Before motherhood I had been in the consulting game and when the boys turned eight months, I decided to try working in partnership with a friend. We quite quickly (more quickly than I was ready for) won ourselves some work, and I was off and running. What has really struck me about working part time is the contrast between my ‘working’ versus ‘non-working’ (and I use this term VERY loosely) days. The following excerpts are from my diary for two days last week and will give you an idea of what I mean.

Monday – non work day (HA!)

5-00am – Trying to keep Aidan quiet so as not to wake whole family. Walked around house with him until 6-30 when Regan awoke. Made breakfast for step-daughters, ironed school dresses, entertained babies in their high chairs. Husband and girls leave for work and school.

7-30am – Gave boys breakfast. Aidan tired so put him to bed. Carry Regan around for two hours while do breakfast dishes, put two loads of washing through, and vacuum floors (boys just started crawling and carpets putrid). Make up 10 bottles of formula for day. Regan to bed, Aidan up.

10-00am – Carry Aidan around while get two loads of washing off line, folded and put away. Play peekaboo for 33 minutes in attempt to tire him out. Reverse applies and I am exhausted. Regan up. Both boys in car to supermarket. Do shopping for week. Need two trolleys and takes three staff members to assist me and boys to car.

12-00pm – Cook up vegies for boys lunch. Feed them, wipe them down, change nappies, pretend I am play equipment for an hour and a half and submit to being chewed, pulled, prodded and dribbled over. At one point I go to toilet and come back to find them crawling through dog flap. Must remember to baby proof all sharp corners, get lock things for cupboards and drawers, empty spa, secure dog flap, buy covers for all the power points and get rid of all the cords on the curtains. Secure toilet seats? What else do I need to do? Must Google for advice. Both boys in bed AT SAME TIME. Have I eaten yet?

2-00pm – While they are asleep I cook tonight’s dinner, do dishes, set table. This will create an extra five minutes later on this evening. Awake already? Sigh.

3-30pm – Into car and collect big sisters from school. Greeted with requests to stop on way home (dad promised we could and we need them tomorrow) and buy project paper, soccer boots and blue zinc. Once home, supervise homework, resolve important issues (you are eleven, no you can’t shave your legs; you are fifteen, no you can’t serve Jaegermeister at your birthday sleepover), and entertain boys in high chairs.

5-00pm – Give boys dinner, bath, story, play, bottle, bed. This actually takes two hours and feels only marginally longer than the hours between 12-00 and 2-00. Sneak a bourbon and coke so fifteen year old does not see me role-modelling using alcohol as coping mechanism. Have I eaten? Really must shower before husband home. Think I had one last Friday but can’t be certain.

7-00pm – Boys asleep.

7-15pm – Me too.

Tuesday (paid work day)

7-00am – Husband dealing with babies so I sleep in. Client meeting in Sydney so up and off to airport. Have nice long shower and dress in grown up clothes (boots, jacket and skirt). Take a taxi to airport so don’t have the stress of parking or driving in peak hour. Arrive at 8-30 and straight onto flight where am given coffee, breakfast, paper and… peace. Mmmm, so cosy, so quiet. I have teeny snooze.

11-30am – Meeting went well. Provided outline of our plan to evaluate client’s business model using a program logic approach. Child’s play. One more meeting then will use the opportunity while in Sydney to do some networking and drum up more business.

12-00pm – 1-00 Delivered presentation to fifteen heads of department demonstrating project work undertaken to date. Was well received and client happy with progress. Piece of cake!

1-30pm – Lunch with some colleagues I used to work with. Go to a little place overlooking the harbour and have the pasta. Two glasses of white wine later and am off! Discuss business opportunities for three and a half minutes. Reminisce about the good old days for other 86 and a half. Will compensate by working on plane on way home.

3-30pm – Am slightly pissed now and sitting in Club Lounge at airport as flight delayed. Enjoying a champagne and thinking about joining group of business men sitting at table next to me. They are obviously on same flight and may as well make the most of time while waiting.

5-00pm – On flight and drinks are complimentary due to delayed departure time. Would be rude not to have one.

6-30pm – In taxi on way home ask driver to take me through McDonalds as need food to sober up. Have drunk way too much and need to enter house looking like composed and successful business woman.

7-00pm – Manage to evade too many questions once home. Husband seemed quite frazzled and not overly interested anyway. Feel my day has been a rip roaring success as have remembered to eat, drink and shower, dress. Feel bit sick. Boys asleep.

7-15pm. Me too.

More by Jane French

• A very bad case of Post Natal Euphoria

• Diary of a Holiday with the Family

• Ten Rules for Surviving IVF

About the Author
Jane French is a psychologist, stepmother and mother of twin baby boys and somehow she actually manages to find time to write.

