Coffee Shop Connections
Coffee Shop Connections
Navigating the Trenches: Tales of Working Moms and Work-Life Balance
Picture this: it’s 3 a.m., and the soft hum of a laptop mixes with the rhythm of a baby monitor. Sound familiar? Welcome to our world and the reality of many working moms out there. My co-host, Ashley, and I are back with more tales from the front lines of juggling passion, work, and family. This episode promises a candid exploration of the challenges and triumphs we face, as we navigate the balancing act of being working moms, and the importance of taking time for self-care.
Ever wondered how to define success within the constraints of remote or flexible work hours? Or how to create a supportive work culture that embraces the chaos and beauty of working motherhood? Join us as we talk about everything from full-time to shift work, and the life-changing benefits of daycare and nanny services. But most importantly, we discuss how to build trust - that invaluable ingredient that makes all the difference in our professional and personal lives.
Lastly, we dive headfirst into the deep end of work-life balance and career choices. Listen in as we breakdown the big goals into manageable chunks, share our strategies to beat job search algorithms, and talk about the importance of being there for our children amidst it all. And as if that’s not enough, we also reflect on the global pandemic - a time of great challenge, but also of profound personal growth. Here’s to realigning our values, streamlining our lives, and building newer, stronger structures that support us in our journey as working moms. Grab your coffee, settle in, and let’s chat.
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Welcome back to Coffee Shop Connections. I know it's been a little bit and we've been off on a hiatus, but we're back with Working Moms, part 2. So grab your favorite cup of coffee a biscotti and enjoy the episode.
Erin:Welcome back to another episode of Coffee Shop Connections. I'm Erin here with my co-host, ashley, and we are just so excited to be back in the podcast seat. It's been a hot minute and that mom life has been work life, all the life has been taken over, and so we are happy to be back at it. Ashley, how are you doing today?
Ashley:Oh, my goodness, I'm so happy to be back. We're podcasting, we're back, we're doing it Mom life, work, life, life, life, everything. It's been a minute I think it's been about a month since we recorded last, and the last recording was Working Moms Part 1, world Cup Edition, and so now we're going into Working Moms, Part 2. And a lot's happened in the last month. A lot's happened.
Erin:It was a busy month and one thing that Ashley and I talk about is this being a passion project for us is stress-free podcasting. So there was a time we were supposed to record and I just had a lot going on. I was like I cannot, I just cannot fit this into my day. And she was like no, no, no, stress-free, stress-free. You're good, do what you got to do. You got to get it done. You got to get it done, exactly, thank you. Thank you for that, ashley. It makes my life easier sometimes.
Ashley:No big time. And I think I can go the same way and just say sometimes it's like we just the whole idea is how can we do this, maintain the excitement that we want to still do this and not add any more stress to our already ridiculous lives?
Erin:Yes, and sometimes it's yeah, and make content for people. That's good and not, yes, terrible, exactly.
Ashley:And then also not just lose our like, not just all be business chat. We can actually just still chat too and talk non-podcast things. So it's being able to balance all that. So we appreciate you guys sticking with us through this little hiatus, but we're back and we're ready to balance things, because I think all about being a working mom is balance. I think there's a lot of balance that goes into this a lot of strength, a lot of caffeine or water.
Erin:Sleep skating better. I was going to third option, but then I decided not to.
Ashley:Oh yeah, or were you going to say an adult beverage? Yeah, yeah, that is an option as well.
Erin:Not too many of those, though not a lot. No, keep those on the minimum, just enough.
Ashley:And I was actually going to brag a little bit about my sleep has improved you probably can't tell that from my voice because it's a raspy today, but sleep has improved in our household and it is gold. And I'm like I was telling the story the other day about your Garmin watch like being at like 32% because you have more than like six hours sleep or uninterrupted sleep. I was like, oh my God, what do I do with this? My brain works, yes, what do I do with this? Yes, you don't know what to do.
Erin:You can conquer the world is what you can do, I know.
Ashley:I felt like I did so I got a lot of things done, got a lot of work accomplished. I think I got like a whole week's work done in like a day.
