothers. About 60 percent said working part time would be ideal for them, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center. Only 48 percent felt that way in a similar poll done 10 years earlier.
For those who don't want to work full time, turning to staffing agencies that cater to stay-at-home moms can be one option. The trend reflects "the new normal of flex careers," said Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the nonprofit Families and Work Institute.
"There's been an assumption for a long time that a career is a straight and narrow ladder that one climbs and if one steps off of it then you're down at the bottom or if you even step sideways, you plunge, and you climb that ladder until you leap over an abyss ... to retirement" Galinsky said. "That is not the reality of people's lives."
I'm always interested in new options for the work/life balance, but I'm also interested in the comments after the article, since most people interpret the article in terms of their own choices. You always have
-what about dads?
-woman who works full-time with kids and believes everyone should
-people who say the debate only applies to rich or upper-middle class women
Comments I found interesting pointed out that part-time work only makes sense in certain industries, usually those with a critical mass of women (ie accounting, human resources). Engineering has not come that far, for the most part jobs are at least full-time. Another good point is that health care is an issue. I dealt with this for the first time this year when I left the Navy. Up to that point, it was all taken care of for me. When I started my new job, I had to learn about PPOs, HMOs, ect, and deal with the military health care simultaneously. TRICARE, the military health system, takes some time to figure out for dependents.
One of the issues that I deal with in my job now relates to this in terms of schedules. I'm the only person who lives here, the rest of my colleagues fly in every week, which makes for a strange work schedule, especially when combined with my desire for a Monday-Friday, 8-5 schedule. Also there are different pressures and expectations when everyone you work with is away from their families and have nothing to go home to but an empty hotel room. It's interesting- not something I thought about before taking the job.
Here's the original source for the article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/07/17/skilled.temp.work/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail
Ashley Hewitt left a corporate career to raise her three children. She now works as a high-skilled temp.
Even cutting her hours back to 36 a week turned out to be more of a problem than a solution.
"I was trying to be a full-time mom and a full-time employee with part-time hours for both and it just wasn't working well," Hewitt said.
In 2006, she took a voluntary severance package from Duke Energy, her longtime employer, and became one of many professional women who leave the work force at the peak of their careers to focus on their families.
But such new stay-at-home moms can also be the perfect match for companies seeking highly-educated and skilled workers for temporary work.
"They're realizing that ... this is a talent pool that's experienced and professional and efficient and ready to work as long as they're given a little bit of consideration to their personal needs," said Allison O'Kelly, CEO of Mom Corps.
The Atlanta, Georgia, company is one of several staffing agencies formed in recent years to connect career-women-turned-stay-at-home moms with employers. On-Ramps, Flexible Executives, Flexible Resources and FlexWork Connection have similar missions.
Hewitt, 40, said she didn't want to quit working "cold turkey." She submitted her resume to Mom Corps in 2006 and currently works about 10-14 hours per week out of her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, doing human resources work on contract for Wachovia.
"I like the fact that I can do this work and the people that I'm working for... understand that it's only one aspect of my life," Hewitt said.
"They also understand that I'm trying to do this flexibly so I may not be available at 2 o'clock for a conference call because all the kids are coming off the bus."
Money not the top motivator
Mom Corps founder O'Kelly, 35, knows first hand about the tug of war between career and family. The Harvard Business School graduate was a manager at Toys R Us when she had her first child. The baby had health problems that forced her to frequently miss work.
"I was having a really tough time with that because that just isn't my style," O'Kelly said.
Working Moms• 71% of U.S. women with children work or are looking for work • 55% of U.S. women with children under a year old are in the labor force • 24% of U.S. working mothers have a part-time job Source: U.S. Department of Labor
She left the company and began working on contract as an accountant. She ended up with so much work that she offered some of it to her friends. O'Kelly said she soon realized there was enough demand to expand beyond accounting and her circle of acquaintances. Mom Corps was born in 2005. The company now has 25,000 job seekers in its database, many with marketing, human resources or accounting backgrounds. About 90 percent have a college degree and more than a third have a graduate degree, O'Kelly said. Most are 30-44 years old. Once placed, they typically earn $30-$70 an hour, O'Kelly said.
While the earnings can be high, the money isn't the primary motivator for many of the stay-at-home moms seeking flexible work. Some simply want to stay plugged into their industries and use their skills. "I think it's probably something that they're missing from a personal, professional point of view, just part of their self-identity is very attached to their career and having to let that go is a big struggle," said Jessica Riester, founder of FlexWork Connection in Irvine, California. Riester, 35, launched her recruiting business earlier this year after deciding to take some time off from her career to have children. The former finance manager at a start-up company soon landed a part-time corporate job, working 20 hours a week, and realized other professional women were very interested in the arrangement. "I was telling my friends about this new setup and they were all jealous and wanted something similar," Riester said. "[They] all kind of struggled with wanting to have some kind of career going but also have the time to spend with their kids, not working the crazy hours that we had been."
'New normal of flex careers'
The demands of a full-time job appear to be taking their toll on working mothers. About 60 percent said working part time would be ideal for them, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center. Only 48 percent felt that way in a similar poll done 10 years earlier.
