Working Mama's Work Life - Part 3

There was a joke with my husband that I wouldn't stay at a job more than a year or two...I certainly wouldn't be staying at my company for as long as my mom has - Congrats to my mom by the way as this past summer she celebrated her 42nd year at her company - can you imagine!!

After 9 months in my job as a Business Solutions Analyst for a health and wellness company I decided this company wasn't what I wanted and the commute was too much. Granted not very long but after driving 2 miles to my previous job it was a long drive every day.

A good friend of mine Joan that I worked with at SUPERVALU was a consultant for a firm in the Twin Cities. She got me an interview and I was lucky enough to get hired. This was something completely new to me but I figured hey this way I can switch jobs and still stay with the same company. Mike would be happy right?? Well I was also lucky enough to get a job right away and I started working at a Health Insurance company here in the cities. The drive was only 7 minutes from my house and I was getting paid the most I had since I graduated college. I loved the consulting firm, I loved the people I worked with at the insurance company and I loved the work I was doing.

They kept offering me a full time job at the insurance company and I kept turning them down. Until December 2008. They gave me an offer I couldn't refuse and at this point I was still working in the same position I had been since I started almost a year and a half later. So I took the job and I have been there ever since. In that time though my position has changed which has been great. I have had an opportunity to do a lot of different things and learn a ton about IT. See I told you full circle!

Work history there:
Business Analyst - working on a now legacy system used to manage people's care for government programs. I was able to learn how to write requirements documents, test documents, run meetings on my own and do some analysis on some other projects
Systems Analyst - Our role changed over at some point - I can't remember when - and we started doing much more system analysis than on the business side. I moved to another legacy project and met some awesome people. Another person that changed my life (see another post about her).
Business Solutions Architect - Our group completely changed roles and went into something entirely different. It was fun to learn the different things that I did while I was in this position. We helped projects that were across the company to make sure the solutions worked between all the systems.
IT Governance & Continuous Improvement Project Manager - this is my current position which I have been in for a few months now. I LOVE IT! It's probably the best fit to my skills that I have ever had in my entire career. I truly feel like this is what I am meant to do. I am doing analysis on metrics that we track for our senior leader. Helping our team figure out the best way to track that and how to show the status' for our senior leader. I get to be analytical and creative all at the same time!


More Later!

Working Mama's Work Life - Part 2

When the hubby and I moved to the Twin Cities from College and I got the job at SUPERVALU working for some awesome people I thought it was great. I saw myself staying there for a long time and just keeping working as an admin assistant. I had fun, I loved the people I worked with it was great.

Mark was an awesome boss. He really believed in his employees and if you worked hard then you knew he would be behind you and support you. I still remember when I first started working for him I was so scared. He was yelling at someone on his phone and I thought, oh no! what did I get myself into. The first time I had a meeting with him he told me that I needed to go skydiving in order to work for him. I thought HECK NO!! That will never happen!

Yep that's me skydiving!

That's Mark in the green suit in the plane

Well as you can see by the pictures I did go skydiving. I still can't believe that I did it, but I did. It was one of the most intense experiences I have ever had! I would say it ranks up there with childbirth. I am scared of heights and scared of planes and here I was jumping out of one at 13,000 feet. Looking back it was more than just skydiving. Mark had a passion for this that he shared with everyone and tried to get so many people to do it with him. He was out there every weekend and jumping so many times each day. What Mark was sharing with me though was a valuable lesson that I think of all the time. He taught me that we can do anything we set our minds to. If you want to do something whether in your personal life or in your work life you can achieve it once you set your mind to. He helped me learn the confidence that I needed to have and that I could be whatever I wanted to be.

From my job with him as his assistant he gave me opportunities to learn more about the supply chain industry. I also because a Business Analyst because of him. He allowed me to work on a project that he was the sponsor for and I learned so much from those few years that I worked on it. I met a lot of cool people doing it as well and I use those skills in my job every day now!