Erin:It's amazing, it's amazing.
Erin:I was in a staff call yesterday for my job and I've had a really rough week of sleep. Just, it's been like colds and flu season and like the whole line yards and bad dreams and whatever you want to shape your life, whatever you want to shake out of, it's what it's been. So I've gotten like zero sleep and I think I actually made this sound in my work call. Why am I doing that? I don't know. It's fine. My team, I think, likes me, so it's no big deal. I was like what is going on?
Ashley:Play into the quirks.
Erin:In other good news. I haven't shared this with you, yet I have a box of pumpkin cinnamon glazed biscotti coming your way.
Ashley:Yes, oh, that's going to be so good.
Erin:It's normally a pumpkin with cream cheese frosting and then I realized that I can't, in my sleep deprivation cannot ship cream cheese frosting at this point across country. So I had to change it up yesterday. Oh, I'm sorry. I actually almost think I might like the cinnamon glaze better. It gives it a little bit extra kick of spice. I'm pumped for you to try it.
Ashley:Well, I'm excited. It's pumpkin season. I'm a big fan of the pumpkin spice. The thieves oil, the anything kind of like homey makes it just feel like home and fall. So I'm really excited I actually started. I have your box. Be proud of me. This is what I did with that sleep.
Erin:I had the other day.
Ashley:You have, I want to say, a couple full bags of coffee, a couple bags that I really liked. That's down to the bottom, but just enough probably to make a couple cups Cool. So that should be coming. I just have to take it to the UPS store.
Erin:That final hurdle.
Ashley:That's the last hurdle, but I feel confident that that's going to happen this week.
Erin:So you've gotten sleep, so you can conquer the world and go to USPS.
Ashley:I know I'm like what is this? I can do this. I won't take me 30 minutes to figure out how to send a shipping label. You just need the address You're good.
Ashley:Exactly so. Anyways, back to working moms. I do want to touch on one thing, last thing of soccer and World Cup, because some big things have happened and I think it's worth sharing because you get some big advocacy with just balance and equality. We got what Julie Erts retired Megan Rapinoe send off in retirement she's doing her O-line reign now retirement send off, just some big stuff.
Erin:I just I know the big stuff. I was watching Julie Erts' clips and stuff of her and all the feels of exiting one For me it was soccer I got those feels back in the transition phase in anybody's life. I think you can relate to the next step. You've dedicated so much time into one thing and then you transition, even if it's not something that you like and are not passionate about. But still a transition phase from one part of life into an expert life is worth memorializing, capturing and then helping you move on, because change is hard. Even if it's exciting change, it's still change and you have to work through all of the feelings that go with it.
Ashley:Oh yeah, definitely, and I bring it up too, because when we talk working moms, that's a huge change too. It's a different, it's a whole different thing. You're leaving from when you're working and you're not having kids or not managing a household or whatever the case may be, because it could be anything. We say working moms, working parent, whatever.
Erin:Could be a new puppy in the house. New puppy oh goodness, they're exhausting too.
Ashley:New puppy, new cat, whatever you have, whatever you choose, Just seeing what this new phase of life brings you too. Talking about the fall, I know we both get really almost like looking back of like oh, those good times back in the fall where we're getting our butts kicked through two days and then it's just you go through that phase of life where it was like you had your schedule set out for you, you had everything done, you had your people, your team, the highs and lows, the failing coming out of that failure. I just think it all intertwines and so I want to bring it up, because it's that time of year and I do reminisce quite a bit around right now.
Erin:So some nostalgia going on. I think it's a good segue into your vision, right? So I think it's important for leaders and moms to really focus in on what is your vision for your life? What is the vision for your company? What do you want it to look like? How do you define success within your life or your company? Either way, whether you're looking at it from a personal lens or corporate lens, having that strong vision of what success looks like can help you define how you can make a new mom or an older mom or parent, whatever it is but that defined this is going to work or this isn't going to work, right.
