Despite coming such a long way, society still expects women to mostly be the ones to have to prioritize their family and children over their work.
In the case of working mothers, 31% of women without the proper support structure for domestic help often provide full-time childcare than 17% of working fathers. More than 44% of working mothers work for extra hours, subtracting the business hours in the workforce resulting in a loss of focus for children at home. 46% of women work till late to make up for the work. According to Government reports, the absence of daycare options forces women to choose between attending the workplace and full-time childcare at home. Since women are expected to prioritize their motherhood over their work according to social norms and very few men are socialized to help around the house, balancing work and childcare becomes difficult.
Addressing this problem, companies in the post-pandemic situation are focusing on extending paid leave to parents. Numerous companies have decided not to open offices in the post-COVID situation until school reopens. Some also provide paid maternity leave to their employees. However, most of these policies are extended toward women of higher strata working in renowned corporate offices. Apart from that, all companies should be bound by Government policies to bring definitive changes to facilitate balanced working life for working mothers irrespective of the hierarchy.
Following are the changes some companies have made to their policies:
1. Maternity leave: This is a crucial step for working moms. However, six months of full pay maternity leave should be provided for the mother to balance both working and personal life. It is better to provide employees with facilities than to lose quality workers for good.
2. Work From Home Facility: For the mothers to become productive, they get work from home facilities. According to surveys, most working women quit jobs post-maternity leave since they find it difficult and become torn between managing both working for the office and working for childcare.
3. Flexible Working Hours: Mothers on Work From Home are provided with flexibility in working hours. Since taking care of a child can not be scheduled and it is a full-day service, flexible working hours can give them the liberty to determine work schedules and log in and log off as per their schedule.
4. Medical Assistance: Since the mother wants the best treatment for her child post-delivery, some companies provide childcare benefits and medical assistance for the mothers to balance their life. Working mothers can produce quality work if they can be stress-free, and therefore, this policy is benefitting the companies as well.
5. Facility for bringing children to work: A few organizations allow new parents to bring in their infants for stress-free work.
Since a company’s employee satisfaction is of great economic and image benefit for the company’s global standing, they must consider the new needs of mothers and make useful adjustments. Above all, companies need to be empathic toward the working moms to bring out the best in their employees.
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