Mark left SUPERVALU and soon after that his passion for skydiving was what took his life. He passed away in a tragic skydiving accident. It was heart breaking to me. At this time I had moved on from SUPERVALU to another company - that wouldn't have been possible without his support. I owe my career to this man that believed in me and knew he could trust me with the work he gave me. I know you are watching over people Mark and I just want to thank you!!

Keep an eye out for part three next Monday....

Working Mama's Work Life - Part 1

I figured since this blog is called Working Mama I might want to write about more than just the mama part. Lately I have been thinking about my life and a lot of what if's. I wasn't thinking that I would change anything, it was more thinking, what if such and such didn't happen would I still be here today.

I had a rough start in college. All my life (and I am talking from when I was super little) I wanted to be a veterinarian. I had even drawn up how my clinic was going to look and how many kennels I was going to have. Then I got into High School and realized that I had a different type of brain and that science and math weren't totally my thing. Heading into College I had really NO idea what I was going to be. So what did I do - Started out as a Computer Science Major...seems that I have come full circle.

My college days went like this:
Freshman year - Almost got kicked out (my GPA was a .75) I was a computer science major, psychology major and then I had no idea.
Sophmore year - Decided on my major after taking a women's studies class. I really wanted to be a Women's Studies major.
Junior year - Added on a Communications major onto my women's studies major.

I think my parents had a mild (okay maybe a major) panic attack when I told them this - what are you going to do with that major. I had planned on working for some cool non-profit and eventually opening up my own after school girls program (which is not totally out of my mind today).

Anyway - fast forward after college, and during college I worked for not 1 but 2 really cool non profits Dads and Daughters and New Moon Publishing. I met a lot of really cool people and was able to work there until my Hubby and I moved to the Twin Cities.

I came to the realization that living in the cities was expensive and that jobs were scarce. So I temped for awhile and that's how my time in IT started. I was an Administrative assistant for a really cool guy Mark. He was one of the best bosses I have ever had! I really owe him a lot. I owe him where I am today.

More later.....

Working and Pumping

I have been working and pumping since November 2010, going on 5 months now and I haven't really had many stumbling blocks or problems with it in the workplace. There are many women who have problems. They have to pump in rooms that don't lock, or rooms that are janitor closets or even bathrooms. They have to pump while driving, or in their car. They have managers who don't understand and don't want to give them the breaks. Even though this is the Law. Work places are supposed to offer women a place to pump that is NOT a bathroom. They also HAVE to give them the breaks within their day. We have come a long way, but have so much farther to go. 

Until this week that is. I started out in November working in the office 3 days a week and at home 2 days a week. My job is great and is very flexible, so it's been wonderful. The office has a great Mother's room. It's the best I have seen at any of my jobs and really only two of them have had them. There are two rooms that you can schedule. It's all through Outlook so it's nice. I have a 3 appointments the day I am in the office one at 9ish, 12ish and 3ish. It was working wonderful and then my work schedule got crazy. So after a discussion with my boss she allowed me to work from home 3 days a week instead of the 2. It allows me to pump whenever and not have to worry about scheduling the room.

Our Mothers room is awesome. Like I said it has two different rooms with locks on them. It has wireless or plug in for computers and a phone. We also have a microwave and a fridge along with a sink so you can wash the pump parts. It's super nice! We also leave notes for each other and have a great group of mothers.

It's all been going well like I said until this week. I had a training class at our corporate building...I was prepared and found out there was a mothers room over there, found out that I just needed to talk to the person at the front desk by the conference rooms and schedule it. What I didn't know is that it was going to be booked up. Yep that's right booked up, and it was the same as ours, but not through outlook. through the desk and it's also was only available at 10 and 3:30.

Day 1 of Training:
10:00 comes around and it worked out great. Our break from class was at 10 and I was able to go down there and use the room. The room consisted two cubicles with desks. It too had a phone and a cord for your computer, but you were in a open room with cubicles. If the Cube was occupied you had to turn a sheet of paper over to indicate as such. Not ideal!