Erin:So Ashley and I were talking about after the last podcast. We talked about a lot of flexibility, remote work, if it's an option, hybrid options, and I was kind of thinking about well, I've definitely been in a career where hybrid and remote that was not an option. Manufacturing six to six in the office here on the assembly line, you're doing things, customer facing, retail sales, weight staff, restaurants, like a lot of businesses, don't necessarily have that option of remote work or flexing hours because you're there when the customer's there, and so I think we wanted to kind of kick this one off about talking a little bit about what do you do and how do you build your culture if you want to have a good mom base, because they are superstar people and knowing that there might be some constraints there with what you can actually offer them as a leader.
Ashley:So, before I like just go down a rabbit hole, ashley, I could talk about that for days oh man, I think this whole topic is days. But I think it's from both of us. I mean, we both have had the experience of being in places and in work structures of there is not you're showing up. I mean, I've been as an athletic trainer here on call 24 hours a day. So good luck to you having flexibility, and we've all seen the world of athletics and how that works out.
Ashley:Manufacturing I haven't done manufacturing but I did do sales and worked in customer service at Lowe's. Like you got to show up when the people are there. So and there is some flexibility there, but it's you're working on that that, the times where people are there and you have to show up. So you have to figure out what makes sense for you. So my whole point of not making sense in this little portion is playing to your strengths, knowing what your strengths are as somebody looking for a job, but also, if you're a leader and hiring, knowing the strengths of your like, of your organization, and how does that? How do those two intersect? And so let's start off with I think we start with Aaron with the manufacturing. Those really not rigid, but the structure, the setup of like there is not a whole lot of flexibility but maybe there is some, and like maybe our hours are you work retail in the middle of the night, or maybe you do the morning stocking or maybe there's something else, and maybe getting into a little bit about the different opportunities there.
Erin:Yeah, totally. So I think, first and foremost, understanding again your vision of what to find success for your company. If you need people on the shop floor in your retail office, you know set hours and you know that this is what's going to be successful for us offering up different levels of shifts right, part-time, full-time. I worked a three shift system with one of my teams or within even within that team, we had some who had different start times within the shift because it worked for that specific job. So the job coding was specific to. Instead of a 6 am start, you could do a 7 30 start and then work like be a leeway into the next shift that was coming in. So it was like a change, helping with a changeover.
Erin:I think there's that. There's also the benefits of right. If you can't support flexibility necessarily in your hours, but maybe you can support I think this is a really cool one daycare on site. Or you can support like a nanny service so if it could get sick, you can. You have like vetted, background checked nannies that you're willing to pay for for your employee in a last minute thing and give so many of those per year. So it's, you know it helps mitigate the like no, my kids, that's really cool. By the way, in school, yeah, I actually I never utilized it my old employer had this and it was just like such a cool, you know kind of like out, think outside the box, like, yeah, what, what prohibits your employees from coming to work to be successful?
Ashley:And it's like childcare childcare is a number that you can trust childcare that you can trust and afford.
Erin:Yes, and it's not like people who are going to abuse the system and use the nanny every day you get it's like almost like a PTO day, like you give it but you're providing the care for someone else. You know extended leave for parents once they have the newborn that most critical time of like sleep deprivation, especially if you're working in like a high hazard area. You don't want someone come and sleep deprived like give them a little bit extra couple weeks to recover. A couple months is preferred. Four months would be lovely.
Ashley:A year maybe, I don't know, but there are things that you can do without that, and I think the other thing is is setting the tone and the culture through your own leadership.
Erin:You know, if you have a job where someone has to be there six to six, three days a week, whatever your schedule is, you state that upfront and it's like you don't get very many exceptions, this is because of the customer, because this is a success for us. Like this is the culture, and then it's up to the interviewee to decide is that going to work for them or is that something that's not? Do they have the support system that can do that? And if not, maybe they need to look, look somewhere else. And I know for me personally, I've done I think I shared this before like every possible configuration of like work, life, mom, life balance, full time, stay at home, part time, full time, work like the whole nine yards and that's one of the reasons we're in Alaska right now is I was on a career trajectory which would have been great, would have been lovely, would have led to a very successful financial life.