A finalist in the 2009 REA Recruitment Industry Awards, the revamped job board has made it easier for job seekers to search and apply for jobs with new functionality including SMS job alerts and Facebook Connect integration.

The advertisers section has also been updated to streamline job posting and integrate with multi-posting system JobAdder. Advertisers are provided with statistical tools including advertising analytics.

“We spent time listening to the feedback from our website users who wanted a cleaner and simpler way to search for a flexible job,” said founder of Lifestyle Careers, Leah Gibbs (pictured).

Working mum Leah Gibbs created the job board ten months ago after becoming frustrated at the lack of flexible options available to job seekers in Australia. A favourite with working mothers, Lifestyle Careers now has a considerable database of job seekers who visit the job board on a daily basis.

Leah says finding a good balance between work and personal life is a growing trend for job seekers when making career decisions.

“Balancing work with family and personal responsibilities is a challenge in our busy lives. When searching for jobs online, most job seekers prefer niche job boards over general job boards because these sites offer more targeted job search results and a greater variety of relevant job opportunities.”

“The concept of working from home, flexible working and telecommuting has gained momentum over the past few years and is widely becoming accepted, recognized, and formalized across the board. All tiers of Government and private sector companies are recognizing the benefits of work life balance initiatives.”

Job seekers and employers can obtain more information at the website www.lifestylecareers.com.au

Skye Chapman has been ordered by her employer Kagan Logistics to change shifts at the Erskine Park warehouse or possibly face the sack. The company operations manager told a union representative that they have changed Mrs Chapman’s shift “because they can”.

Kagan Logistics boss Steven Hanna told the National Union Of Workers, NSW Branch (NUW) that “his job is to manage the business and the employees’ job is to manager their families.”

NUW spokesman Mark Ptolemy said that the attitude of Kagan Logistics is extremely family unfriendly and flies in the face of modern industrial laws and attitudes.

Mr Ptolemy explained, “Skye Chapman has had an afternoon shift roster since she gained her job at Kagan Logistics. She asked for the afternoon shift so she is able to gets her two kids off to school. They agreed to let her have that shift when they gave her the position. The company is now acting out of pure spite and with an old-style managerial attitude that is more suited to 1810, not 2010.”

Like many families, Skye Chapman and her husband balance their work life to attend to the needs of their children. Skye’s seven year old son has regular visits to Westmead Children’s Hospital for an ongoing eye condition. The change of shift means she will have to make other arrangements for her son.

“It isn’t a case of the company having to change the roster to suit business needs. They don’t. In fact, a colleague of Skye said he is willing to change his roster to allow her to keep her position, but the company simply refuses to listen”, Mark Ptolemy said.

The NUW has made application to Fair Work Australia (FWA) to intervene in this situation.

“Workplace laws in Australia allow for working Mums and Dads to keep some work/family balance. We feel strongly that Skye Chapman should be given an opportunity to attend to the needs of her family without fear of losing her job. Kagan Logistics management are acting in the most pig-headed and family unfriendly way simply because they feel they have the power to do so.”

Source: National Union Of Workers, NSW Branch (NUW)

Listening to Emma Grey speak at a business event recently, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind this is a woman whose got it ‘sorted’. Calm, modulated, articulate and harbouring the uncanny ability to slam you with ‘aha’ moments, I sat in a quasi-meet-the-swami mode, undulating between the fact that this is just a regular Aussie mum like me, but also an author, an entrepreneur, and someone who might just have some ‘answers’.

Answers to what, you ask? Well… stress. Weight gain or loss. Lack of libido. Anxiety. Depression. Substance abuse. Juggling ninety balls a day and dropping eighty. Tension. Disconnectedness. Family issues. Exhaustion. Overwork. Confusion. Imbalance. Lack of the appropriate amount of time for hair-styling. Possibly even hair falling out.

If you can relate to any of the above things, you’re probably just a working mother. Or a working wife. Or a working single. No doubt, you’re female. And no doubt you, like an inordinate amount of Australian women, are struggling to fit it all in.

Enter calm and modulated Grey. A thirty-six-year-old mum of two primary school age children who lives in Jerrabomberra, just on the outskirts of Canberra, this woman may just have some of those answers. Grey is currently realising a dream to work from home and have the flexibility to fit in the things that matter most – and to do what she loves; what she calls her ‘paid passion’.

