How to Hack it as a Working Parent: or, should your face be bathed in the blue glow of a phone at...

How to Hack it

As a Working

Parentor, should your face be bathed in the blue glow of a

phone at 2 AM?

Margaret Heller, Christina Salazar, May Yan //

2.11.2015

Image credit: John Flinchbaugh (CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Traister, Rebecca. “When Will We Stop Punishing Working Women for Having Babies?” Text. The New Republic, February 2,

2015. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120939/maternity-leave-policies-america-hurt-working-moms.

“...an American woman’s earnings decrease by 4

percent for every child that she bears….[A]fter men

have kids, their earnings increase, on average, by 6

percent… [F]athers are more likely to be hired and

to be regarded as more competent employees than

mothers.”

Timing Your Baby

(Extended) Parental Leave

How long of an extended leave are you talking

about?

Canada

Mandated Leave with Benefits (varies by province)

17 weeks (maternity leave)

+ 35 weeks (parental leave)

= 52 weeks

Why think about leave planning?

❏ You are a parent-to-be

❏ You are in management or administration

❏ You are thinking of starting a family one day

❏ You are human and might one day get sick

“DOCUMENT ALL

THE THINGS! You

won’t regret it.” @cattsmall

Create a manual of your job functions

Get important documents out of your own

computer

● Keep the systems simple

● Findable and Usable is important

● Commit to maintaining it

“Stop Emailing Me”

<a href=

”mailto:group.email@mpow?Subject=Not

asking an individual”>I need help!</a>

Hiring Replacement & Cross Train

Creative Division of responsibilities prior to

hiring

● Look internally first - Cross Train

● Overlap as long as possible to train prior to

leave, and to debrief at the end of leave.

● Try to keep your external hires

After you come back from leave

Getting to Leave by 5:30

● Getting Things Done (David Allen, 2001)o Projects => Actions

● Fixed Schedule Productivity (Cal Newport)o Focusing effort => Deep Work

Ruthless Time Management

Easy Project Management

Norton, Quinn. “Against Productivity: This Essay Took Four Years to Write.” Medium, November 7, 2014.

https://medium.com/message/against-productivity-b19f56b67da6.

“This moment’s goal of productivity, with its

all-consuming practice and unattainable

horizon, is perfect for our current corporate

world. Productivity never asks what it builds,

just how much of it can be piled up before we

leave or die.”

This slide left intentionally blank.

Thanks! Let’s discuss this more!

Margaret Heller

@margaret_heller

mheller1@luc.edu

Christina Salazar

@InphoManiac

christina.salazar@csuci.edu

May Yan

@mayyan

may.yan@ryerson.ca

Special thanks to Jaclyn Bedoya. Look for our forthcoming article about this topic in Code4Lib Issue 28.