Erin:And um, it wasn't the career trajectory that I wanted. It meant missing sports and events. It meant working nights and weekends. It meant missing maybe some holidays because of critical reporting times. So I decided to pivot, and I'm so happy with my decision. Financially, we're not there, but I'm so happy with my decision. And so I think it's deciding again what your vision is for yourself, what your vision is for your company, and, following a path, create your blueprint. Yeah, I was going to go back to that blueprint.
Ashley:Yeah, because if you're blueprint, if you don't match up with the blueprint you want, you start realizing that internal struggle of like I'm just not happy, but I need to have that financial stability. I mean I think that's something you need to talk about too is like we have to have a job to have income, have health insurance, to be able to live. And so sometimes, when that struggle comes and you're like, oh gosh, like I don't know, like I'm missing things, that we're able to afford things. Is there a way like really look at your blueprint, look at your values and I always bring this back to staff. I bring it back to like myself too is like what is what am I missing? What do I really want to achieve? Like I want balance, I want flexibility. I want to model that for my staff too. I want to be able to give them that. And then, if it's not working, why isn't it working? And so in like the in the manufacturing world and I can't speak for this, but you have to have like I would not be successful in that world because I like my hybrid work, I like being able to work from home and be in the office, I like to offer that flexibility and I'm going to feel where, when I hire a lot of young moms, I have a lot of young parents too and just parents trying to manage, and it's always talk about I'm not going to do something that I can't offer you either.
Ashley:So it's modeling that culture from the beginning, like, hey, let's talk about how do you balance things. And luckily, like in the in the world of therapy, we can go like, hey, you don't have a nanny from this time to this time. Okay, let's figure out where you can schedule. Maybe we do really early morning work, telehealth for three hours, take a break, do another three hours, take a break and then do another three hours. And that's actually been really successful for people because they've been able to work around the kids schedules, drop offs. We're being able to to reach other working parents who want services but can't leave work, so they're getting their morning and afternoon hours.
Ashley:So really being able to hone in on, like what people value on both sides of the equation and how to reach your goal as a, as an employer and as a parent and then or employee, and then how to continue to hit those goals, and if you can align all three of those on both sides of the coin. I think you have a really nice thing in place, a good blueprint to move forward, and when something doesn't start working there on either side, that's when you got to reevaluate, look back to that blueprint and see what are we doing, what do we need to change or what do we need to pivot to, because at some point something's going to pull somebody one way or the other? Is this worth it, or do I need do I just need to kind of fine tune my schedule a little bit?
Erin:Yeah, and I think if you're struggling as a leader of like, oh gosh, I'm not, I'm not in that phase of life. I don't remember what the stressors are. I've never experienced that or you know, having trouble just thinking outside the box. I think this is also really cool that my last employer did was they actually pulled in a bunch of women specifically because it was so heavily male dominated and they wanted to have a bigger impact on the women's workforce. But they brainstormed every year and they came up with just a ton of ideas and not all of them were implemented, but they just had a facilitated conversation of like what's important to you, what would make you stay, what troubles are you having? And then they worked through some solutions and that's where a lot of the extended parental leave came up. The nanny for a day came up Like so engage your workforce in those conversations and see what would then fit within the framework of your business.
Ashley:Yeah, and to jump on that, if you engage your workforce, we always talk about getting feedback from the people who are doing the work. If you're so far removed from the day to day in the ins and outs, you forget, because you do have that flexibility if you're an administrator, to work remote, to work odd hours, to be able to do things at home, to interface with other people while you're on the road your main staff don't have that opportunity. So really to remember how you got there in the first place is a huge piece of like that growth and that feedback from your staff, because you might not be thinking like oh well, maybe, maybe we should have like a gym involved at work. Well, no, they need something different. They need they just need that extra time at home with the kid. That's what's important.
Erin:Yeah, and I think it's. I mean just in general having those conversations with your employees. Employee engagement is at all time low.
Erin:Yeah, people are quiet quitting or quitting or not rejoining the workforce and they're going off and doing their own private enterprise, which is like good for them. But you know, there's such a labor shortage right now because people aren't necessarily seeing the loyalty to one employer because, let's be honest, the employers aren't being necessarily loyal to those employees. I've unfortunately had to lay off many people because of market conditions and at some point you become a number and that's frustrating to people. And so trying to find ways to close that gap and mitigate it by engaging in, like what is important to the employee, how can we make this a better situation for you?
