Sydney Williams, a global director of brand marketing and mom of two kids under the age of 3, knows how devastating the pandemic has been for working parents, especially mothers. To illustrate how difficult it is to juggle a career with raising her children, Sydney created a “mom resume” that details her skill set.
She begins with her “About Me” section, noting how although she doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing most days, she finds ways to adapt. “I maintain the highest level of energy and creativity I can muster so that the people around me feel safe, valued, and inspired,” she said. “I’m human, I lose my shit and have bad days. But I start each morning with a new sense of optimism: today will be a good day, today we’ll do more, today we’ll have a breakthrough.”
Related: This Mom's “Heart Sank” After Her 6-Year-Old Son Made a Drawing of Her Working From Home
Sydney then created a bulleted list of her skills that she’s honed while parenting her sons, and it’s nothing to scoff at:
- I do everything you do, but I do it with one hand. Literally. I hold onto what’s important (hint: my baby) with all the strength I have in one hand, while juggling the 1MM daily tasks of life in the other. I ruthlessly prioritize. Every day, I grow stronger and more efficient as a result.
- I think ten steps ahead. Each day is a 50+ piece Jenga puzzle that I manage with skill, strategy and luck.
- I maintain positivity, while my patience is pushed to the limit. My team has meltdowns, emotions run high, new challenges arise daily. I lead with compassion, listen to debate and encourage resolution through compromise.
In addition, Sydney explained that she leads with empathy, communicates powerfully, and values collaboration because “teamwork is key” to her success. Lastly, she shared that she manages her tasks without expecting much appreciation. “I do it all with very little ‘Thank You’ and wake up each morning to do it again because of my capacity to find the joy and love in my work,” she said.
Although Sydney acknowledges that writing out her parenting duties illuminates just how much she’s balancing on a given day, she knows that she’s hardly alone in her experience. “My Mom Resume isn’t unique,” wrote Sydney. “I have no doubt that the Moms within the 156,000 women who left the workforce in December hold many, many more of the evasive skills we look for in our teams, colleagues, and leaders. Something is fundamentally, catastrophically broken if we are letting this type of talent leave the workforce.”
She continued, explaining that if we valued all of the skills that parents bring to the table in the workplace, the economic landscape would look different. “Perhaps if we shift the way we evaluate, prioritize, develop, and protect the skills we learn outside of the office, Moms would have a fighting chance.”