WorkLifeBliss is a consultancy business born of the success of Grey’s book – Wits’ End Before Breakfast – Confessions of a Working Mum (Lothian Books, 2005) – a book that resonated deeply with many mums around the country. Funny, honest, totally relatable, the book reveals snippets of the author’s hectic journey into parenting and career – a time relentlessly fraught with the modern-day question – am I doing the right thing, and how longer can I keep doing it?

Grey was working full-time in the Department of Defence with two children under five when the bones of Wits’ End Before Breakfast came together.

“I was also enrolled in a Masters Degree and used to write about the insanity of it all, as a combination diary/self-preservation measure,” Grey tells Australian Women Online.

“I’d send these diary entries around to my friends and family by email once a week. It wasn’t until one of my sagas was overheard in a conversation between two strangers on the sidelines at a children’s soccer match that it occurred to me that perhaps there was something in these stories… so I bundled them up and sent to them to the nearest publisher.”

Much to her delight, Emma’s book was taken on by Lothian (under her former name Robertson) and the feedback she’s since received has been astounding.

“I thought women might identify with the book, but wasn’t prepared for such an overwhelming response,” she admits, “I’ve had a lot of feedback from women who found it sheer relief to have someone ‘tell it like it is’ about parenting. I think there’s a conspiracy of silence sometimes – mums struggling behind closed doors while putting on a ‘public face’ that everything’s fine – and that’s not always helpful for the rest of us.”

Grey still remembers one of the everyday moments that propelled her to write so prolifically about her working mum role.

“After dropping my daughter at day-care – having her prised off my ankle – I fled to work, ripped the bumper bar off the car in the car park (I was blinded by tears), and was crying at my desk when I found myself accidentally consuming a Lieutenant Colonel’s salad because I was so distraught about being a bad mother that I could no longer recognise my own Tupperware,” laughs the author.

Grey admits that humour was vital when penning Wits’ End Before Breakfast. Every day seemed a parody and whenever something awful happened, she’d simply take it on the chin… and turn it into book fodder.

“I recall the time I was on the phone to my boss and my daughter held up a Thomas the Tank Engine near my ear, so that I could hear it whirring. Unfortunately, a long strand of my hair became entwined in its wheels until the train was firmly affixed to the top of my head, just as the appliance repairman landed on the doorstep – luckily with a screwdriver, which he used to unsnarl Thomas before retrieving an entire alphabet of magnetic letters from inside the door of the dishwasher.”

Such giggle-worthy anecdotes are rife in Grey’s book – but they also underpin a growing restlessness amongst modern women – a restlessness that is affecting our health, sanity and our life balance. In a nutshell, women are getting lost in the ride of providing for everyone else – of wanting it all, doing it all, and – in the end – wondering if it’s all worth it.

“We’re out to prove something that isn’t congruent with ‘real life’,” Grey admits, “Rather than say, ‘I’m a mum, and I have a career, so can’t do too much more than that’, we say, ‘I’m a mum, I have a career, and I’m volunteering in the tuckshop, signing up for the ballet concert sewing bee, joining the P&C, cleaning the house myself, baking the birthday cake from scratch and wearing knee-high boots because it’s quicker than waxing. And if someone calls, needing something, I’ll probably say yes before they’ve finished asking the question… because we can have it all, damn it!’”

Sound familiar? This kind of imbalance and how to readdress it has consumed Grey, who believes a much calmer approach is to imagine having it all, spread over the course of a lifetime – in flexible, manageable doses that can be enjoyed.

“I’ll sometimes ask my clients to rate on a scale of one to ten how much they’re truly enjoying their lives, rather than just ‘surviving’ them. Then we’ll look at making some simple changes to enhance things.”

The key concept of Grey’s work with WorkLifeBliss is simplicity. During her recent talk, I could feel the lips of an entire room of women curl and purse tightly when the author began speaking about how simple it is to restructure and rebalance our lives. How basic and easy. You could have mowed us all down with a feather when she proved just that through the course of the evening. It’s an irony that a well-balanced modern life can be steeped in so many fundamental thought patterns and actions – elements that hark back to when things were more simple.

“Despite some wistfulness for simpler times, I think we’ve got the better of both worlds nowadays,” Grey tells AWO. “We’re like kids in a candy shop, though – and when we have too much, it doesn’t seem so appealing anymore and we can make ourselves ill.”

Creating a blissful work life balance is clearly something Grey has innate talent in. Not only has she developed a comprehensive and astounding insight into making life healthier and happier, the author is impassioned to share her findings with other women – which is what inspired her to start WorkLifeBliss.

Whilst promoting her book in 2005, Grey began a series of talks to women on life balance and was astounded to consistently meet women who needed help with getting it all together’.

