Consultant and mother: how to manage these two activities on a daily basis?

Let’s affirm it loud and clear! It is quite possible to combine a rich professional life as a consultant with being a mother. Even if the preconceived ideas on the subject remain delicate to erase, simple and useful adaptations can be quickly implemented within the couple, the family and the office. As a consultant and a mother, how do you manage these two activities on a daily basis?

In a business that is predominantly male, especially in the IT sector, it is not uncommon to have to finish late at night and take files home. This is even truer when you’re just starting out. Indeed, the consultant must adapt to the requirements of her client. This lack of visibility on the day’s schedule inevitably makes family life and its daily organization more complicated. After a few years of experience, a consultant is less exposed to long working hours. As a result, some of them often prefer to postpone having children until this more propitious time. Frequent travel is also a consideration. This is a real constraint for a consultant, especially when she’s a mother.

Some companies implement special policies to facilitate the recruitment of young female consultants, starting with part-time work or telecommuting opportunities. The Syntec collective agreement, to which ESNs belong, provides for a right to disconnect, enabling employees to better reconcile their personal and professional lives. Having a free day in the week, reducing commuting times or no longer being constrained by work schedules means you can devote more time to your family. In fact, theseemployer-initiated incentive policies seem to be bearing fruit, as the proportion of female consultants has risen sharply in recent years. Home location is also increasingly taken into account in the placement of consulting teams at client sites in order to limit travel time. Telecommuting is becoming an increasingly widespread concept among customers, and therefore also applies to consultants placed with them. Within the family unit, and more particularly within the couple, things are also changing. Indeed, it is now established that children are not the exclusive responsibility of the woman. By entrusting the children to her partner more often, a consultant can devote more time to her business.

To be a consultant and a mom at the same time, a few changes in your habits can certainly help you. For example, a working mum may be looking to free herself from time-consuming daily tasks by hiring an in-home housekeeper. She also gets up earlier than her children to enjoy a quiet moment. It’s also possible to reconcile a fulfilling professional career and family life without the slightest guilt, thanks to a well-developed sense of organization. Use the methods you already apply in your company (anticipation, planning, etc.). If you take public transportation, make good use of your travel time either by taking care of personal matters by e-mail or by taking advantage of this time to give yourself a break before picking up your family (reading, surfing the web, writing to your friends…). Avoid bringing work home whenever possible. This place should remain the sanctuary of your family. Finally, give yourself some time for your own personal hobbies to relax, let off steam, chat with friends or watch a film. To avoid the stereotype of subway / work / sleep, these moments of relaxation are important. You can place them on your lunch break or block off 1 weeknight. At SQORUS, we have an equal number of men and women, and have set up a number of initiatives to promote work-life balance. As part of our HR policy to promote work-life balance, SQORUS has signed two company agreements on occasional teleworking and the right to disconnect, in addition to our parenthood charter.