While some people may think being a working parent compromises your ability to be a good employee, we're here to prove them wrong.
That’s not to say non-parents are not good employees either but let’s look at why working parents are good employees (and give you a giggle along the way)!
They are multi-taskers.
Any parent will know the art of multi-tasking (and yes, we know this means you aren’t giving your full attention to anything). Parents have little choice but to try their best to juggle all the balls in the air at once, so this means checking the kid’s homework while cooking (burning) the dinner or chatting on the phone while peeling fruit for the kids.
In the workplace, this makes for quite a good skill as parents could be sending emails to clients while managing an office dispute on cleanliness in the kitchen!
Parents are good mediators.
Sure lookit, everyone knows the workplace can get a little crazy with Susan leaving her fish in the fridge for a few days! We’ve all being there, and parents are well-equipped to deal with such occurrences while other employees may start planning for Susan’s dismissal.
A parent is good at calming things down, so they’ll pull aside the frenzied workforce and chill them out nicely with promises of chocolate in the afternoon. Parents know how to manage a crisis after all and throwing chocolate around solves a lot of issues just like when the kids are catapulting themselves off the sofa at home!
They have good leadership skills.
Parents need to be in control otherwise the kids will run loose, smear chocolate spread in their hair and climb out of bed for the hundredth time. Now, admittedly all these things happen in parenting (it’s normal after all) but parents are great at getting the kids under control and letting them know who is leading the pack (yes, we know this sounds ridiculous as we all know the baby is the boss of the house)!
Parents need to be in control otherwise the kids will run loose, smear chocolate spread in their hair and climb out of bed for the hundredth time.
For workplace situations, this means parents will be a fine example to the workforce and lead them into meetings with gusto. Of course, there will always be one who doesn’t like being told what to do but then leave them in the naughty corner!
They don’t sleep much so more time for thinking.
As a parent, sleep can be hard to get so this leaves more time for parents to consider work (or whether they’ll ever sleep again). Honestly, they’ll use the time to plan for busy days or come up with some great ideas.
Parents grow used to lack of sleep and spend their time drinking coffee which will make them alert, conscientious and perhaps, a little twitchy (but we like to call it “energetic”).
Parents are quick.
As parents have little free time, they won’t waste time overworking on jobs as they just want to get the work done so they can get out the door. They won’t overanalyse the budgets and they certainly won’t spend their afternoons in work planning a fishy surprise for Susan. Nope, they are all about the ‘in and out’ with their trademark professionalism and intelligence (although they are tied to the childminder, so you know yourself).