12:00 came around and it was our lunch break. I walked all the way downstairs to the Women's locker room to use that - because the Mothers room was full and I was told that was "backup" for when it was full. Well first I didn't have access ,but once I did have access, it would have been better to go to my car. I know I would have felt more comfortable. In the locker room there was 1 plug in - Yep 1 plug in. and that was on the bench by the lockers. Which was by the showers as well. So I had to sit in the open, exposed pumping. not even a room nothing. The mothers room here was a dream vacation compared to the locker room. But I pumped, and I got about 4oz....which is a LOT lower than I normally do.

3:00 cam around - Well the Mother's room wasn't available at this time, so it was back to the locker room. and this time there were two people in it, so needless to say I was a bit uncomfortable! It was so not ideal.

Day 2 - I thought well at least I can get one of the pumpings in the mothers room at 10 and then pump at lunch in the locker room and then we are done around 3 or 3:30 and I can either pump or go pick up Gabby.  But of course it couldn't just work out all that nice could it? My instructor had to go and change the break time to 9am instead of 10am. So down to the locker room I go again at 9. This time at least there wasn't anyone there. I didn't pump that much because I had pumped like 8oz this morning at 6 when I woke up (Gabby slept the entire night! except for getting up at 1:00am).

Then at our lunch break I went down there, there were two people in there, stressed me out some and I ended up only pumping.about 3oz. So total for the day I pumped 15 which really is about normal. Except 5oz of that Gabby ate this morning. So I didn't pump what I normally do to keep up.

All in all it was a stressful week for pumping. I plan on contacting our HR department and informing them of this situation. I am supposed to be provided an area to pump that is not a bathroom and technically the locker room is a bathroom....It's amazing what we have to go through to pump milk for our babies. I really have never had a problem. It makes me not want to take anymore training classes here until I am done pumping. or at least down to less than 3 times a day.

Wish me luck with the talk with HR.

Staying at Home Vs. Working

I want to note before I get into this blog post that no matter what people choose to do it's what works for them, neither way is wrong/better etc.

All throughout my life I always thought that I would be okay with working and having a family. I grew up with a working mother and she showed me that it can be done. She went to school, worked, took care of her mother, myself and my dad and the house. I honestly don't know how she did it (Thanks mom! You were great!!), but she did it. She was a great role model. My grandmother also worked outside the home as well and raised 7 children. 

Throughout my college career I never thought that I would want to be a Stay at Home Mom. Why would I want to stay home with my kids when I could have a career as well. However now that I am in the actual place of having to decide if I want to be a SAHM (Stay at home mom) or a working mother, I am starting to resent the fact that I HAVE to work. I hate the fact that I have to drop her off at daycare and leave her in someone else's hands all day long. I hate the fact that they get to see her smile all day and all I have is pictures. I know that I truly couldn't be a full time SAHM, but I just wish I could do it part time. I know that daycare helps her socialize and learn some news skills that she wouldn't learn while home with me, however I really wish I could be with her.

How do women balance keeping up the house, taking care of their children, maintaining a healthy relationship with their partner and finding time for themselves. Something has to give and I have been finding that for me what's giving in is the time for myself and also the time with my husband. An example of that is Wednesday night we were both home. I was spending time with the little one, while trying to clean up the house, decorate the house (so I could put the xmas boxes away). Mike was also cleaning upstairs the entire time and we kept crossing paths. When we got her down to sleep we finally had time for each other, but by then we were both totally exhausted that we just crashed out on the couch and watched TV. 


Don't get me wrong I LOVE LOVE being a mother, but to balance all this is just crazy. It wouldn't be so bad if there were another 5 hours or so in the day, but to try to get a good nights sleep, and get all this other stuff done is so difficult. I applaud all the SAHM's and the Working Mom's because I know that each of them have their own set of challenges, they are just different challenges. and who knows maybe I would be feeling the same thing if I was a SAHM. They do say the grass is always greener on the other side - or at least that's our perception of things, when I know in reality it isn't that way.  I think I just need to get more efficient with the time that I do have, so that when Mike and I are alone together or I am with Gabby I can enjoy the time with them, rather than having to focus on other things.

For all the BTDT (Been there, Done that) Mom's and Dad's out there reading this if you have any tips I would sure appreciate them.