Reconciling, 5 ideas for working mothers and fathers
The conciliation worries us all. It is a topic that is talked about again and again in different spaces, especially those related to motherhood and raising young children. Online and in the park especially, but it goes further. Where is that mental stability if our jobs do not even allow us to take care of the children? Surely leisure is reduced to nothing. And that is not healthy.
To reconcile is to be able to raise the children at the same time that we perform in a job, but it is also to have time to live besides working, living with our family, if we have it or "simply" going out for a walk, going to the cinema or seeing the TV on the couch. It seems that all those things that have to do with leisure do not matter if we do not have a family. But they do matter a lot, because a large part of our mental stability depends on them.
Many employers impose their own measures, such as not hiring women of childbearing age. Nor do they hire them older because they are too old. What is translated in not hiring women without more and having an overwhelming masculine staff.
Reconciliation is not a matter only of mothers raising children under 12 years of age. All men and women have to reconcile work with life constantly because we must not forget that any worker is also a person. Of those who have sick parents, who can get sick themselves or have an administrative problem that will force them not to go to work several mornings.
Ideas to reconcile work and family life
The reconciliation of work and family life should be a reality by pure logic. What is not understood is that it is not. There are many proposals in the network to make working conditions compatible with life, here are a few:
- Rationalize the schedules: It does not make sense to have two hours, sometimes more than food. It does not matter if there is a wonderful gym right below the office that offers discounts to workers. The reality is that it takes less than half an hour to eat. Shortening this meal time would mean leaving earlier.
- Earlier entry. If each company could judge what their best schedule is, the ideal would be for it to adapt. If we work with Central European countries, possibly the most appropriate work time is from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with one hour of food. If the company's schedules were not so rigid (from 9am to 7pm), excess traffic at peak hours would be alleviated and productivity would be optimized. In any case, not all companies work with other countries. Many do it only at the national level. Changing the schedule would be as simple as changing the time.
- Do not work overtime and even less not justified. Goodbye to the culture of heating the chair. In other countries it is frowned upon and there is no lack of reason: the worker who fails to do his work in his contract hours has one of these problems; or he does not know how to manage his time or his boss has assigned him an inadequate workload. Conclusion: doing extra hours means that someone is doing their job badly.
- Flexibility of the schedule, assuming that every responsible adult should work the hours that appear in his contract. Regardless of whether you enter at 8 o'clock or at 9:30 o'clock. If the departure time is related to the entry time, the company does not lose and the worker does not either. At this point many will think that "many companions" would escape from work. Really? Many? Surely they are not the majority, but only a few who call the attention sovereignly. Most workers are responsible who want to do things well.
- Telecommuting. The great concept arrived. Not everything can be done from home and is more difficult to control. It is true, but many things can be done from home and it is good that it is so. Many companies have proven that workers who have this facility are more committed to the company and are more productive.
Surely there would be many ways to encourage companies to take these or similar measures. Is not it true that cold readings do not seem so outlandish?
Diana Martín
