Ep. 98: Nicole Gonzalez Cumberbatch - Working Parents Working from Home

Contact Nicole Gonzalez Cumberbatch:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleggonzalez/
IMA's Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:
https://www.imanet.org/about-ima/diversity-and-inclusion


FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTMitch:
(00:00)
 Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. I'm your host Mitch
Roshong and this is episode 98 of our podcast series. Today's
episode features a conversation between my co-host Adam and
member of IMA's Diversity and Inclusion committee, Nicole
Gonzalez Cumberbatch. Nicole is a senior accounting professional
with over 17 years of experience. She is an advocate for
leadership and mentorship, and in this episode, she shares some
strategies for the working parents who find themselves juggling
various priorities on a daily basis. This timely conversation is
helpful for many accounting and finance professionals who find
themselves working from home and looking for some tips to better
balance their time. So to hear more action that you can take,
keep listening as we head over to the conversation now.

Adam: (00:52)
So Nicole given the COVID pandemic, so many of us parents have
found ourselves in a unique environment of juggling our careers
and family without substantial caregiver or employer support.
What impact has that had on the workforce?

Nicole: (01:12)
Well, Adam it has had a tremendous impact Obviously,
economically, you know, we see change drastically due to high
unemployment, massive lay-offs companies going out of business.
So in that aspect, it's, you know, working parents are now out of
work, right? Trying to figure out how to support their families.
But on the flip side of that, for working parents, especially
with young children, it's been extremely challenging just
recently. I read a New York times op-ed that said, there was a
quote that said, “You can have a kid or a job. You can't have
both.” And I was like, Oh gosh, that's so, you know, that really,
I think summed up a good portion of the last seven months. And
then just briefly to kind of pivot, and I know you're a male and
I'm a female, not trying to be biased, but more specifically
female working, working parents only because in general women are
the ones who kind of run the household and they were usually the
ones that stayed at home. So another statistic I have is that it
said, according to this benefits platform called Cleo, one-third
of working parents have already left the workforce, and that was
from July, do or gone part-time due to COVID related reasons, and
70% of those parents were women. And the reason why that affects
the workforce is because as I previous, previously stated, women
were usually the ones that worked from home, the mentor, their
breadwinners, the ones who worked out outside of the home, and
you know, where the support system for the family over the past
10, 20 years, women were joining the, joining the workforce at
tremendous numbers. I think recently it said it was like up 50%
and equal to men in the workforce. So now we're seeing a setback
of that, right? So you see women going back and having to choose.
And if that is 70% of women back in July, we're in October, you
know, so I'm assuming that the numbers have either have probably
more so gone up, and I guess the bigger question is what does
that do for the future? I know I've read articles that say, some
women will not be going back because there's so much uncertainty
with childcare and not having support. sSo it's, it's had a
tremendous impact, and I think it's actually frightening, for
what the future holds, you know, working parents in general,
again, had to struggle with before the pandemic of trying to find
support and balance and, all of those things. And now even more
so in trying to find childcare amongst the pandemic, when, who
else can watch your children, but yourself.

Adam: (03:50)
So what are some actions that parents can take, you know, to work
through and to be better prepared during, as these challenges
continue to come up, because as we see it, you know, the
pandemics not really going away as, as soon as we all thought it
may be.

Nicole: (04:04)
You know, I think first off, I think you have to surrender and
accept the fact that this is what it is. And that's, I think
important in all things of life, right? You just got to kind of
surrender to it. I think it's kinda ingrained in us that we want
things to go this way, especially as a parents in general. You
know, we may want our children to act a certain way or we want to
react this way, but that's just not life. And especially during a
pandemic, as I'm sure you've seen and myself, you know, things
just arise that we can't control. So surrender. Next I would say,
adjust your expectations, allow yourself grace for the chaos and
imperfect reality that's going to ensue, like we just know that's
going to happen and allow for flexibility. you know, I think it's
important again, as parents in general, but more so when you're
trying to work from home and, and be a caregiver to your children
at the same time, like you just have to allow yourself that grace
and know some days are going to be more chaotic. Some days are
not going to run smoothly and you just have to be okay with that.
And then I would say aesthetically, you know, make sure that you
have a comfortable working space for yourself and for your
children, if they are, you know, doing virtual school, if you
have a younger child turn on your TV and Disney plus, you know,
just kidding, but no, you have to find ways of maybe creating
spaces for them that next to your desk that makes them feel
comfortable that mommy and daddy are right there, but they kind
of have a comfortable space. And then just a few other things I
would say, create a routine, this way you and your child goals
kind of know what the day is like, as opposed to just waking up
and be like, Hey, what's going to happen today. Make sure you
have the right equipment supplies and honestly ask, ask for help.
I think one of the biggest things, is again, prior to the
pandemic working parents had these issues of trying to balance
and finding childcare and all these things and get proper time
off, and now in the pandemic everybody's having these issues. I
think men are seeing the struggles women have had of trying to
run a household and work while the children are kind of there.
You know? so I think it's had everyone kind of slowed down and
realized like, Oh, wow, this is a thing, this is something that's
major. So I would say, ask for help, you know, whatever that,
whatever that is, you know, that you need, but ask for help from
your employer, your village, your community, and go from
there.

Adam: (06:34)
Definitely. I mean, because there's so many new challenges and
you kind of have to be flexible. That's the kind of the thing I
kind of centered it on is like being flexible because not only do
you have, you know, kids working from kids doing their school
from home, but then they also have projects that they need to do
and you have your work that you have to do and you have to kind
of balance it all You have to be flexible and not only do we have
to be flexible, but companies have to be flexible with their
employees. Like, Hey, this person can't come to this meeting at
this time because their kid has something that they need to help
them with at that time, and they need to be able to be flexible
in that as well.

Nicole: (07:06)
Yeah. And I think the struggles with the smaller companies are
probably the biggest thing, like some of the biggest bigger
companies, and I'm sure we'll get into what companies are kind of
doing this quote unquote the right way. but I th...