Making your return to work post-baby is a road filled with bumps. Ensuring that we get to work on time is an operation all in itself. And while many people are now working at home to get the balance right, remote working with kids in tow is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges.
Back to Work Post-Baby – Ensuring You Mean Business in a Remote Setting
Despite its convenience and flexibility, balancing those professional duties with the parental ones is not just about careful planning and preparation, but about being adaptable, when returning back to work-post-baby. What are some of the best practices to ensure that you are able to not just give the best to your child, but also work more efficiently as well?
Get Your Technical Hens in a Row
The biggest obstacle for so many parents at home is not necessarily the fact that the baby’s not sleeping, or there’s a lot to do work-wise, but it is more to do with the technical obstacles. We’ve got to work smarter rather than harder, and this means we must ensure that our Wi-Fi network is up to speed first. I have had a nightmare when we moved to a rural location but expert help has heleped ensure we have the best signal we can get without making an expesnive mistakes.
A poor internet connection will elongate the working process and will only make you more frustrated, trust me I have been there! There are additional best practices that can make a big difference here; for example, investing in a Wi-Fi booster if you need to have a lot of video conferences or work tasks that take up a lot of data. It’s also about making sure that you are protecting your Wi-Fi network from hackers piggybacking because they can see your SSID. For those wondering what is a SSID, it’s essentially the name of your WiFi network, and making sure that’s not broadcast means that you’re not running into potential problems because someone is using your bandwidth.
It’s a lot rarer these days, but when you are working at home and you are feeling frazzled, it’s these things we really don’t clock because we’ve got a bigger fish to fry. Get those tech components right first, and you will work a lot better.
Schedule as Much as You Can
Workwise and child-wise, scheduling is everything. This can certainly feel overwhelming when we have our lives mapped out to the minute. However, if you know you’ve got certain meetings that you need to attend, collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack ensure quick communication here, but you need to prioritise efficiency above all else.
Many organisations make the mistake of having meetings about meetings, and this is something we just don’t have time for when we’ve got kids. There are many ways to have far more efficient meetings, but the key to this is better communication. Have a schedule and ensure that everybody knows your availability.
For example, if you need to do the school run, and the school is around the corner, it isn’t just about five minutes there and back- there will be a lot of stopping to pick flowers and all of those things that we don’t want to discourage just because we’ve got to get back to our desk ASAP. Block out a bit more time than is necessary, and you won’t feel rushed off your feet.
Don’t Go Nine to Five
During the first few years of any child’s life, you’ve got to go with the flow. And right now, there are lots of organisations that are pushing for people to go back to work in the office. Hybrid working is the best solution for many businesses. But if you’re lucky enough to be fully remote, don’t feel like you are kept out of the loop.
One of the best ways for you to be a far more dominant presence in terms of work is to embrace flexible working hours. It helps you because you can take advantage of this flexibility to work during periods when your child is a bit more relaxed or you have more assistance from your partner or anyone else.
It is very tough to show that we mean business when we’ve got a child and heading back to work post-baby. So many mothers feel like they’re being forced out or left behind because they’ve got children. Going back to work after having a baby is about a lot more planning and preparation, but it’s also about remembering that this is the tough part. It could be exhausting, but you need to be patient and be compassionate with yourself. Being adaptable is far more important for the sake of you and your family, but if you want to show that you are ready to push yourself up the career ladder, there’s definitely ways around it.
# Back to Work Post-Baby – Ensuring You Mean Business in a Remote Setting