As a working mom I sometimes have to juggle my work schedule with my home schedule and make it work out. I'm the office manager for a small business and I'm required to be there for 40 hours a week but as long as shifts are covered I can pick and choose when I will be there. I do cover other areas of the business so I work in multiple departments but I have good employees that can make the schedule work if I need to leave early or switch a day I normally work and take it off. My husband's schedule is the same. As long as he clocks 40 hours and all shifts are covered he can choose his schedule.
Yesterday we had to schedule something for my oldest's school enrollment and the time is only during the early afternoon in 2 days. Within about an hour my husband and I had moved stuff around on our schedules so we can both attend. We are very lucky to have the jobs we do that will allow us to do this.
If your schedule is not as flexible how do you handle the little surprises that pop up throughout life. Does one parent do most of the children appointments, school meetings, sick kid days, ect? Does it truly work for you?
I am my own boss; I set my own schedule to what's going on in my life.
I am a single parent who works full time, 9-5, Mon-Fri. My work is amazing, they are so good to me. I get to take my lunch hour whenever i like, I can get away for any appointments I may have (doctor, dentist, school visits etc). If I need to leave early or come in late thats ok too. If I have to do that though I always work through my lunch even though my bosses tell me not to worry about it. :-) On a Monday I even get away at 4pm to pick my dd up from dance class which is at her school and I take her back to work with me and she gets to sit at one of the other desks and play on the computer or do some coloring with pencils & markers that my boss bought for her. I am so lucky and I really appreciate it. :-)
Added: I work with all guys (no other females) and they are so understanding.
i work two part-time jobs, both from home and totally on my schedule of choice.
My husband's job is slightly more flexible than mine, for example, he can work from home and I can't. But I work for a very small company (4 people total) and my boss is pretty cool if I need to take off, like today, I'm leaving a couple of hours early so my dd can go to an ENT and have her ears tested. And if I dont have enough Personal time saved, she lets me borrow against future time, which helped when my dd's eardrum burst and I had to stay home an extra day than I was planning a couple of months ago.
My schedule is not flexible at all; it's 7:30 to 4:30 M-F. My last job would let us come in any time between 7 and 8:30 and leave accordingly. We could also shorten our lunch break or just skip lunch to leave early. I miss that. Now if something comes up, one of us has to take leave.
Hubby works retail, he has a set schedule, but since he doesn't go in until 10:00 or later most mornings, he has time to run errands during business hours. He also has Mondays off, so all doctor appts. get scheduled on Mondays. I handle the evening things.
I really need to be in the office during the morning, but in case of an emergency (sick child), I can work from home during the afternoons. Also, the office is open from 7:00 to 5:00, so if necessary, I can go in early and leave early.
If all else fails, I use a vacation/sick day. I've been at the same job for 11 years, so luckily I have lots of days available.
I wouldn't know what to do if my company wasn't so family friendly. I am a single mother AND I have to travel for my work. I have unlimited sick days which certainly takes away the financial stress, but if something is urgent, it is expected that you work from home.
It helps that we have a lot of working mothers in our management team. Some have stay at home husbands. It helps a lot that they have some idea what I am dealing with.
I pay back my company by working as hard as I can and doing an excellent job.
My schedule is not flexible. Are you hiring? lol
i can't really answer - your life sounds a lot like mine! and i am so grateful. i also have a boss above me that is very understanding - but then i think a big part of that is that i am a hard worker and don't fluff off work for stupid reasons. she KNOWS that if i am asking, there's a valid reason. i really think that is the key. at least with a logical, human boss.
When we both worked FT, it would really depend on what needed to be done. We would often send one parent to appointments, we couldn't always be there for in-school events, and if a kid had an extended illness, we would trade "off" days so no one person ended up home for a week. My husband can work from home sometimes.
Now that I'm more flexible, I handle most of the kid care and surprises. I work from home and have all day to put in my hours so I can go to an appointment.
What didn't work for me was having legit reasons to to leave or have a day off and management giving me a hard time because someone else abused the system or because I had a spouse (most of the department were single parents). That was really hard on morale - you already want to be home with your sick kid. You don't need your manager giving you flak about it.
I did have some flex in my old job, but with daycare I had little wiggle room in my coming and going. I missed a lot of lunches to make up for appointments.
My work is very accomodating....or maybe it's my Manager. I think it's a little bit of both. I am able to work from home 2 days a month IF I want. Not suppose to have kids there when we do it, but sometimes you have to (snow days, sick kid) shhhh.
I get a decent amount of vacation and sick time too, so I am ALWAYS the one that calls in or takes time off if needed. My husband has a limited amount of time to use as he pleases (he works for one of the Big Three and they have scheduled Shut Downs and HAVE to use vacation time during that time) and his job is NOT flexible, so it's 100% me.
Very hard when the kids were little and sick a lot (in daycare of course), it's getting better. Bottom line, you have to take care of your kids right? I just try my best to spread out the days I need to do something for the kids. I am the only one in my dept with kids (besides my male boss who has a stay at home wife), so it's toucy with some of the others, but oh well.
We go "event-by-event" and rotate who takes time off based on what's on the work calendar. In general, my job is fairly flexible (with notice) and very generous with "time"- 4 weeks of vacation and unlimited "personal time" with approval, so it hasn't been an issue.
In general, if my son is sick we take a "sick day" and stay home. We don't have the kind of flexibility that you have, but neither of us "punches a clock", so we can wiggle things as needed and with a quick conversation with our supervisors.
My schedule is crazy. I work as a nurse practitioner in a NICU. So I work a combination of days, nights, 24 hour weekends or 8 hour weekends. My husband travels every month. He is usually gone for two weeks. He try's to make those two weeks the last two weeks of the month to add consistency. When he is home his work is much more flexible, so he does those kinds of things. If I am working and something comes up I try to handle things by phone or after hours. My patient's parents really don't care about my child issues. Don't blame them at all. Their child is sick. I can't say sorry I have to leave for a parent meeting. Having said that on rare occasions when I have advanced notice I can leave for a short period of time and my collegues will cover for me. I do the same for them. I always let the person I am meeting with know what I do for a living and if an emergency occurs I wont be able to make it and I will have little time to let them know. In case of illness, in the past we had a nanny I could have stay with the child. Now I have only one child that I can't leave home alone. So I pray that illness occurs when my husband is at home or not at all. It's hard. Some schools are more working family friendly. One school required the family to volunteer 45 hours per year. The sign ups were always between 9-11. Many of the "meetings" were from 2-3pm. I assume this is a great schedule when one parent stays home, doesn't work if both parents work.
My husband works in a different city and state from where we live and the children attend school. (Husband's commute is 1 hour by train.) In case of emergency, I'm the point parent. We do have some others listed for emergency pick up if necessary. We have teenagers so it is a little easier than when they were little but I have very little flexibility but I do have alot of time I can use on the books for when the kids are sick or get sick or whatever. It works because it has too. It is what it is.