For those who don't want to work full time, turning to staffing agencies that cater to stay-at-home moms can be one option. The trend reflects "the new normal of flex careers," said Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the nonprofit Families and Work Institute.
"There's been an assumption for a long time that a career is a straight and narrow ladder that one climbs and if one steps off of it then you're down at the bottom or if you even step sideways, you plunge, and you climb that ladder until you leap over an abyss ... to retirement" Galinsky said. "That is not the reality of people's lives."
I'm always interested in new options for the work/life balance, but I'm also interested in the comments after the article, since most people interpret the article in terms of their own choices. You always have
-what about dads?
-woman who works full-time with kids and believes everyone should
-people who say the debate only applies to rich or upper-middle class women
Comments I found interesting pointed out that part-time work only makes sense in certain industries, usually those with a critical mass of women (ie accounting, human resources). Engineering has not come that far, for the most part jobs are at least full-time. Another good point is that health care is an issue. I dealt with this for the first time this year when I left the Navy. Up to that point, it was all taken care of for me. When I started my new job, I had to learn about PPOs, HMOs, ect, and deal with the military health care simultaneously. TRICARE, the military health system, takes some time to figure out for dependents.
One of the issues that I deal with in my job now relates to this in terms of schedules. I'm the only person who lives here, the rest of my colleagues fly in every week, which makes for a strange work schedule, especially when combined with my desire for a Monday-Friday, 8-5 schedule. Also there are different pressures and expectations when everyone you work with is away from their families and have nothing to go home to but an empty hotel room. It's interesting- not something I thought about before taking the job.
Here's the original source for the article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/07/17/skilled.temp.work/index.html?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Enjoy being unbalanced
"That's the wonderful thing about seeing that our society makes impossible demands on all women. You free yourself to ignore social pressures and begin creating a life that comes from your own deepest desires, hopes and dreams. You'll stop living life from the outside in and begin living it from the inside out.
Women describe the moments when they really "got" that the expectations they'd been trying to fulfill were unfulfillable. They say this epiphany was terrible because it meant relinquishing the goal of total social acceptance. But it was also the beginning of freedom, of learning to seek guidance by turning inward to the heart, rather than outward to social prescriptions." - Martha Beck, Oprah.com http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/05/21/o.balance/index.html
Living life from the inside out- not as easy as it sounds. For the past three years, I have been pondering the concept of balance or lack thereof. I left a career that was extremely demanding because I knew it wouldn't allow me to raise children. What I struggle with is what to do now. I'm in an in-between stage- married, but no children yet. I'm still trying to stop living based on what my life looks like to other people. I went to college when I was 15, graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering when I was 20, and received a commission as an officer in the United States Navy a few months later. I did well at everything in the Navy, obtaining all qualifications early. I attended nuclear power school and was qualified to run a nuclear power plant. I completed three overseas deployments. Once you obligate yourself to the military, they don't require much input from you. Your career path is set. And then I left. Now that I can be anything I want to be, I'm at something of a loss. Martha Beck talks about doing what is in your nature. What is in my nature? I don't think it's engineering. My favorite part of the Navy was always the people- leading a team to accomplism an important task- and not over weeks and months, but in 6 hours or a day at most. I enjoyed dealing with the ups and downs of people's lives as a division officer/counselor/peer/friend. Living from the inside out - something to think about.
Women describe the moments when they really "got" that the expectations they'd been trying to fulfill were unfulfillable. They say this epiphany was terrible because it meant relinquishing the goal of total social acceptance. But it was also the beginning of freedom, of learning to seek guidance by turning inward to the heart, rather than outward to social prescriptions." - Martha Beck, Oprah.com http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/05/21/o.balance/index.html
Living life from the inside out- not as easy as it sounds. For the past three years, I have been pondering the concept of balance or lack thereof. I left a career that was extremely demanding because I knew it wouldn't allow me to raise children. What I struggle with is what to do now. I'm in an in-between stage- married, but no children yet. I'm still trying to stop living based on what my life looks like to other people. I went to college when I was 15, graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering when I was 20, and received a commission as an officer in the United States Navy a few months later. I did well at everything in the Navy, obtaining all qualifications early. I attended nuclear power school and was qualified to run a nuclear power plant. I completed three overseas deployments. Once you obligate yourself to the military, they don't require much input from you. Your career path is set. And then I left. Now that I can be anything I want to be, I'm at something of a loss. Martha Beck talks about doing what is in your nature. What is in my nature? I don't think it's engineering. My favorite part of the Navy was always the people- leading a team to accomplism an important task- and not over weeks and months, but in 6 hours or a day at most. I enjoyed dealing with the ups and downs of people's lives as a division officer/counselor/peer/friend. Living from the inside out - something to think about.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Working Moms Respond to CNN Article
An article on CNN.com titled "Working Moms Look Back With Mixed Emotions" has drawn quite a few angry comments over the past two days. The article presents the opinions both of women who work and who stay at home. It doesn't mention stay-at-home dads, but I don't think that is the point. Most of the women commenting on the article stated that they chose to work, and their kids are better for it. I think this is disingenuous. While it may be most emotionally satisfying to pretend that you are getting the best of both worlds, most people acknowledge that there are tradeoffs whether you work or stay home, for both men and women. If it were abundantly clear that it is better for children to be "socialized" through day care, and for highly educated women to work, then this debate would no longer exist. The tradeoffs are not the same for all women, or for all children. Many of the responses also cited stay-at-moms as "judging" working women, and stated that they don't judge the moms who stay home- another subterfuge. A lot of this debate is related to how one views marriage and the relationship between husbands and wives. If your concern is "power," or that it is "unfair" for the working spouse to support his or her family, you should certainly work.
