The pandemic changed how we work. Now, mothers want it to stay that way

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Brianna Shereck was at odds between getting ahead in her career and caring for her two pre-school aged children.

"If you've ever had kids in daycare, you're familiar that they get sick all of the time," said Shereck. In 2019, she took five weeks away from her job in Victoria's tourism industry to look after her kids.

Despite the ease with which she said she could fulfil her role as marketing co-ordinator from home, Shereck said hercompanybarred her from working remotely. She was let go following the pandemic's blow to Victoria's tourism industry. Today, she works entirelyremotely for a Saskatoon-based retirement firm.

• Parenting during COVID feels like running a marathon, and I'm on kilometre 26

Shereck said neither she nor her husband, who works remotely in tech, couldgo back to traditional work while theyhave youngchildren.

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Pandemic introduced positive changes

Before the pandemic, she said there was "unspoken confusion" if she needed to work from home for the sake of her children. Now, Sherecksaid there's a better understanding about the lack of child-care options and the need to work remotely.

"I feel like there's been a massive social shift. People understand that you also have a family."

The number of Canadians working exclusively from home fell from almost 25 per cent at the beginning of 2022 to nearly 17 per centin August, according to that month's Statistics Canada labour force survey.

In August 2020, a third of the Canadian workforcewas concerned about returning to normal working conditions, according to StatsCanof that number, half were mothers whose youngest children were younger than six.

I feel like there's been a massive social shift. People understand that you also have a family.-Brianna Shereck, on how work has changed for mothers since the pandemic

As many Canadian workplaces mandate their employees to return to the office, Odette Hutchings, chief operating officer for the Women in Capital Markets (WCM) network, said they shouldn't miss an unprecedented opportunity to make theinclusion of new mothers in the workforcea legacy of the pandemic.

WCM's The Future of Work in Finance Report,conducted throughout February and March, found that work flexibility was a critical need for those caring for children under six years old. Sixty-seven per cent of 417 surveyed finance workers 82 per centof whomwere women contacted through WCM's online network saidthey found remote work allowed them to haveflexibility without sacrificing productivity.

"Working from home helps women balance those responsibilities while still being able to perform their job at the same level," said Hutchings. "We're really at this golden opportunity to make workplaces more inclusive, more flexibleand more welcoming to all kinds of people."

Having young kids makes return to work difficult

A Sept. 15 study from Canadian economics research organizationthe C.D. Howe Institute titledUneven Odds: Men, Women and the Obstacles to Getting Back to Work with Kids,showed that having young children made the search for employment more difficult for mothers than fathers.

Women with two-year-old children were six per cent less likely to reenter the workforce than those with kidsseven and older. For men, the age of their children was largely irrelevant to their reentry into the workforce.

Tiffany Cowper, a Victoria mother on maternity leave until November 2023, is worried about returning to work given the extra responsibility she's assumed for herthree step children and her newborn.

"Before the pandemic hit, your kids are used to only having this percentage of access to you. When the pandemic hit, it didn't increase a little bit I was with them all day, everyday," said Cowper, referring to the time she spenthelping the kidswith remote school and nightly homemade dinners.

If we're going to be spending more on me going into the office, in addition tofull-time daycare, we might beputting out more than we're getting At that point, is it worth it?-Tiffany Cowper, on the rising cost of living making returning to the office more expensive

What's more, the rising cost of living in Victoriacould make returning to work more expensive than it's worth for her family of five.

The cost of food, shelter, transportation and other expenses included in Canada's consumer price indexincreasedseven per cent in August over last year, according to StatsCan.

"If we're going to be spending more on me going into the office, in addition tofull-time daycare, we might beputting out more than we're getting or breaking even. It seems to cost time and money just to go back to work. At that point, is it worth it?" askedCowper. "It's a really hard position to be in."

Although her office doesn't endorse remote work, Cowper said being able to work from homewould be "the absolute best case scenario."

Companies should model shift

According to Hutchings, the first step toensuringmothersare included in the workforceis to avoid remote or hybrid work options that aretied to complex permission procedures.

"If these flexible work arrangements are so complicated to access that employees aren't making use of them, then obviously that's not useful," she said.

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Parental leave should also be equalized for both caretakers, said Hutchings, noting that when mothers have access to longer parental leave benefits than fathers, it implies that women are expected to take time off at a higher rate than men.

For organizations to truly embrace the shift, company leadership needs to not only enforce equal use of parental leaveand flexible or remote work options,but model its use themselves, she said.

"It's not enough to say [mothers]can access flexible work, meanwhile all of the leadership are going in five days a week."

Likewise, Hutchings saidmanagementneeds to limit the amount of correspondence that occurs after work hours, when caregivers are typically occupied with home life.

"We have an opportunity to make a better working life for all people going forward," said Hutchings. "But if we don't take the opportunity now, we could really see that slip away from us."