Dropping the kids at school this morning I looked around at all
the working moms looking so pretty and done-up while I had on my workout
clothes and a scrunchy hair tie around my wrist and it got me thinking; how
many moms work because they need to make ends meet and how many work because
this is what they're meant to do and what they have always desired to do?
How many get up in the morning, do their crazy morning routine of getting all the kids fed, dressed, and out
the door while doing the same for themselves...not to mention preparing lunches
and snacks? How many do this and are happy to fulfill their
ambitions and how many curse their financial needs to have to put them above
their wants of staying home with their kids keeping
the home-fires burning instead of having to re-stoke them when they
get home after a very hard albeit satisfying day’s work? I'm the latter
mom; I'd be cursing all the way through my morning routine, all the way to the
office, all the way to the coffee machine... Come to think of it, I did this
even before I had kids!!
You see, my career picked me, not me it. I was in staff recruiting and sales for 12
years. I made a very good living at it
and had great people working with me.
But I didn’t wake up every day looking forward to the work day. There was a lot of “cold calling”…that’s
calling strangers in high positions and trying, in the 30 seconds they’d allow
you, to win them over long enough to allow you an additional 2 minute sales
pitch. If you got through that without
hearing a “no thanks” or, worse yet, the ominous click of the call being ended,
you would lay out your hoops and begin jumping through them with the hopes that
if you do it well enough, the person or people you’re peddling to the manager
will get their turn at the hoops (interviewing). In the beginning of my career this happened
once every 10 or 15 calls and more often than not, at the end of the process,
I’d get contracts signed and staff placed.
Toward the end, though, in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when things
weren’t so great in the country, that number was more like 20 or 30+ calls
before I’d get the courtesy of the two minute pitch and that number climbed
significantly for hoop-jumping opportunities.
Because I was in the ‘contract’ business, once a consultant was placed I
then had to make sure everyone was happy doing their job and everyone else was
happy paying them (and me) for it.
Sometimes I’d get yelled at…by everyone.
Sounds like bliss, yes?
It was never a “sexy” career; even at its height. People didn’t have a whole lotta interest
when I told them what I did for a living.
They’d either nod in that polite, “good for you” kind of way or wrinkle
their noses and say, “oh, so you’re a head hunter”. Ugh! Anyone in staffing hates that expression! “Um,
no, I’m in staffing”. “Right, same
thing.” Aargh! “Yes, same thing.” [jerk] Not many high school seniors dream of one day becoming a staffing sales
consultant. Human Resource
executive? Maybe. But “head hunter”? Not likely!
But back to the topic at hand!
If the timing had been different and I’d become pregnant with my first
child while still working (I was taking some time off using some of the
unemployment money I’d been storing up) and the industry was like that of the
early to mid 90’s, I’m sure I would
have been a working mom. I never even
considered otherwise. Many, if not most
of my friends were so it was basically a no-brainer. I thank Heaven that the timing worked out the way it
did and that we were financially able to survive on one income because I’ve been very happy being with my kids this far. But it wasn’t a hard decision for me to
make. Like I said, I wasn’t living the
dream doing what I was doing; I didn’t go to school and log in umpteen hours
learning a skill that would be wasted staying home. I never felt like I was wasting my education
or my skills staying home though understandably, I think many women would and
do feel that way. I don’t think there’s
anything wrong with that. On the
contrary, I think staying home and feeling like you’re doing yourself an
injustice is doing yourself and
injustice and in turn, an injustice to your family.
So because you all need my permission, I grant it! You have my permission to MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY
by donning a business casual outfit and heading to the office, or scrubs, or a
fire helmet, or a police badge, or an apron.
Make no excuses for your choice; if you have an excuse or feel you need to
make one, I’m thinking maybe you didn’t make the right choice so take another
look. I’ve never regretted my
choice. I’ve got plenty o’ regrets, but
choosing my current career path is and never will be one of them.
(So how many of you have a scrunchy hair tie on your wrist right
now?)
~Eileen Cassidy Bishop
