Does anyone care about moms in advertising? Serious question. Should it be okay for moms to pull a month of insane hours and weekends?Was going to post in the mom bowl but want to hear from everyone.

likesmart
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I don’t. Not more than anyone else.

As a single person without kids, I find it incredibly annoying that people with families are treated as if their time is more valuable than mine. It’s not.

Nobody should have to pull a month of insane hours and weekends. Not moms, not dad, not juniors, not seniors, not anybody. But as long as we do have to do those things, you do too.

likesmartfunny

I’m a mom of a little one and while I’ve been fortunate in some ways, it’s always a challenge, I’ve taken hits financially and otherwise, have lost time with her and fought for it. Parenthood is like the mafia: you can read about it and see movies, but you don’t know what it’s really like until your in it. And while i appreciate the “what about dads” talk, it’s harder for a working mom than dad. Period. But in the end, people are making hard choices every day, in our industry and beyond. Women are judged harshly for our choices and expected to adapt and feel lucky for any chance we get. Will the industry change? Likely no. Will society? Here’s hoping. Will it be different for my daughter? I’m doing all I can to make it so.

likeupliftingfunny

Husband leaves early for kids, his bosses swoon (all female, but his male bosses never cared.) I leave early to get the kids, and it’s “okay but you’ll get this done for tomorrow right?"

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It’s yes and no. They want to care. They strive to care. But at the end of the day moms will always sacrifice some physical presence time and be judged for it. But the entire system is broken. Sharing responsibility with our husbands is hard because it’s still presumed to be a moms job at the end of the day with sick days, and unofficial holidays. Fathers don’t get the same level of understanding for that time off normally. We all end up suffering in the end for that inequality

likesmart

I'm a dad, I'm an advertising exec on my day job, I do the laundry, I cook for my family, I'm the family driver, handyman, and tech support. I don't see anyone give me some slack.

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Unless you mean slack in the form of cash money, otherwise known as the “fatherhood bonus” Love you Dad, we’re on the same team, admire your work, but do ur research please.

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I think everyone deserves balance. But please don’t make this kids vs no-kids. Everyone should be entitled to their personal time regardless if they have offspring or not

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Can we look back to our childhood?

My mother worked my entire childhood. I cannot thank her enough for taking care of our entire family. My father was sick and she was able to support all of us without complaining. I’d give anything to give my mother the time off she deserved back then while she was young.

Everyone has their own struggles but it’s important everyone is mindful that children need their parents and advertising isn’t rocket science or civil engineering or anything that’s going to save billions of lives.

Parents should be allowed to spend their weekends and evenings with their children. They should be allowed to leave early and people in this industry need to have some god damn sympathy for their teammates.

likeuplifting

Why just moms? Not ok for moms but ok for dads?

likeuplifting

Because she's asking about moms. Go write your own post about dads.

likeuplifting

I brought my older children in to the office (they had off & my husband was out of town). They quietly read, watched YouTube with headsets on their tablets in a conf room. My boss was not in that day. Boss told me weeks later that “this is not a relaxed work environment where you can bring you kids in”. I’m updating my resume.
I’m a mom first.

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Things have definitely changed. My dad would bring me in back in the 80s (copywriter) and people loved it. Granted he also had an actual office but they’d park me in, would get to use his partners fancy markers & people would stop by to visit. Granted he still works crazy hours & those hours are probably only possible cause my mom didn’t have an office job but back then there was no judgment around bringing your kids in

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I’m not a mom (yet), but it’s always broken my heart that we are supposed to have so much “flexibility” yet we’ve lost a lot of great women because they don’t allow them to be very flexible once they start having babies..really disappointing

likesmart

I do. I also think this system of expecting people to work 7 day’s a week is broken. I went client side to move away from agency culture.

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Dittto

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Why should moms get to pass their burden onto everyone else? There are plenty of agencies that aren’t grinders. Go work at one of them.

likefunny

I was fortunate enough to be able to take a break. Had my daughter, came back when she was three. The break cost me time, title, and money but I wouldn’t have done it any differently. I work full time at a very supportive agency now but it is still hard and feels like I am constantly juggling. Add to that helping out colleagues that are pregnant, on maternity leave, or have a little one. The deadlines and the work do not go away. You just make it work as a team for your families. Agency or not, being a parent within today’s working environment with all this connectivity is challenging. The hope is that humans will help humankind.

