Dona, 32, a salesperson for a large IT company, confined to the Paris region with her spouse and two children, tells us how she juggles as best she can between her housework and her two little ones.
In this period of confinement, Why doctor is has collected testimonies from French people about their experience. Today, Dona, 32, a sales representative for a large IT company, tells us how she tries to stay productive at her job while taking care of her two young children at the same time.
“With children and telework, it’s quite complicated. I have a two-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy who is in CM2. I base my work time on her homework and have to watch the second at the same time. It took us a while to establish a rhythm. Unaccustomed to being indoors all the time, the children had trouble sleeping at first and the nights were short. Now it’s a little better.
Every morning, my eldest’s mistress sends the list of homework to do. However, she only corrects in the evening so luckily he is still in a small class and I can answer his questions. Once, for example, he had to do origami for geometry and I found myself unable to make a simple flower. My spouse is an engineer, he was working and unavailable to help us at the time, so we couldn’t send anything to the mistress and it fell on my son. As for my daughter, she went to the childminder but she no longer wants to take her because she has two daughters and a husband and is afraid of the risk of contamination, in both directions. As I know that the children are bored, during the weekend, I try to do manual activities, paint, spend as much time as possible with them. I also read books to them. I try not to crash in front of the TV all the time.
In terms of my job, I start an hour later and I finish an hour earlier, but I have to work in a much more condensed and efficient way. It must be said that at home, we take fewer breaks, we are not tempted to go chat with colleagues in front of the coffee machine. In the end, the performance of my work has therefore not changed, but I am more stressed than usual. It’s not uncommon that once the children go to bed, I turn on my PC again.
Profitability at all costs
I sell IT solutions for a big box. I have to take care of the follow-up of the contracts, I am the privileged point of the customers and to be available for them. I give them hours of call where I think I’m free but sometimes it gives awkward situations with children crying and screaming in the background but I think everyone is understanding at the moment. Telecommuting does not change my core mission, but normally I am supposed to hunt potential customers as well. However, when there are no physical approaches or you can’t bait them with lunches, it’s a lot less easy. By Skype, the first contact is still very different, especially since people already spend their days chaining telephone appointments.
As for the future, I wouldn’t mind working from home anymore. I realize that I am quite effective. What bothers me is that I have the impression that even in times like the one we are experiencing, companies only think about productivity. Last week, I received an email from my boss asking me to be always more productive without taking into account the new imperatives. We are locked up but we do not even take advantage of our family, our children. Whatever happens, you always have to be as profitable as possible…”
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