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As I write this my 6-and-a-half-month-old daughter is sitting on my lap in my home office, where she spends an hour or two each day. Despite all the toys Ive laid out for her, the thing she typically reaches for is my keyboard, occasionally leading to the odd typo. Ive been a freelance journalist for about 12 years, but never has this work-from-home, choose-your-own schedule arrangement been so valuable. Last year I was able to be with my wife at almost every doctors appointment, ultrasound, and blood test before we became parents in April. Since our daughter was born, I have enjoyed the flexibility not only to make it to every pediatrician appointment and give my wife a helping hand during the day but also to be a part of important milestone moments. I couldnt imagine having to walk out the front door each morning, only to return a couple of hours before bedtime in the evening, but of course that is the reality for most working parents. That is perhaps why solopreneurship is so popular among those with kids, especially women, and particularly those stepping away from extremely demanding careers to start or grow their families. Studies in Australia and Canada have found that many workers make the transition into parenthood and self-employment at the same time, and research even suggests that self-employed mothers outperform those without children. Being more present at home and work When her first child was born, Fernanda Chouza went in the opposite direction, taking on a more challenging role at a fast-growing AI startup in San Francisco. Over time Chouza says she earned the respect and leeway to take time off to care for her kids, but then she got laid off in 2022, when her kids were 2 and 4 years old. As I looked at hyper-growth companies, I realized I would need to put in, like, two years of elbow grease to get to the point where I can take a week off for my kids, she says. The idea of starting from scratch was too hard. Instead, Chouza started a one-women marketing agency called the Launch Shop, offering fractional product marketing expertise to software companies launching new products. Previously, Chouza says she spent many hours at work feeling guilty for not being home with her kids, and many hours at home worrying about whether she was dropping the ball at work. Now I have full flexibility. I don’t have to be constantly apologizing for stuff, and I only show up when I’m at the top of my game, she says. When I’m off, I’m fully off; I don’t have anxiety on the weekends, I don’t have anxiety at night, and I can be a lot more mentally present with my kids. Though she doesnt enjoy the same kind of equity-payout potential, Chouza says her salary is about 50% higher than her previous earnings, while providing significantly more time off. Previously, she said she could take two or three weeks off a year but was expected to be responsive on email and Slack during that time. Thus far this year, Chouza has taken a week or more off from work on eight separate occasions for reasons ranging from her kids eye infection to a two-week trip to visit their grandparents abroad. In corporate, I would have had to grovel and apologize for any time off, she says. It felt like I was being penalized for being a mom and they think of me as a liability, like Were always making so many accommodations for Fern. A side door to new career opportunities Perhaps one of the most unexpected benefits are the kinds of clients Chouza has worked with as a solopreneur. She says most companies are hesitant to hire executives in the current market but still need short-term support, making a contractor with corporate experience a viable option. By being fractional Im actually punching so far above my weight, she says. I would have never had this exposure if I was just trying to go through the front door, but Im coming in through this side door and getting these amazing logos on my résumé and this amazing experience. That is perhaps one of the most surprising benefits for those who step away from the workforce to start an independent venture while raising a family. Though many choose solopreneurship for the flexibility, they often discover that it can also offer a bridgeor even a ladderback into the traditional workforce. You can think of it as not necessarily I’m going to build a startup that’s going to pay me a lot of money, but Im going to write a story for myself that professionally fills those years, explains Kyle Jensen, the director of entrepreneurship programs, and associate dean and professor in the practice of entrepreneurship at the Yale School of Management. I created something new, I operated it, I ran it, and through all of this I developed all sorts of executive acumen and business sense, and maybe some software skills. Professional benefits aside, Jensen also says part of what makes solopreneurship so appealing to parents is the ability to trade some of the financial rewards for time. With this manner of entrepreneurship, you can treat your human capital as a luxury good, and you can choose different distributions of time that allows you to enjoy things that are important but not necessarily prioritized in our societylike parenting, he says, adding, The only person who’s going to remember that you worked extra hours are your children.
