Top Ten
Strengths of Workplace Reentry Women
Women returning
to the workforce often sell themselves short, partly because of society’s view
that if you’re not in the paid workforce you are “doing nothing”. The other
part of this equation is because after a few years of dealing mainly with
children and duties around the home, many women find own self esteem and self
confidence is low as to what they have to offer in the world of work.
But as any savvy
employer knows, a woman returning to the workplace brings with her extremely
valuable skills and qualities.
Here’s a top ten
list of the gifts, the blessings, the strengths that Workplace Reentry Women
bring with them to the workplace ….. whether they know it or not!
-
Multi-tasking:
Any woman running
a home, and family has to be able to at least 16 different things at one time!
Next time you see
young mother in the grocery, with a couple of small children take the time to
observe how many tasks she in undertaking at one time. Probably these will
include remembering what she has to buy, finding it, putting it in the buggy in
a way that young hands can’t find and destroy, squish or smash it, making sure
one child doesn’t climb out of the buggy, and the other doesn’t run off and get
lost. She has to make sure the one who’s on foot, doesn’t load up the buggy
with unwanted items, dissuade them from crying because when she says no to the
candies in the candy aisle….
And that’s all
before she gets to the checkout, where neither child wants to wait, and then
getting everything and everyone back out to the car.
-
Problem Solver, Handling Emergencies, Troubleshooting:
Small problems
seem like big problems to small people! Mum has to handle endless ‘emergencies’
and some real ones too, not to mention problems such as how to get the peanut
and jelly sandwich out of the VCR (or even worse, the DVD player!) This is just
the tip of the iceberg of what an at home mum has to deal with.
-
Manager, Initiative, Self Directed:
She manages the
family, the house, the meals, and everything else around the home. She has no
instructions, no training, and no expert to turn to (unless her own mum)
-
Organized, Inventory Control:
Where is it? How
much do we need? Keeping track of everything and anything is her job too. How
do we get Jason to softball and Janet to ballet at opposite sides of town at the
same time?
-
Creative, Innovative, Lifelong Learner:
Finding ways
where no ways have been found before (to mess up the Star Trek saying
atrociously!) This needs to be done, how are we going to do it? If there’s
something you don’t know that you need to know – you learn it, you create it,
you invent it.
-
Money Management, Budgeting:
Whether rich or
‘financially challenged’, money still has to be managed and budgets still have
to be maintained. Whether it’s just the weekly grocery bill or when to buy a
designer outfit, budgeting is always part and parcel of the job.
-
Reliability , Stable, Sense Of Responsibility:
Kids trust
implicitly, and are totally reliant on mum to be there when she says she will,
and take care of what they need taken care of. Even the most unreliable of
women become much more responsible when she has a family to take care of.
-
Event Organization:
Ah, those
parties. Birthday parties, Christmas parties, picnics, even holidays – mum is
in charge of organization, making it fun and getting everything ready and put
together.
-
Mediator, Interpersonal Skills:
Kids fight! Mum
has to calm the waters, reinstate order, arrange compromises, and do it all with
a very unsophisticated audience who just want what they want.
-
Coach, Mentor, Teacher:
Mothers teach by
instructing, helping and also by modeling the behaviour the want. Mothers can
teach people who don’t want to learn it, and get it established as a habit. Now
that’s a skill! Children learn more from their parents than from school –
albeit different things most of the time. Never underestimate a mother’s role
as a teacher.
So there you have
the top ten skills. All are directly transferable into the workplace. There
are many more. But this is just taste of the wonderful gifts a workplace
reentry women brings with her when she goes back to work.
Don’t feel you
have nothing to offer – instead celebrate your wonderful gifts and abilities and
share them with the world.