“The overwhelming majority of women I met seemed to be in various degrees of ‘drowning’. There was a time, five years ago, when I was one of them. I recall lying on my bed, publishing contract in one hand, divorce papers in the other – staring at the ceiling with acute glandular fever and thinking ‘what am I doing?’ Bit by bit, I clawed control back over my life, my family, my identity as a woman – the works.”

When Grey experienced how much richer my life could be, just by making some really simple thought pattern changes, she took the unnerving step of leaving her secure job in the public service to set up WorkLifeBliss. Since then, she has began helping other women transform their lives.

“I haven’t looked back for a second. If I won Powerball, all I’d change would be snazzier business cards… this is a passion.”

Essentially, WorkLifeBliss helps clients work out what they want and how to achieve it. Anything from finding passion for career or building tighter-knit families. Sometimes it’s about developing stronger personal and professional relationships or uncovering ‘me’ time, but overall, Grey believes her business is really about bringing together the things that matter – thriving careers, personal lives and families.

“I think an important step for women is to start thinking about ‘life design’ – to look closely at what choices will bring us the deepest levels of satisfaction across each part of our lives. Not only is this a very individual thing, but it’s something that morphs and grows and changes as we move through different stages. Being open to these changes, and to the opportunities and risks that they bring for our health, wellbeing, careers and relationships, is the key.”

A recurring theme that occurred when I witness Grey at a business event, was the ‘buts’ and ‘what-ifs’ posed by many women, who often feel ‘trapped’ in their frazzled lives. Having Grey point out basic concepts along the way, every one of us realised our life imbalance was mainly self-created – either by saying ‘yes’ to too many things, fearing we’re not good enough, repeating past patterns, getting hooked on being needed, giving in to guilt, or any of a number of other simple but usually deeply-embedded causes.

“When people say, ‘my life is crazy’, I’ll ask them what choices they made to cause this. It can be quite easy to let go of the things that are holding us back, once we understand what they are – and very liberating!”

There is a pure dichotomy between the meticulously researched and presented material Grey handed us at this event, and the sheer simplicity of it. The depth and thoroughness of the ideas behind her concepts honestly made me peep with glee. I will never forget the list she handed us – a list that helped us plan our lives from most important to least important. You can imagine my amusement and horror when I realised this entire list could have been reversed for me – what a slap in the face it was to see I’ve been living my life upside down.

Not any more! And you, too, can start living the right way up. Here is how Grey suggests you fill in 2010’s schedule (in order of importance):

• Buy a new diary, make a nice cup of tea and spend an hour or so going through the blank pages, ‘paying yourself first’.
• Schedule in all the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ events you’d love to experience in 2010. Think about what would be on your ‘bucket list’, and book in some experiences to look forward to.
• Book in those salsa dance classes or the jewellery-making workshops you were going to get around to but didn’t.
• Book in annual holidays (a third of Australians don’t take their annual leave) and tack on an extra leave day to long weekends to create regular ‘mini breaks’.
• Work out how you want to spend weekends and evenings. Set a ‘date night’ each week with your partner, even if you stay in – just to focus on each other, relax and have fun.
• Consider how many activities the children are doing and the implications on your stress levels, your finances, the family’s time together and opportunities for the kids to have ‘down time’.
• Schedule in some time for ‘you’. Set aside time to exercise, relax and wind down. Commit to these like you’d commit to a meeting.
• Ask yourself how you’ll handle the housework. If you work full-time, and your budget can stretch to a cleaner, consider this either as a regular arrangement or even once a term.
• Once you’ve gone through your diary like this, you’ll find you’re left with something approximating ‘normal working hours’. When you’ve got a dance class to get to by 5.30pm, you’ll become a lot more focussed and productive with your time at work.

As we are poised on the precipice of a new year, I am determined to take on much of what I have learned from Grey. Everything she teaches makes such blatant sense, it has given me a renewed feeling of power over the future of our family – and of my own life as a woman. Can I really have a life that includes the power trio – work, life and bliss? Yes, I can. If I release my expectations on what is deemed the perfect life – or the ‘perfect’ state of bliss – and allow life to unfold, imperfections and all. As Grey says:

“Bliss, for me, is wrapped up in family. It’s that sense that ‘all’s right with the world’, when the stars align and everyone in the family seems content with their lives, all at the same time… even if it only lasts a minute!”

Head to www.worklifebliss.com.au for more on Grey’s upcoming seminars and consultancy work or cruise her blog at www.worklifebliss.blogspot.com. Sign up for her free e-zine, packed with self-coaching strategies, prizes, articles, links and more – and her free ‘Monday Bliss Blitz’ email will really kick-start your week.