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Mom here - I don't think it's healthy for ANYBODY regardless of their age or life stage status to work insane amounts of hours. We should all be striving to do a better job of making work-life balance happen. And that starts with ourselves...by creating boundaries and still delivering excellently.

A former colleague and mentor gave me some great advice recently in my request for, "how do I say 'no' in a nicer way when there are so many things to do, and so many people who desire my time?" He said, "Of course you cannot do it all, but you can both communicate your desire to help and lack of time by saying, "That sounds great! Although, I'm not available at this time."

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I agree with both points. We’re not getting paid a crazy amount and not doing anything groundbreaking so do I need to, for instance, decide whether to stay late because of unreasonable deadlines, or go to, for instance a talk on fertility?! Same with having children. Some things have an unmovable expiration date on them while others simply fill the coiffures of the select few who own stock in our country. Is my physical & mental health worth sacrificing because some agency exec set up unreasonable deadlines?

likesmart

I care. It’s not Ok. You deserve balance - is it possible to go back and log the hours/weekends worked? Perhaps you can negotiate to take a month off in December between holidays to compensate for the business you’re overworked for now.

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I have several kids and work but I leave when I need to and work when I can squeeze outside of normal hours. I don’t think the office will give you an invitation but I advise to walk out when you need to, it’s about you taking control. If your good they will deal with it

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I don’t miss anything at school and I’m home for dinner between 6-7pm. If I have to log on after they are in bed. I don’t work on weekends unless absolutely necessary and that’s rare. I agree on leave when you need to. Family comes first. Agencies and corporations do not care about you, will replace you in a blink or snap but family is important. You only get one chance raising your kids!

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“Whether that’s for kids or yoga” 🤣😭😩

likefunny

Meh. My point is simply everyone is fair game and equal. I dont believe anyone should have special treatment. Thats all im saying. Where u work and how u live are choices. Its about being fair to ur coworkers. Everyone plays by the same rules. Lots of jobs with less demands.

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You’ve never heard anyone complain about the amount of hours and time our jobs demand of us, to the extent they take away from our lives outside of work?

Well then your lucky, because where I’ve worked that’s often been a problem. I’m not saying it’s just an advertising thing, a lot of jobs (generally non unionized ones) have this problem. But whether it’s keeping moms and dads away from their kids, or people (often early career) being expected to work extreme amounts of overtime it all sucks.

Maybe you’ve only worked at places that make setting boundaries (and having those boundaries respected) easy, but I think you have to be pretty naive to think the advertising industry doesn’t have a problem with a culture of overwork.

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🙄 and specifically what additional "allowances" do you think dads are getting?

likefunny

And you are very nonspecific about them.

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Frankly I don’t care if you’re a mom or a dad or single. The work is the work and the job is the job.

Having said that, it’s up to you to balance your work life with your personal life and push back and set boundaries. Whether that’s for kids or yoga or school or sports or just not working too many hours.

likefunny

Stop w this kids bullshit. If thats ur biological role. Go. Then male biological role is to hunt and for u to go care for the child. Bye

likefunny

Replace the word moms with women. Or men. Or gays. Or millennials. Or any number of categorical names that specialize humans. How does your question sound now? Instead of blaming the industry you chose to work in, maybe it’s time you re-evaluate what’s expected of you at your current place of work. There are plenty of other agencies that are ghost towns come 5 pm. Nobody is forcing you to work these hours. You have chosen your situation. You have chosen your priorities. Take responsibility and ask what is most important to you. But here’s the kicker: there is no right answer for everyone. Only the answer that’s right for you. And only you can decide what is right

likesmartfunny

Actually a lot of people care about women in this industry. We have whole conferences about the topic. And POC and other unrepresented groups. Caring about one underrepresented group does not preclude you from caring about other represented groups. I care about climate change. I care about poverty. See? Now you try.

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As someone said above, it’s a choice, and sometimes the best choice is to get the hell out
and freelance.

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