Work life balance as a working mum

I started working after having my 2 children. I was a stay-at-home mum until my daughter was at secondary school and my son was 7 years old. Initially working part time/term time only due to being a single parent and my daughter being partially sighted. I did various jobs from home help to cleaning and generally didn’t really stay very long in any one job. This was mainly because the hours didn’t suit my situation, or I felt pressurised to work more hours.  I eventually got a job in a bank working part time for 13 years before being made redundant. I enjoyed this job but due to its culture I found it hard to progress and build a career as a part time mum.

After 8 months of being unemployed I got a job working in DWP. I have done various roles in DWP and feel like I have a career now where I can excel and push myself to my very best level. My current role in DWP is in Service Planning and Delivery as a TDA SEO Relationship manager on the UC Cost Model team.

As a working mum there were and are many challenges that I faced. Being able to get a good work/life balance is an ongoing challenge when you have a family to support on your own. Your own guilt of not being able to spend more time with the children is a constant mental battle. On a practical level the anxiety hits in when it reaches 3pm and you need to get to the school gates. Appropriate footwear is always an after thought when you are running up the street because you are late due to traffic or that piece of work you are expected/wanted to finish causing you to be late leaving.

I find that DWP are very understanding and mindful of working mums and recognise the importance of maintaining a healthy work life balance. There are more people like me so I don’t feel so isolated because you can have conversations with others that understand. Having a career is important as the children got older and are less dependant on me so I feel that I need something that challenges me. It also gives me a purpose other than being a mum. When I got promoted and had to travel regularly, I found this to be detrimental to my caring responsibilities. My manager was very supportive, we worked around my personal life to ensure that the job worked for us both. That one experience gave me the confidence to look to the future and believe that I could go for promotion and make the necessary adjustments to fit my life without compromising on my work performance.

My experience so far of DWP is that it’s a caring organisation that has valued me and when I have needed support I have not been let down. I would recommend DWP because it values its people and understands that at certain times in people’s lives, they need more support. By investing in helping when needed it makes for a good working relationship.

By Ranjit Sheemar, DWP