Erin:And I am actually actively against like the Google model or the Facebook model or like that big tech of like let's have the pool table, let's have the nap zones, let's have the gym at work, let's have the like all the amenities, because that just keeps people there longer and it's like, oh well, you don't have to actually go live your life because we have your life here for you and I get, I get there's some benefit to it. I've used to work gym before during lunch hours. But I think like it's good if the expectation is that it's like not to keep them there longer, like, let them work their day and go home, you know, and so balance. I think modeling that and work life balance is great. I don't know. I do want to mention this. It's a, it's a plug, not that we get any type of compensation for this plug.
Ashley:Any plug we do, there's no compensation, there's no.
Erin:It's just because we think it's a cool idea or we like it.
Erin:There is a platform. So if you are a mom and you are like this isn't working for me, like I wish there, like you talk about these ideas like who's employee, like who has nannies, you know PTO, who has extended leave, things like that. There are companies who use the search platform, the mom project, and they list. It's like a LinkedIn, google job search website, but basically it works with companies who are specifically quote unquote mom friendly. So it could be a lot of remote work, it could be flexibility within the organization, within their headquarters, within their shopping, like whatever it is, but they specifically are targeting moms through this platform and they'll say they're open and inclusive to everyone. But basically it's this great avenue to see, like, who are the companies that maybe I could target.
Erin:But let's be honest when you're looking to switch jobs or pivot, it's a lot of work to get to that point and to find the new job and to build your resume and then to beat the algorithms to get your resume even reviewed by a person, and so if you are in a point where you're in an organization where there's no employee engagement, you can't brainstorm with your boss to find new avenues, it's just it feels stuck. The season of life is gonna be longer term than being able to manage through Cause. Some of it is just man. Once both kids are in school, full time, like life is gonna be easier.
Ashley:Things get a little bit easier.
Erin:Yeah, maybe you know. Maybe it's just a very short season, maybe it's a long season, maybe you're entering a season of life where not only do you have the kids, but you also have aging adults, or parents or grandparents that you're looking after and like that is another stressor and it's another impact.
Erin:But on this long-winded ramble, what I was saying was your blueprint can help you identify the things that you need to do and break it down into like one weekly activity or one chunk, and go into it knowing, like I expect this to take a year. I don't want it to take a year, I would love for it to be sooner, but in order to pivot successfully into a role that I want to have, not just the next crappy role, but like into a good transition like a good transition, an exciting transition for you.
Erin:Take your time and don't front load it Like, oh, I've gotta send out 20 resumes this week. No, send out two. Do one networking event. Find a new contact, reach out, have an interview. Question Mentorship.
Ashley:Yeah, that's good. Yes, Look at your board of leaders. Look at your leaders, your people in your closest circle. I forget what the book is, but they call it like your board of directors. I'm gonna have to look that book up. And do you remember? I remember talking to you about it, but I don't remember what the book was.
Erin:No, I don't remember which one, but I want you to look it up and tell me so I can read it too.
Ashley:Okay, it was on Julie Fowdy's podcast, so, laughter permitted, you go to one of their. They had somebody on it. They were talking about board of directors and going to those people that you trust, that have different opinions, that can be honest with you, that you go to your, you have your conversations with right To just keep you in check. Like, for example, like my board of directors are like you, rachel Joe, like people in my wedding room, like my board of directors, people I go to and talk to, and so it's like how do you just bounce ideas off and be able to be vulnerable with another person, to figure out what that means, what that next step is? Because it does take time.
Ashley:Like we talk about we get two little ones at home and it's like, well, do we just do one of us stay at home right now or do we wait? We'll get through this season of life? I'm glad you said that, because I actually mentioned something about fatigue to my doctor yesterday and she was like I think you're just in a season of life and I'm like, well, that totally makes sense. Like once my kids start sleeping a little bit more, going to school full time, some of the stress that we have right now at home disappears. And then the next conversation is how do you pick them up and get them to their you know, extracurricular activity? And realizing how important it is that you show up to those things, cause that's something we talk about a lot right now, showing up is such a big deal.
