Family Friendly Environments, University 0 Future Employment Opportunities 6

As a single mother going to school it is sometimes a challenge when your professor assigns group projects. Although group projects can be usefull to teach teamwork, time management and leadership finding the time in an already booked up schedule can be difficult. Finding time can be a problem for anyone with a an extra job or other comitments, but poses a more challenging problem for single mothers. Many single mothers rely upon child care centers to watch thier children. Most child care centers close at 6. That limits avialablity for scheduling group meetings. This is not to mention the guilt that a single parent may feel if they ARE able to find a sitter.


As a single mom about to graduate in only a few months I am beggining to think about employment and employers. How family friendly will my employer be? What types of programs out there should I be looking at to know that my employer cares about being family friendly?


According to Managemment-issues "the U.S. lags dramatically behind all other high-income countries, and even behind many middle- and low-income countries, when it comes to protecting – or even acknowledging - the family lives of workers." It based this on a report by Harvard and McGill University researchers.

Working Mothers magaizne said in "Working Mothers 100 Best Companies 2009" the programs that make companies good for families are things such as telecommuting, flextime schedules, jobsharing, compressed work weeks, help with child-care needs and sick-child care. The article breaks down the top 100 companies and what they offer.

What do some of these programs mean for a single mother?

Telecomuting is when a parent can work from home. Their home office would be set up with everything they would need to work from home. Thier may be scheduled days to meet for meetings but on average the parent would be working from home and so able to manage thier time better.

Flextime schedules is when all workers would have set times to be in the office during the day and then the rest of the hours are up to them. Possibly it is easier for you to work early in the morning or later at night. It works well for those who have a large chunk of time like when children are getting out of school that they need to be home but then could work later.
Job Sharing is when two proffessionals that want to work only part time share a full time position.

A compressed work week is when a worker works more hours a day but less days a week. Typically 4 days of 10 hrs.
Although at the collegent level there really isn't any programs set up for extra work such a group projects for single mothers like me it is comforting to know that there are employers thinking of people like me! Although the U. S. may be behind other countries it is still encouraging for me to know I can look for companines that value these programs and I can utilize research to explain what and why these work for employers who do not.

Super Single Mom Moment: Hope and preperation!