Being a working parent has always been challenging, but the pandemic has made a modern-day parenting even tougher. Nowadays, parents face a daunting task to balance work, parenting and household duties without burning out. Managing all of these responsibilities at once can increase stress, harm physical and emotional health and lead to lower productivity both at work and at home. How to ease the burden? We’ve asked for advice from Eugenie Van der Kun, our Global Resiliency and Well-being Manager based in Amsterdam and our in-house Social Counseling team from the Ias-Group based in Berlin. Sharing 5 tips and professional advice on how to tackle these challenges.
- Use visual cues to designate your work space
Does sitting down to work look more like video conferencing in the living room while simultaneously supervising English lessonsfor your kid? Creating our own work space is vital when working from home. Find a proper designated area as your work zone and use it consistently. Help your kids build the association that when you’re sitting there, you are working and should not be disturbed.
- Help kids create a routine and add structure to their day
Work with kids to create their daily and weekly schedules. Give them an opportunity to choose some of their own activities and help them be more independent. There are plenty of fun activities and crafts that can make your children’s daily routine more exciting, while freeing up your work time.
- Communicate with your manager and co-workers
If you think there will be distractions or interruptions to your calls or even workday, let your team know. Everybody recognizes the difficulty of working from home, when most of the schools, nurseries and childcare facilities are closed and children are forced to stay indoors. Your colleagues are there for you and willing to help, don’t forget this!
- Set realistic expectations of what you can accomplish
Always prioritize tasks, so that you make sure you have enough time available for completing them. Set and manage expectations early on with your team and managers. Figure out your working hours, when you’ll be most available and how much you can get done. Always remember that the quality of your work decreases when you’re rushing to meet a tight deadline.
- Reach out for help or resources
Feeling overwhelmed by tight deadlines and never-ending emails when your children ask for the round-the-clock attention? Don’t hide your vulnerabilities, especially, in the time of crisis or force majeure situations. These are extraordinary times, when we must all come together as #OneTeam (for now only virtually) to give each other a helping hand.
“Take care of yourself, go out and do something that gives you energy. For me it is running, but do what is good for you that brings you back in balance. Get rid of your negative energy and build the positive energy. Will this always work? Not with me! Show compassion with yourself in those days and hours. It is not going to be always as beautiful as you had planned it. Good luck” – Eugine
At Majorel, we recognize the importance of supporting the working parents within our teams. We take measures to ease some of their challenges by offering paid parental leave and providing more flexible work schedules, when possible. For this purpose, our colleagues from around world take powerful initiatives as part of the Majorel’s global Feel Good Program. In most of our multilingual locations, we offer psychologist sessions both one-on-one or in groups to support working parents and any challenges that may come with working from home. One example is the recent initiative from Majorel Georgia where we invited a speaker, Georgian neurologist, Dr. Nino Margvelashvili. The specialist led a webinar for our local team on the importance of work-life balance. Dr. Margvelashvili has provided science-backed hands-on advice and guidance for working parents to cope with the challenges of quarantine. Whether online or at the office, our challenges and goals bring us together and we face them courageously as #OneTeam.
Are you interested in some general remote working tips? In this article, Nicole Pinto Bolt, Recruiting and Social Media Strategist at Majorel will be sharing some of the common challenges of working-from-home and the tips to stay productive and motivated.
Read more helpful articles on HR tips and advice here.