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E-Commerce
Its a random Tuesday in October, and your kids are home again. A national holiday? Nope. A snow day. Not even a speck of frost on the ground. Its Professional Development Day or Parent-Teacher Conference Half Day or one of the 15 other noninstructional days that appear in the school calendar like little landmines for anyone with a full-time job. At this point, Ive stopped trying to keep track. Every month seems to come with a surprise, theyre home moment. And as a working parent, there are few phrases that strike fear into my heart quite like: No School Today! I love my kids, but that doesnt mean I can drop everything every time the school district decides teachers need a day to recalibrate. I want their educators to have the time they need, I truly do. Its a job I dont have the patience or superpowers to handle. But the system is still built around a 1950s fantasy where one parent is home and is available for midday pick-ups, early dismissals, and weeklong winter breaks. Most families dont live that reality anymore. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} The hidden toll of random days off This juggling act is brutal. Every day off becomes an exercise in logistics, guilt, and creative problem-solving. Whos taking off work this time? Can I trade shifts? Do we have any vacation days left? Should I call in sickAGAIN? For parents who cant afford nannies or backup care, there arent many options. A babysitter can cost more than what a parent makes in a day. Drop-off programs seem to fill up within minutes and you have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting off the waitlist. And working remote with kids running around, making noise, and needing food hardly makes for a productive day. Of course, the burden doesnt hit parents equally in cisgender households. Research shows that working mothers are far more likely to take time off or rearrange their schedules to cover the gaps in childcare. A 2023 study found that unexpected school closures forced mothers to cut six hours per week on average. Over a three-month period, that adds up to 72 hours. So, its not just inconvenient, it can have economic consequences. Most families cannot afford to bring home less money, and for single parents, this could cause a crisis. Surviving this requires even more emotional labor: coordinating carpools, texting neighbors to ask a favor, setting up playdates with a child that has a SAHM. This is about childcare and the mental strain of dealing with an unpredictable and unsupportive system. There has to be a better way So, whats the solution? Its not as simple as hiring more babysitters. We need modern policies that reflect how families live and work today. Here are a few ideas worth exploring: Community care partnerships. Check out your local YMCAs, libraries, and afterschool programs. Some receive state or district funding to offer affordable coverage on non-school days. Some cities, like Seattle, already do this. Rethink remote flexibility. If companies can pivot to global time zones and hybrid schedules, they can also accommodate parents during the school-year craziness. Family Flex Days could allow workers to shift hours without penalty. Policy shifts. Paid family leave cant just be about new babies. It should also recognize the everyday realities of caregiving. That includes the random Tuesday your second graders school closes at noon. Until the workplace and the school system sync up, parents will keep paying the price in time, money, and peace of mind. The bottom line is, we dont need parents to be more flexible. We need the system to be. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2015\/08\/erikaaslogo.png","headline":"Girl, Listen: A Guide to What Really Matters","description":"Ericka dives into the heat of modern motherhood, challenging the notion that personal identity must be sacrificed at the altar of parenting. ","substackDomain":"https:\/\/erickasouter.substack.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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E-Commerce
Seeing peers lose their jobs has a way of making people weird. Its not much different from grief. When someone loses a loved one, you can almost feel the tension: people fumbling for the right words, hoping not to say something insensitive, then saying something insensitive anyway. Everything happens for a reason. Theyre in a better place. That is, assuming any condolences are shared at all. Many of us have been there. You dont want to overstep. Dont want to make the person feel worse. I get it: Showing sympathy can feel like a minefield. The same thing happens when companies downsize their staff, only the loss isnt life. Its employment. When someone gets laid off, its a kind of corporate death. One day, youre working alongside someone, swapping memes on Slack, surviving the same back-to-back meetings. The next day, their desk is vacant, their Slack photo appears black and white, and their email account forwards incoming messages to whoever has inherited their responsibilities. Ive been on both sides of this situation, a casualty and a survivor. Ive seen folks who are lucky enough to evade the chopping block minimize, deflect, or disappear. Its not that people are cruel. Theyre uncomfortable. Layoffs remind us how little control we have over our own jobs. And in that discomfort, we forget the person in front of us is going through some real s**t. I remember working at a startup in a contractor role that was cut abruptly after nearly a year. One acquaintance, a guy named Tyler, stopped by my desk to check in before my last day. He somehow made my departure about him: Were already such a small team, I dont know how they expect us to get all of this work done. I rolled my eyes. Another well-meaning coworker at least showed concern. But after offering some empty platitudes (When one door closes, another opens), she asked an unanswerable question: What are you gonna do? I wanted to say, I dont know, Janice, probably stress-eat a pack of Oreos, go on a weekend bender, and then obsessively scroll LinkedIn for my next job, but I just kept it to the first four words. What stung the most was the colleagues who suddenly acted like I was contagious. Youd think I was on Power the way these people suddenly went ghost. You can feel that void, that interrupted rhythm of virtual or real-life interaction. I assume they probably dont know what to say, so they say nothing. Its still wack. Heres the thing: Its not all that difficult to show up for someone who is suddenly out of work. You dont have to fix their situation; you just have to let them know you see them. Ask how theyre doing. Validate their feelings. Tell them something youll miss about them. You dont need a motivational speech. A simple, Thats awful, Im really sorry youre dealing with that, can mean a lot. Instead of clichés like, Youve got this! offer your presence. If you want to talk, Im here works just fine. Get specific about how youd like to be supportive. Let me know if you need anything rarely goes beyond lip service. Instead, offer to share job postings you come across or connect your newly unemployed colleague with contacts at companies that may be hiring. If appropriate, you can even offer to serve as a reference. Those suggestions are baseline, but my former boss at the aforementioned job did something small that went a long way. In my final leadership meeting, she carved out time so other managers could express kind words and farewells. One by one, they spoke about my poise under pressure, my witty emails, that one project that I managed to perfection. I felt appreciated. It reminded me of the impact I made over a short period of time. It reminded me that I would be an asset in my next gig. When Ive seen layoffs up close, Ive noticed something: The people who show up make all the difference. Its not about having the perfect words. Its about presence. Jobs come and go. Titles change. But the way we treat each other when things fall apart? Thats what people remember the most. The Only Black Guy in the Office is copublished with Levelman.com.
Category:
E-Commerce
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