Erin:It's the importance of showing up it's such a big deal. And here's the thing is, when I go back to like my life choice of like pivoting to Alaska, I wouldn't want to change that decision ever, love my life. But you know, some of the high level leaders in the organization I was at were women, which was great, and they were applauded, routinely applauded because they would be at their kids basketball game answering emails on their phone, and I don't think that there's anything wrong with that. If that's what you choose to do and you're a driven corporate person and you want to do that like you absolutely do it. That's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be able to watch and set the time aside to watch my kids play and they do like I watch and those kids they look up.
Erin:Oh yeah, they look for you, they do, and if you miss, the thing like you're there, but if you miss the shot or the tackle or whatever, the summer salt the jump over the cone, yeah, whatever it is. And they're like did you see that mom? But did you see it? Did you see it? And you're like, oh, did I? Yeah, I did. And when you know, and you saw it, and if you get ahead of it, and you're like oh man, I saw that super cool. Then they just light up.
Erin:They light up and it is so cool and so I just I think again it goes back to the individual and what works for them and what defines success for you and your life. But it's a big deal.
Ashley:It is, it is and you know, I think, when it comes to that blueprint and working moms, I think a highlight to point out on both sides of the coin is Aaron, it's your design, your life book, and I know we'll get to this book and maybe we. Our next book is gonna be-.
Erin:I don't even know that we need to. I've talked about it so much.
Ashley:I know, but I think it's so good because I actually had brought it up to one of my employees and it just it's one of those things where, like when you're stuck in a rut, you don't know what to do, and it's let's look at it, let's bring it back to this blueprint what do you need, how do you, where do you think you're gonna be, what are your value systems? And I mean, I've even brought that idea into like sessions with people and it's been like a, it's been a game changer when people can't even fathom, like, what their life might look like outside of what they've been used to, and I think that's a really nice. It's a really nice supplemental tool to use, especially when you're having these conversations.
Ashley:If you're hiring or you're stuck in a rut, or if you're a single parent going, what do I do? Or if you're in a dual parent relationship, a household, and going, what do we do? How do we get through the season of life? Cause I think at working moms, it's working moms, working parent goes throughout your whole life, but there are certain segments of seasons of life where I think it's really hard and I think that's the aspects that, like, at least I feel like I'm really connected to you right now cause I'm in that season of life, of it's survival, and so how do you really not make those survival and quote decisions, when those decisions might not be the best decisions and you need to figure out, you know, what's not just make a knee jerk reaction, like let's really look at this. How is this going to impact? How can I recreate my schedule? How can I, you know, what do I need to like go with the moment and what do I need to focus on at the moment? I think it's really important too.
Erin:That's one of the reasons I really like design your life, the book, because it basically says that it's like don't just quit your job and move to Alaska.
Ashley:Oh no, you don't want to do that, no, just pack everything up and go.
Erin:No, it was like very intentional, it was a long drawn out process. It was a very intentional process. But it says, like it literally says in the book like you want to change something, that's like we applaud you for that. Like make change, prototype your life, see what works. But it's take a day off, work and go substitute in a classroom if you think you want to be a teacher. See what it's like, what do you like about it. Interview a teacher you know, see what they like, learn about their experience and then identify if that's something that you want to do or not. And that's just an example. But it makes you go through a set of sequencing and steps to like is this really your path forward? And it's okay to do it one step at a time and don't just pull the plug on something.
Erin:That was something my sister actually told me a lot. It was right after, when I was pregnant with my first child. I was like I just want to be a stay at home mom and she was like, okay, but you have an MBA, like maybe you should work. And I was like, no, I don't really want to. And then I was nine months pregnant and the market crashed and we had, like, a whole host of issues then ensued and we ended up relocating and I ended up staying home, which was I loved it. It was great for that season of life.
Ashley:You got to put that suit up so you didn't have to.
