The moms out there deserve enormous credit…
IT is a well-known fact that women are adaptable and highly capable when it comes to multitasking. Many great women already care for their children at home, a task made more difficult by the fact kids were home from school with little time for respite due to Covid.
Also deserving of praise are the thousands of working women who suddenly found themselves at home struggling to cope with double the workload. This was and remains a difficult task, especially when there was little or no template for how this would work when the pandemic struck.
All of a sudden working woman were faced with having to multitask in a way that caused stress and added pressure on the home and work life balance. Being detached from the workplace and minding children intermittently while meeting work deadlines is not easy.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day it is worth acknowledging that working moms managed to achieve the impossible this past year. Being a parent at precisely the same time that you are working is a seismic feat, one that needs to be lauded for its excellence in the middle of a turbulent spell for women and their families.
WHILE the retail sector is very much a samesex industry, a majority of these workers are undoubtedly women. Throughout the pandemic they have turned up for work and helped to keep some semblance of normality in our day to day lives. These same women in retail not only worked hard and long to ensure customers got their groceries, but they have also doubled-jobbed as therapists, counsellors, and friends to their customers. In many cases, retail workers are the only point of contact for many people throughout the long hours of lockdown.
The positive contribution of retail workers to people’s mental health remains an undervalued aspect of this pandemic. Women of all ages have gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping people get through this difficult phase, and all by simply being kind, considerate and offering a friendly ear to people. This kind of contribution is part and parcel of why women in business – at all levels – needs to be appreciated for the significant contribution they make. Many of these female retail workers have the same concerns others working in a frontline service have. They went to work, worried about their own personal safety and that of their families. They must be applauded for their sterling work in ensuring that we had the food we needed when we needed it, and the company.