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“As much as employers really want to be helpful and recognize the issue parents are having,” Pryor said, “there is also the economic reality that they can’t afford to pay people who aren’t actually being productive and pulling their weight.’’ But being too inflexible can cost businesses current workers as well as future recruits. “For organizations who are not providing the flexibility and support to work from home with children present, more than one-third of parents plan to quit within the next year,’’ said Brett Wells, director of people analytics at Perceptyx. The Perceptyx survey also found that women in senior leadership roles were 1.5 times more likely to say they plan to quit within the next 12 months. ‘No more boundaries’ But for Traci Wells, quitting is not an option, financially or emotionally. “I’ve loved being a working mom ,’’ she said. At the office, “I’m fully engaged and present, and when I come home ... I’m the person who didn’t check emails in the evenings or weekends unless it was absolutely necessary.’’ But since the spring, the office, the classroom and her family’s home have all merged “like there were no more boundaries,’’ Wells said. “We’re all at home in a small space trying to make things work.’’ When it became too much, Wells said her manager went to bat for her, encouraging Wells to take the leave allowed under the federal medical leave act when she was unable to take off under a similar university program because she was deemed an essential worker. “I didn’t realize how bad it was until I took the break,’’ Wells said of the pressure she’d felt juggling work with her added responsibilities at home. Before her leave, Wells tried to create an office out of her bedroom, but “sometimes there was literally no place to go,’’ she said. “The baby would be napping in one room and the older kids are on calls, and my husband would be on an interview and I’d have a meeting (all) at the same time.’’ While her husband has been helpful with household chores, he would sometimes forget to put their daughters on their scheduled calls. Wells was the one the girls came to with questions about their Spanish homework. And then there was her young son, whose preschool was also closed at the time.
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The Business Review | September 2020
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