Erin:I know I didn't have to see that for a while. I could wear my yoga pants and my sweatshirts and be well, not a sweatshirt, because it was Bakersfield, california, it was insanely hot. It was hot but it was, it was lovely, and I just, I think, keeping in mind that you can always transition, you can always change, but it takes effort and it takes work. It's not going to happen overnight. And coming up with a blueprint of how to get there, I think design your life can really help. I think just listening to our podcast and going back to what we keep talking about in terms of figure out what you want to do, create a path to get there, take small baby steps and accountability actions to get there, it will also help you and it's be intentional with your time, no kidding, and it's.
Ashley:I can keep going back to this. I used to make map your year out, be intentional with those vacations. So guess what we've been doing to action steps to intentionally map out our vacations. And then we got four people to travel. You have to look at that costs a lot if you want to go somewhere. So do you look at those points on those credit cards? Do you look at where you can get bonus things? That's what we've been planning on, Like, hey, let's take these steps forward and really start looking. We need a break, Cause that's the other thing with working moms or in general, you need a break. You need to take a vacation, unplug, unwind, do something fun, and so I don't think we've had like a really true vacation in a long time, and so it's like really we moved. You know it's-.
Erin:Moving is not a vacation. That is not a vacation that doesn't count.
Ashley:you know, starting new jobs, you gotta save up some of that stuff. So really looking at and being intentional about we're planning this so we actually do it, I think is another piece of just really balancing out that work-life balance.
Erin:Yeah, and I. There are a lot. There's a lot of things that I dream about. I can be a dreamer, I can vision out all day, but where the rubber meets the road is taking your steps, and so, again, that can be for a leader in your organization. What do you want it to look like? Do you want to be more mom friendly? How do you do that? Maybe your first step is surveying your moms, or surveying parents in general, and seeing what parent hardships there are out there. And I think that if you give your team a platform to give you feedback in a way that they feel comfortable, because if you hold the platform for them and say, here's your chance to speak up, and then you either don't implement anything that they come up with and you shut- them all down and they're not gonna trust you.
Erin:Or you give them a chance to speak their mind and then you give them like a we can't do that. They're not gonna say anything. So you have to go into it in a very good way and maybe it's where you get an outside facilitator to do it for you, so they feel like there's a free space to talk and give you the feedback.
Erin:Maybe, it's a survey and an actually anonymous survey, but those are ways that you can take your first step If you are wanting to figure out, is there a way to make this better for my employees and again, it doesn't have to be just parents, it could be Anybody just engagement in your organization.
Ashley:Yeah, and I think since we're coming off of COVID, I think you see organizations trying to revert back to how times were before COVID and they're realizing the workforce doesn't want that. We have been able to be successful without it. So really this might be a really good time in general, just to look at what are people looking for. What are you looking for? I mean, are you trying to revert back because that's what everybody else is doing and that's what the articles are saying to do? But do you really need that brick and mortar? Or know your company, know your business, know what you need to succeed, and kind of go from there. What worked? Some of the stuff really was helpful during COVID. It really realigned people's values, realigned what people wanted, and I think it really adjusted on streamlining how we do business, and so I think it's just really taking everything in full session and going do we want to revert back or do we want to move forward and break those ceilings and build new buildings? Yes, abby Wambach.
Erin:Build your own building.
Ashley:I say build a building, and then some, yeah, get a rocket. But I think that's. I know there's a lot we could go off on working mom. So I feel like we hit some really big themes of balance, setting values, design your life, knowing what you want, how to be flexible. Did we miss anything today?
Erin:No, I think that covers it. I mean, like I said, I could go down this rabbit hole at any point. So if you are out there listening and you're like, please, I want more of this rabbit hole, reach out, let us know. We are on Instagram coffeeshopconnectionspodcast.
Ashley:Let us know. We love to hear from you. We're working mom, so we want to know too.
Erin:Yeah, exactly, maybe there's something we haven't thought of, ashley, I know. I've tried a lot of things, but maybe there's more that could make my life better I was looking for it Always, always, well as always.
Ashley:I hope you enjoyed your cup of coffee and that you have found yourself with a Scotty and enjoy the episode.