Many women have to work to support their families and do not have the choice to stay home. For those who do have the choice, at least be honest about the choice that you are making. Concerned about intellectual stimulation? Try online courses, reading, learning new languages- there is no shortage of intellectual resources out there. Education is a good in and of itself. Not being employed in the public sphere for a period of time does not render education useless- why have liberal arts education at all, if that is the case?
One of the most controversial statements in the article, that "women are happiest in clearly defined and traditional marital roles" from a study -- "What's Love Got To Do With It? Equality, Equity, Commitment and Women's Marital Quality," released last year by University of Virginia sociologists W. Bradford Wilcox and Steven L. Nock, gets to the heart of the issue. We are confused about roles in marriage and what they mean. As women, we are generally afraid of dependency, which prevents us from enjoys the good that can come from interdependency. Fear of losing power, fear of marginalization, fear of being our grandmothers has led us to the conclusion that we must be independent to be happy, and this requires a paycheck.
I think we are called to a higher purpose- one that is at odds with individual power. Part of my vocation is to be my husband's wife, and part of his vocation is to be my husband. We did not get married because it "made sense" or was convenient. The marriage convenant is based on love and giving up power on both sides. You essentially give up the right to be self-centered when you get married, which is one reason marriage is so important to the church.
The issue of clearly defined roles is one that I will come back to, because I think it is central to the confusion that women of my generation feel about marriage and having children.
Read the original article and the following comments at
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/07/14/working.moms.look.back/index.html.
Many women have to work to support their families and do not have the choice to stay home. For those who do have the choice, at least be honest about the choice that you are making. Concerned about intellectual stimulation? Try online courses, reading, learning new languages- there is no shortage of intellectual resources out there. Education is a good in and of itself. Not being employed in the public sphere for a period of time does not render education useless- why have liberal arts education at all, if that is the case?
One of the most controversial statements in the article, that "women are happiest in clearly defined and traditional marital roles" from a study -- "What's Love Got To Do With It? Equality, Equity, Commitment and Women's Marital Quality," released last year by University of Virginia sociologists W. Bradford Wilcox and Steven L. Nock, gets to the heart of the issue. We are confused about roles in marriage and what they mean. As women, we are generally afraid of dependency, which prevents us from enjoys the good that can come from interdependency. Fear of losing power, fear of marginalization, fear of being our grandmothers has led us to the conclusion that we must be independent to be happy, and this requires a paycheck.
I think we are called to a higher purpose- one that is at odds with individual power. Part of my vocation is to be my husband's wife, and part of his vocation is to be my husband. We did not get married because it "made sense" or was convenient. The marriage convenant is based on love and giving up power on both sides. You essentially give up the right to be self-centered when you get married, which is one reason marriage is so important to the church.
The issue of clearly defined roles is one that I will come back to, because I think it is central to the confusion that women of my generation feel about marriage and having children.
Read the original article and the following comments at
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/07/14/working.moms.look.back/index.html.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Young adult Catholics, where are you?
This blog is for the purpose of discussing issues relevant to young adults and Catholics. I converted to Catholicism two years ago, and I believe there is a huge need for ministry to the segment of Catholics that are post-college and don't yet have children. I struggle myself with purpose, with meaning, and with figuring out what it means to be a wife without losing my "self," and this blog will explore all these issues. I'm starting a theology degree in the fall, and that will provide plenty of ammo for discussion, I'm sure. The biggest issues for me are:
1) discerning my vocation
2) reconciling my desire for contribution to the world with my intent to be a stay-at-home mom
3) being Catholic in a culture that is not Christian
4) running the race, fixing my eyes on Jesus- for real
Coincidentally, today is the start of World Youth Day 2008. The link below is for all of us who couldn't make it to Australia.
http://video.wyd2008.org/?MediaId=97e9e9a3-a38d-4df9-973d-c495443c0f4c
1) discerning my vocation
2) reconciling my desire for contribution to the world with my intent to be a stay-at-home mom
3) being Catholic in a culture that is not Christian
4) running the race, fixing my eyes on Jesus- for real
Coincidentally, today is the start of World Youth Day 2008. The link below is for all of us who couldn't make it to Australia.
http://video.wyd2008.org/?MediaId=97e9e9a3-a38d-4df9-973d-c495443c0f4c
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)