Given it’s August, the month with the most birthdays of the year, I thought it would be timely to talk about parenthood. Specifically how parenthood expresses itself in the context of work.
When I was pregnant with our first child, our son, we were inexplicably excited. I was four years into my career at Shell, and happily married in our first very own home. Everything seemed to be falling perfectly into place.
But I had a dilemma. I had no idea how to bring up the fact that I was a mother to be to my line manager. I was young and I felt that I needed to really show my worth at work and was worried about how an upcoming pregnancy and birth might be responded to. Every time I was close to telling my boss, I would back out thinking “this isn’t the right time”, but obviously time doesn’t stop for you and the baby was going to come sooner or later. So I realized, there’s never going to be a time that feels like the right time.
I realized that parenthood is an expectation and desire for many young individuals, and that it’s quite literally how I came to be, how my boss came to be, and how entire systems, organizations, and society come to be. Taking on the responsibility of raising a child isn’t just an individual choice, you’re choosing to take part in raising the next generation of thinkers and creators. People that will weave life journeys, forge relationships, shape future organizations, and uphold society as a whole.
So this is my message to those that are in this transitional moment in their lives, ready or on their way to becoming a parent: Becoming a parent does not take away from how valuable you are for the organization you work for. For some, it might even make them more motivated to perform as an extra layer of responsibility unfolds the moment you bring a child into the world. It can add another dimension of perspective and conscientiousness with how you manage time and sieve through priorities. And it’ll be a catalyst for many to become more efficient and effective at work in order to master that sweet spot between life at work and life at home.
