Shuchi Nijhawan is an Indian working mom who faces the same dilemmas that every working mom in the world does. With mainly one exception. She knows how to handle them like a boss and she has a super cool workplace that isn’t judgmental.
Almost 6 days ago, Shuchi Nijhawan shared a short story on Linkedin about taking her son to her workplace because his father couldn’t. She couldn’t work from home either because she had a lot of meetings lined up that day. So, not knowing what else to do, Shuchi took her 2.5-year-old son to the office.
Shuchi is “a Nurturer by habit and a Human Resources person by profession. Her single guiding principle in Life is earning good #Karma- Every single thing she does is determined by it.”
“Argh – The 2.5 year old had no school today, and the father had to go to work for sure. I had meetings lined up and could not cancel them, so no work from home. Plus I don’t even like work from home (I’m a gregarious person and love being surrounded by energy and laughter more than the Zen like atmosphere of home- on a working day)” wrote Shuchi in her adorably heartfelt Linkedin post.
The post hit home with a huge number of parents and it has, consequently, been liked more than 45 thousand times, on Linkedin alone.
Shuchi then goes on to explain what makes a great workplace: One that gives its employees the freedom to be not so worried moms or parents in general and is free from judgments.
“That’s what makes a #greatplacetowork: Not just fancy awards or initiatives or interventions, but the freedom to be able to come to work being a #notsoworried#mom; the freedom to not get my “A” game to work for one day and the freedom to not be judged about it! Loving my job doesn’t make me any less of a mom, especially when there is a company culture that’s first priority is to support it’s people- The fact that I get to be the custodian of this culture is a Bonus,” wrote Shuchi.
Given the quintessentially desi environment we live in, women are often called out for being bad mums just because they work and cannot ‘apparently’ give adequate time to their kids. Well, Shuchi just proved that’s not true. Let’s just spare the judgment and applaud all the moms all over the world, just for being, well, mums.
While talking to Mangobaaz, Shuchi had following to say: “Despite being in a vastly regressive work construct, where women are expected always to be the primary care givers, secondary bread seekers, and “be in a certain way”, I have always been able to carve a niche. Vastly the credit for that is not mine- I am a blessed, Lucky person. First with Uber cool parents (I had a working supermom growing up too, and well, I turned out fine) and then with a husband who is 100% supportive of having an ambitious wife, and does not think I’m a ‘lesser’ mom. He knows I love what I do, and that it requires me to work odd hours managing Global teams and despite howsoever late I sleep, I will always get up to play with my son in the morning the first thing! Being an ambitious working mom is very “taxing” mostly. Every day you are faced with these questions- How do you create time for your child, your husband, and then if there’s any time left, yourself- all of which deserve equal attention besides the work that one always gets home. I’ve created a simple solution for some part of it. For 3 hours every day, I spend time with my son reading, playing, singing, having meals together etc- That’s the time when no one in the Office gets to call me (Unless there’s something critical). People are very supportive of it.The quantum of time spent doesn’t matter. He and I don’t get bored of each other- which would sure be the case, if we were breathing down each other’s neck all the time (If I wasn’t actively working and he wasn’t going to Preschool).”
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Cover Image Via: Shuchi Nijhawan/Linkedin