Like the author I was taken aback and my answer was a blur. I also wish I had called the interviewer on the illegality of such a question as well as the ridiculousness of the assumption.
In college I worked 3 jobs, took 21 credits a semester, competed nationally on the ballroom dance team, maintained the 3.0 necessary for my scholarship, helped run the campus Hillel, was an officer in the residence hall government, had an active social life and was a member of various student organizations. No one during that time questioned my abilities to balance my workload besides my advisor who had to sign off on the 21 credits since the limit was technically 18. No one asked how I'd juggle, how I'd find time for me, if my relationships would suffer.
Am I more busy now? I doubt it. Busy keeps me busy. Idle hands and all that. I'm my most competent with a looming deadline, get all my peripheral tasks done during the prerequisite procrastination time. Whether that's homework, powerpoint presentations,memos to the boss, school lunches, laundry, grocery shopping, or bill paying shouldn't matter.
Motherhood has slowed me down in some ways. My purse is enormous and huge and I can't do as much long division in my head. Does this make me less valuable as an employee? Thankfully not in most of the fields I'm qualified for!
Perhaps this is where the supermom syndrome stems from. We feel like we have to prove we can do it all because, by golly, they are asking.
Have you ever been questioned as a mother in the workplace? How did you handle it?
I just finished reading Answering the Illegal Question - Manage Your Career in The Chronicle of Higher Education and it made me think of the time I was interviewing and was asked the looming question every mother fears: "How can you handle working when you have kids to raise?"
Like the author I was taken aback and my answer was a blur. I also wish I had called the interviewer on the illegality of such a question as well as the ridiculousness of the assumption.
In college I worked 3 jobs, took 21 credits a semester, competed nationally on the ballroom dance team, maintained the 3.0 necessary for my scholarship, helped run the campus Hillel, was an officer in the residence hall government, had an active social life and was a member of various student organizations. No one during that time questioned my abilities to balance my workload besides my advisor who had to sign off on the 21 credits since the limit was technically 18. No one asked how I'd juggle, how I'd find time for me, if my relationships would suffer.
Am I more busy now? I doubt it. Busy keeps me busy. Idle hands and all that. I'm my most competent with a looming deadline, get all my peripheral tasks done during the prerequisite procrastination time. Whether that's homework, powerpoint presentations,memos to the boss, school lunches, laundry, grocery shopping, or bill paying shouldn't matter.
Motherhood has slowed me down in some ways. My purse is enormous and huge and I can't do as much long division in my head. Does this make me less valuable as an employee? Thankfully not in most of the fields I'm qualified for!
Perhaps this is where the supermom syndrome stems from. We feel like we have to prove we can do it all because, by golly, they are asking.
Have you ever been questioned as a mother in the workplace? How did you handle it?
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