Ep. 98: Nicole Gonzalez Cumberbatch - Working Parents Working from Home

Contact Nicole Gonzalez Cumberbatch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleggonzalez/
IMA's Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/diversity-and-inclusion

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Mitch: (00:00)
 Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch Roshong and this is episode 98 of our podcast series. Today's episode features a conversation between my co-host Adam and member of IMA's Diversity and Inclusion committee, Nicole Gonzalez Cumberbatch. Nicole is a senior accounting professional with over 17 years of experience. She is an advocate for leadership and mentorship, and in this episode, she shares some strategies for the working parents who find themselves juggling various priorities on a daily basis. This timely conversation is helpful for many accounting and finance professionals who find themselves working from home and looking for some tips to better balance their time. So to hear more action that you can take, keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.

Adam: (00:52)
So Nicole given the COVID pandemic, so many of us parents have found ourselves in a unique environment of juggling our careers and family without substantial caregiver or employer support. What impact has that had on the workforce?

Nicole: (01:12)
Well, Adam it has had a tremendous impact Obviously, economically, you know, we see change drastically due to high unemployment, massive lay-offs companies going out of business. So in that aspect, it's, you know, working parents are now out of work, right? Trying to figure out how to support their families. But on the flip side of that, for working parents, especially with young children, it's been extremely challenging just recently. I read a New York times op-ed that said, there was a quote that said, “You can have a kid or a job. You can't have both.” And I was like, Oh gosh, that's so, you know, that really, I think summed up a good portion of the last seven months. And then just briefly to kind of pivot, and I know you're a male and I'm a female, not trying to be biased, but more specifically female working, working parents only because in general women are the ones who kind of run the household and they were usually the ones that stayed at home. So another statistic I have is that it said, according to this benefits platform called Cleo, one-third of working parents have already left the workforce, and that was from July, do or gone part-time due to COVID related reasons, and 70% of those parents were women. And the reason why that affects the workforce is because as I previous, previously stated, women were usually the ones that worked from home, the mentor, their breadwinners, the ones who worked out outside of the home, and you know, where the support system for the family over the past 10, 20 years, women were joining the, joining the workforce at tremendous numbers. I think recently it said it was like up 50% and equal to men in the workforce. So now we're seeing a setback of that, right? So you see women going back and having to choose. And if that is 70% of women back in July, we're in October, you know, so I'm assuming that the numbers have either have probably more so gone up, and I guess the bigger question is what does that do for the future? I know I've read articles that say, some women will not be going back because there's so much uncertainty with childcare and not having support. sSo it's, it's had a tremendous impact, and I think it's actually frightening, for what the future holds, you know, working parents in general, again, had to struggle with before the pandemic of trying to find support and balance and, all of those things. And now even more so in trying to find childcare amongst the pandemic, when, who else can watch your children, but yourself.

Adam: (03:50)
So what are some actions that parents can take, you know, to work through and to be better prepared during, as these challenges continue to come up, because as we see it, you know, the pandemics not really going away as, as soon as we all thought it may be.

Nicole: (04:04)
You know, I think first off, I think you have to surrender and accept the fact that this is what it is. And that's, I think important in all things of life, right? You just got to kind of surrender to it. I think it's kinda ingrained in us that we want things to go this way, especially as a parents in general. You know, we may want our children to act a certain way or we want to react this way, but that's just not life. And especially during a pandemic, as I'm sure you've seen and myself, you know, things just arise that we can't control. So surrender. Next I would say, adjust your expectations, allow yourself grace for the chaos and imperfect reality that's going to ensue, like we just know that's going to happen and allow for flexibility. you know, I think it's important again, as parents in general, but more so when you're trying to work from home and, and be a caregiver to your children at the same time, like you just have to allow yourself that grace and know some days are going to be more chaotic. Some days are not going to run smoothly and you just have to be okay with that. And then I would say aesthetically, you know, make sure that you have a comfortable working space for yourself and for your children, if they are, you know, doing virtual school, if you have a younger child turn on your TV and Disney plus, you know, just kidding, but no, you have to find ways of maybe creating spaces for them that next to your desk that makes them feel comfortable that mommy and daddy are right there, but they kind of have a comfortable space. And then just a few other things I would say, create a routine, this way you and your child goals kind of know what the day is like, as opposed to just waking up and be like, Hey, what's going to happen today. Make sure you have the right equipment supplies and honestly ask, ask for help. I think one of the biggest things, is again, prior to the pandemic working parents had these issues of trying to balance and finding childcare and all these things and get proper time off, and now in the pandemic everybody's having these issues. I think men are seeing the struggles women have had of trying to run a household and work while the children are kind of there. You know? so I think it's had everyone kind of slowed down and realized like, Oh, wow, this is a thing, this is something that's major. So I would say, ask for help, you know, whatever that, whatever that is, you know, that you need, but ask for help from your employer, your village, your community, and go from there.

Adam: (06:34)
Definitely. I mean, because there's so many new challenges and you kind of have to be flexible. That's the kind of the thing I kind of centered it on is like being flexible because not only do you have, you know, kids working from kids doing their school from home, but then they also have projects that they need to do and you have your work that you have to do and you have to kind of balance it all You have to be flexible and not only do we have to be flexible, but companies have to be flexible with their employees. Like, Hey, this person can't come to this meeting at this time because their kid has something that they need to help them with at that time, and they need to be able to be flexible in that as well.

Nicole: (07:06)
Yeah. And I think the struggles with the smaller companies are probably the biggest thing, like some of the biggest bigger companies, and I'm sure we'll get into what companies are kind of doing this quote unquote the right way. but I th...