WIN! Don’t miss your opportunity to win a copy of Emma Grey’s hilarious book – Wits’ End Before Breakfast: Confessions of a Working Mum. Click here to enter.

YOU CAN BUY THIS BOOK ONLINE AT:

QBD The Bookshop – AU$24.99

Fishpond.com.au – AU$22.95

SeekBooks.com.au – AU$22.49

As part of the 2009/10 Federal Budget, the Australian Government is introducing the Paid Parental Leave (PPL) Scheme. The scheme will be made available for parents who are primary carers of children that have been born or adopted on or after 1 January 2011.

An eligible person will receive taxable PPL payments at the level of the Federal Minimum Wage, currently $543.78 a week, for a maximum period of 18 weeks. In most cases, the person will receive the payment through their employer.

An income test of $150,000 will apply based on the primary carer’s adjusted taxable income in the previous financial year.

PPL will cover employees, including casual workers, as well as contractors and the self-employed. If a primary carer returns to work before they have received all of their PPL entitlement, they may be able to transfer the unused part of their PPL to another caregiver (usually the father) who meets eligibility requirements.

Eligible families can choose whether to participate in the scheme depending on their individual circumstances. Families electing to participate in the scheme will not receive the Baby Bonus (except in multiple birth cases) or Family Tax Benefit Part B during the 18 week PPL period. The dependent spouse, child housekeeper and housekeeper tax offsets also will not be available during this period.

New mothers who are not eligible for PPL will continue to receive, if eligible, the current forms of family assistance (including the Baby Bonus).

To be eligible for the PPL Scheme, the primary carer must:

• have continuously been in the workforce for 10 out of the 13 months prior to the birth or adoption date of the child

• have completed a minimum of 330 hours of paid work within a 10 month period.

The FaHCSIA website has a range of information on the scheme, including:

• Q & A for employers

• Booklets on Australia’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme – Supporting working Australian families (PDF, 0.43MB)

• Implementing Australia’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme – employer, employee and community consultations (PDF, 0.207MB).

Source: business.gov.au

Social researcher Mark McCrindle explains, “Potentialists are the one in five Australians who demonstrate a clear ambition to live a rounder life – one that mixes traditional career success with a refreshing appetite for new experiences. They are looking to make more of what they have, rather than always wanting more and display an optimistic attitude that has previously been most associated with Generation Y.”

“They are moving away from status purchases, such as designer items and lavish dinners, to investing their time and money into activities that offer personal enrichment, such as new skills and hobbies. When making a purchase ‐ whether it is technology, travel or entertainment ‐ people want the added bonus of an enriching and often educational benefit.”

When the GFC hit our shores in the later part of 2008, many Australians were forced to work fewer hours or to take annual leave. For many it was an opportunity to re-evaluate their lives and to find out what was really important to them.

Mark McCrindle told Australian Women Online, “The term Global Financial Optimism sums it up because these are the people who don’t think crisis, they think opportunity and optimism.”

According to Mark McCrindle signs of the trend have been growing for years, but it took an economic downturn to force so many to re-evaluate their lives.

As a result of the GFC four out of five Australians say they have re‐evaluated what is important to them and nearly two in three are more determined than ever to live life to the full. This growing desire for fulfilment can be seen with just under half of Australians citing they would like to discover a new skill, while more than a third would like to tap into their talent or explore their artistic or creative potential.

The American Express Social Insights Report found that while more than half of Australians reported wanting to spend more time enjoying a hobby, Potentialists aim to take it one step further and are turning their hobbies into a part‐time career.

“Working from home is one of the key drivers of what we call the ‘hobby-preneurs’,” said Mark McCrindle. “Turning a hobby into a business is a way of having it all – of fulfilling your potential and turning something you really enjoy doing into an income earner.”

The study also found that Potentialists are not constrained by typical demographics. They are both men and women and they are not defined by age or income. While strongly represented in the 30 to 34 age group, they are just as likely to be in their late 40s or early 50s.

When it comes to location, the research showed that Potentialists are most likely to reside in Brisbane which had the highest proportion of those who fit the Potentialist personality type, followed by Melbourne and Perth. Despite having the largest population of any city in Australia, Sydney only managed to rank fourth among the capitals.

Mark McCrindle explains, “Sydney is a global city and it is the business capital of Australia. It’s where people are based in the head office and where they are more likely to be focused on their careers. Those who are more attune to the work/life balance and looking for a sea-change, have already made such a shift and so I guess you’d say Sydney is a little more hard-bitten when it comes to the old hard work approach.”

