How I Simplified
My Life by Becoming an EP
I am a working mom who was finding it exceeding difficult
to balance career and family. I work for a large financial company
and I'm a project leader in the technologies organization. We
have a never-ending stream of work and continually changing requirements.
I'm 39 years old and our two daughters are 6 and 8.
Over the past couple of years,
when my oldest started school, I was finding the evenings turning
into battle grounds for our family. I would come home and pick
up my children from day care between 5-5:30 p.m. I'd want them
to have a little "play" time at home so they would
go out until 6-6:30. Then the battles began... HOMEWORK. Sometimes
until 8 or 9 at night, leaving a dinner break in the middle,
we would be at battle. Then baths and bedtime. So much for quality
time with your kids!
My company came out with a policy
that enables telecommuting. It piqued my interest. I not only
pursued the option, but I coordinated a pilot group of 16 people
that also found the environmental change to be a good thing for
their situations. I've been working full time out of my home
now for 8 months. My children walk home from school to their
home to do their homework. It still isn't the most pleasant experience,
but we can tackle it earlier in the day when everyone stills
has the energy.
My work schedule now revolves
around my family schedule. I'm blessed to have work leaders that
take seriously their responsibility to their employees' family
and personal lives. We sometimes have a conflict with scheduling
because I still work as a full-time person with full-time responsibilities,
but we work through those conflicts as they arise.
Stress is a lot less when you
have options available to maintain balance. My present goal with
my job is to move on to helping other people in my organization
pursue the same arrangement.
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Avis A. Gomez is a telecommuter, and can be reached by Email: [email protected].
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