The American Express Social Insights Report revealed that over half of all Australians would like to develop a better work‐life balance, but it is the Potentialists who have evolved the traditional notion of work‐life balance in this country. The Potentialist is nearly twice as likely as the rest of the population to define work‐life balance as variety, rather than working less. These people will actually change the structure of their work to achieve success in other interests, rather than just using their weekends or after work hours.

“The ABS has been tracking the growth in multiple job holders and there are more people in Australia who have more than one job than ever before. It’s not so much that people are wanting to work less hours, as much as they’re wanting control of their hours and wanting to take charge of their work life and multiple jobs allow people to do that.”

“The working from home hobbists are still working full-time roles and then running the hobby on the side. So again, it’s not that they don’t want to work, they’re prepared to work harder but they just want to enjoy their work and they want variety in their role.”

When it comes to work/life balance, Mark McCrindle says employers are much more receptive to flexible work practices than they use to be.

“Over the last decade we’ve seen a lot of companies working hard to engage with their staff to provide flexible work practices such as, different work schedules and transfers to different areas, just so that staff can have the variety.”

“We’re seeing companies offer more training and not just work skills training, but sending employees to motivational courses and providing personal coaches, life coaches, personal development books and that sort of thing. This is all part of the Potentialist trend and employers have realised to have a good employer brand, they really need to engage with this group and offer them more than just a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”

“We are also seeing a lot of senior leaders not wanting to model that 60 hour week behaviour and actually saying look, we need to respect our staff and respect their health and their families and their relationships, so we’re not going to model or encourage extreme work practices.”

Corrina Davison, Vice President of Brand, Loyalty and Rewards, from American Express adds, “We now have a better understanding of the impact of the GFC and it is clear people want a rounder life, mixing career with hobbies and new experiences. We are seeing this with the increasing number of employees taking up volunteering opportunities at work and making the most of flexible work arrangements so they have the time to follow their passions.”

American Express will be holding a three day festival of potential from 3 – 5 December 2009 on Pyrmont Bridge (at the swing bridge over Cockle Bay) in Sydney. The festival will include a major community art project that will give people the opportunity to explore their inner artist and help others in the community to realise their potential.

American Express is also giving readers of Australian Women Online, the opportunity to realise their potential with a Red Balloon voucher – click here for details on how to enter.

Photo credit: tomas del amo – Fotolia.com

After 25 years in banking, including her most recent role as a Vice President with Citibank, Kate Frost (pictured) joined a colleague in the not for profit sector six years ago. Today Kate Frost is CEO of the YWCA in NSW and despite earning only a fraction of what she use to earn in banking, Kate says she has never been happier.

“The not for profit sector is a growing industry and the calibre of people who are joining us is just incredible. For me I guess the opportunity to make a difference has really over-taken my desire to generate a large income,” Kate Frost told Australian Women Online.

“Six years ago I was a corporate banker with Citi Group, happily living a very nice life with my husband. Then one day my PA was trying to pull me out of a meeting because my husband Simon had had a heart attack and I needed to go to the Royal North Shore Hospital. I remember driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge thinking ‘Oh my God, if he dies what am I going to do?’ As a result of this we both decided to take some time out and went overseas for a year.”

“When we came back from overseas we really started to re-evaluate our lives and it was my choice, after being approached by a colleague who had recently joined The Smith Family as their Chief Operating Officer, to join the not for profit sector.”

“Working for the bank had allowed me to set up a very nice lifestyle and money isn’t the thing that drives me at this time of my life. There are things I get out of this industry that I would never hope to get out of the banking industry. I truly believe that we can make a difference and helping people at those critical times when they absolutely need support, is what drives me now.”

YWCA NSW delivers programs related to a number of issues that affect the health and well-being of individuals and families. They provide practical support to the homeless, the unemployed, people in serious financial difficulty, and pregnant teenagers with no skills and nowhere to turn. The focus is on early intervention and getting to people when they’re young, before they fall through the cracks.

One area the YWCA is focusing on is breaking the cycle of ‘generational violence’. Exposure to violence and violent behaviour can be passed down through generations, and YWCA NSW works to break young people out of this cycle before they get caught in it. This is done through mentoring, training and leadership coaching.

“Our work with the disadvantaged is a two-fold approach, providing them with the knowledge and skills so they don’t fall through the cracks, but for those who do, we’re there at the other side to pick them up and offer practical assistance,” said Kate Frost.

“The YWCA is a global brand in 132 countries which impacts 25 million people. Here in New South Wales we are a $17 million business. We run two hotels, employment and training services, and a childcare centre. The profits from all of these businesses get re-invested back into our community services to help disadvantaged people.”

Although her husband Simon, returned to banking, Kate says her career change has had a positive effect on them both.

“We often have conversations at home about what’s happening in the not for profit industry. We don’t have kids and one of the challenges when you don’t have kids is that you don’t actually know what’s happening in the community. When I was a banker, The Smith Family, Mission Australia or St Vinnies would come to the front door and we’d give them fifty dollars, but I didn’t really care where the money was going. So this opportunity to understand what’s happening in a broader sense and being exposed to a number of people with business backgrounds who are now in the industry, has really changed our life.”

Working for the not for profit sector has brought Kate Frost into contact with people in the community she would never had met had she continued to work as a banker. Not only has she been getting an education about the disadvantaged in our society, she has also been exposed to a wonderful group of volunteers.

“I met a lovely lady at our Annual General Meeting recently who had been volunteering for the YWCA NSW since 1954. She came from a business background and in those days it would have been really challenging, but she worked her way up through the ranks, and she had always had a vested interest in what was happening in society and in her community. She is still vibrant and a contributing member of our community.”

“We also have a senior ladies group that comes together about every six weeks and I think the youngest of them is probably around 80 years of age. When I grow old, I really want to be like them – they inspire me,” said Kate.

With so many volunteers over retirement age, one of the challenges for not for profit organisations like the YWCA, has been finding ways to engage the younger generations in activities so they too will want to get involved in the community.

“Recently we took the senior ladies group out to our community hub in Ambarvale near Campbelltown. We call it the Yummy Cafe and it’s a place where anyone can go, which has healthy nutritious food and the other not for profits come and deliver their services. The Benevolent Society bring their mobile playgroup and the local council brings their mobile library and we do a weight loss program there. It’s basically a place where people can come together and get some sort of support and actively engage with other people.”

“Hopefully we’re also going to see more corporations position themselves as an employer of choice, offering opportunities for some type of employee engagement through volunteering or workplace giving. The X and Y generations are demanding that type of corporate responsibility when they’re choosing who to work for. When I first joined the not for profit sector it was just getting started, but it is now becoming a critical part of the recruitment process more and more.”

Another challenge for the not for profits has been engaging the corporate sector, particularly during periods of economic downturn.

“When I first joined the industry it was either a sponsorship or getting a cash donation. The industry is now moving towards multi-tiered, multi-faceted partnerships, where organisations start to invest in the not for profit sector. For example, we had a consulting firm give us ten days of free consulting to review our business risks; and we had a building company provide project management skills for a development we doing in the hotel.”

“Some organisations have some capacity to give volunteering time and that’s always incredibly valuable. Some will share their networks with us to deliver our message and that’s also really important. And some are able to give some dollars. So we’re seeing corporate partnerships being developed on a much broader sense then what was the case when I first joined the not for profit sector.”

For more information about YWCA NSW visit the website www.ywcansw.com.au

The EOWA’s Business Achievement Awards recognises those organisations that provide excellent workplace initiatives and conditions, as well as individual leaders who are setting the scene for diversity and the advancement of women in their workplaces.

Initiatives from the organisations shortlisted for a 2009 BAA include the following:

AstraZeneca provides a school vacation care program that is run for two weeks during each school holiday period. The program provides a solution for parents in the shortfall between 12 weeks school holidays each year and the four weeks of staff annual leave.

PepsiCo has successfully implemented a Work Life Quality program. The linking of key performance indicators to managers’ pay and performance evaluations ensures work life quality is a way of life at PepsiCo, and has resulted in a 50% reduction in voluntary employee turnover.

INENCO has initiated a series of Women’s Forums at its operations around Australia to promote consultation, individual development, and support career growth. These forums have fostered a mentoring program for women and have led to an acceleration in career paths for women.

Johnson & Johnson Medical provides three months paid parental leave and offers employees the opportunity to retain their company mobile and laptop so they can remain connected with the business. Employees on parental leave are invited to attend company events and meetings with their child and the company subsidises travel costs for the employee, their child and a carer.

Michael Luscombe, CEO of Woolworths has continued his support of targeted and specific initiatives focused on increasing the levels of women in management and which has resulted in a significant improvement in the proportion of women executives from 16.7% in 2004 to 27.0% 2009.

Professor Mandy Thomas, Australian National University supports the Academic Women’s Advancement Fund, which finances a gender issues group, a quality time fund, a mentoring program for women and a women’s writing workshop. She has also developed an Equity Project Office and a Carer’s Career Development Assistance Fund which assists staff with caring responsibilities to attend major national and overseas conferences and seminars.

The BAA awards ceremony will be held at Dockside in Sydney on November 11th. The Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek will address the 400 attendees and Giam Swiegers CEO of Deloitte will deliver the keynote address.

The winners are selected by an independent judging panel comprising Barbara Pocock – Director of the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia, Sally Moyle from the Australian Government Office for Women, and Mark Goodsell – Director NSW Branch of the Australian Industry Group.

EOWA’s 2009 Business Achievement Awards are sponsored by Australian Industry Group, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Exxon Mobil Australia Pty Ltd, Freehills, IBM, the Australian Government Office for Women, and are supported by Suited for Work.

EOWA is a Federal Government statutory authority which administers the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Act (1999). Employers of 100 people or more are required to report to the Agency on the initiatives they take within their organisations to advance women in the workplace. EOWA works with employers to improve equal opportunity outcomes for women in Australian workplaces.

For more information visit the website www.eowa.gov.au

Related Article
EOWA announces winners of Equal Opportunity Awards 2009

Ms Frank said, “Paid parental leave will make a big difference, but as some of the doubters have raised, on its’ own, it won’t be enough to keep good women in the workforce and reduce the economic impact of women leaving. We need to get practical and educate women on how to come back to work and most importantly, help them believe that they can do it!”

From an employer’s perspective, Emberin’s my mentor – parental leave program tackles head on the issues associated with women not returning from parental leave and will go some way to help reduce this significant cost to business.

The parental leave guide has been developed in the same style as Maureen Frank’s highly successful my mentor suite of programs, as a self-paced course delivered by DVD, CD and workbook, and can be easily undertaken in an intensive day or over a couple of weeks.

The program has been developed in partnership with Telstra and Swinburne University of Technology and has been created specifically to help organisations provide a guide for their employees on how to manage parental leave, both personally and professionally.

Designed to motivate the participant into coming back to work in some capacity, the program takes a pragmatic and practical step by step approach and includes setting goals, plans and budgets around parental leave.

The creator of the program, Maureen Frank, is well credentialed on the subject, having raised twins as a single working mother and reached high levels in her career as a former Telstra Business Woman of the Year and BRW Rising Star.

Ms Frank said she is concerned that sometimes women did not appreciate that parental leave is the tipping point for them and it can have far reaching future economic impacts for women.

“The ‘tipping point’ of parental leave is a key catalyst to reduced economic security for women and it is one of the reasons we are more likely to see women in poverty in Australia than men.

“It is an economic reality today for women in Australia to have to go back to work after having their baby, but the elephant in the closet is that most women actually do want to go back to work and they just need some guidance and support on how to make this happen, because, let’s face it, it’s not easy!” said Ms Frank.

“I’ve put this program together to help organisations help their employees maintain their careers, consider flexible working arrangements and other strategies, in order to ultimately help employers retain their female talent,” she said.

Ms Frank said with a high proportion of the workforce being female, organisations need to adopt education and training strategies specifically for women in order to see a better return on investment with their existing talent, and also to create better work cultures and more dynamic results.

“One significant key to seeing more women being retained and advancing in organisations is to have strategies aimed at ensuring their talent pool of women returns to work after having a baby. After all, the Government has now budgeted to spend $260 million on this per annum from 2011, so it is a big issue and we need to address it.”

The program includes a DVD featuring tips from leading Australian corporate women including CEOs, leading public servants and high ranking employees from the Australian Navy.

Maureen’s top tips for returning to work after parental leave are:

1. Returning to work doesn’t always go exactly as you think it should. Plan to be flexible and give yourself a break.

2. Plan some “dry run” days with day care or your child carer the week before you return.

3. Plan to start on a Wednesday so that you’ll have only three days of your new routine the first week.

4. If you can, take advantage of some sort of flexibility – at least temporarily throughout the first few weeks. You can use your parental leave consecutively or incrementally throughout the first year of your baby’s life.

5. Sleep deprivation is real. Adjusting to the office again can be difficult on a few hours sleep. Try to plan for it by maintaining healthy eating habits and getting as much rest as you can, when you can.

6. Make sure you have several backup childcare contacts in place.

7. When possible, particularly in those first transitional weeks, plan to ‘outsource’ as much as possible. Is grocery delivery available? Delivered meals? A part time housecleaner?

8. Be clear on the roles between your partner and yourself.

9. Make sure you and your manager are clear on what starting expectations are and what the role will entail.

10. Get rid of the guilt associated with leaving your child – remember, you will be a better mother if you are a happy mother.

my mentor – parental leave will be available from October 1 and forms part of a greater suite of my mentor programs, all developed in partnership with Telstra and Swinburne University of Technology, including:

• my mentor – challenging women to step up
• my mentor – manager
• my mentor – alumni
• my mentor – mastering gender leadership

For more information visit the website www.emberin.com.au