When kids popping into your Zoom calls is everyday work life in Phase 2

Biotech representative by day and supermum by night, Angele Koh looks like she has it all together. Her Facebook showcases image upon image of nutritious home-cooked meals that she whips up for her family daily. But beneath all that, she’s also a working mum trying her best to balance home and work responsibilities. We uncover what it’s like for a fellow working mum in Phase 2.

➡️ Related Read: Singapore Phase 2 Is Taking More Of A Toll On Women

A day in the life

A mum to two lively and energetic boys who are in K1 and P1 this year, Angele is no stranger to the challenges of juggling home-based learning and work responsibilities. She mentions that besides self-directed learning, her older son has regular morning Zoom sessions for the teacher to check-in. “Oh, does he use his own device?” I ask, to which she laughs and tells me “We share!”.

Parents across Singapore can empathise with this scenario – having to not only let your child use your laptop/phone for home-based learning but also having to sit with them and being their “technical support crew”. This is especially so for parents with younger children, who probably don’t get why their teacher is so exasperatedly telling them to “mute/unmute” themselves.

“So I have work meetings concurrently with his Zoom meetings at the dining table. It gets noisy for sure but that’s just how it is nowadays.”

Angele shares that her husband is an academic so he holes up in the study room where he’ll have to teach via digital tools. And even though she stays with her in-laws, they might not be as tech-savvy and are not able to pitch in as much for home-based learning as they are not familiar with the syllabus. The role of multi-tasking super mum falls squarely on her shoulders and she sure rises to the challenge, even managing to cook meals daily for the entire family. On top of that, she somehow manages to squeeze in time for housework as their family has no helper.

Her #momhack – “Just before I shower, I scrub the toilet so I don’t have to wash the floor again.” Now that’s what I call efficiency.

Some of the food Angele whips up at home

Work culture plays a part

As an account manager in a biotech company, she is in charge of securing equipment to set up laboratories and most recently set up a number of COVID-testing laboratories. She shares that her US-based company is quite progressive in terms of workplace practices, where her superiors do not micro-manage but instead adopt an outcome-based approach. This leaves Angele some flexibility in her schedule where she picks up the more intense work like report-writing and email typing in the afternoons when her boys nap. “I just hope they nap longer!” she quips.

How far have we come, how much more do we have to go?

I shared with Angele a bit of background about a white paper on women’s development that Labour MP and work-life balance advocate Yeo Wan Ling from the National Trades Union Congress touched on in a Facebook post of hers and wanted to hear her views. She is of the opinion that there has been quite a lot of progress in women’s rights compared to decades ago, with most being able to achieve progression in their careers and with the workplace being more sensitive to the needs of working mums (i.e. employers setting aside rooms that new mothers can use for pumping).

Labour MP Yeo Wan Ling’s Facebook Post

However, she feels that there are gender stereotypes that need to be challenged, sharing experiences that her fellow mummy friends have gone through where their colleagues would lament when they take leave to care for a sick child. This is compounded by the fact that even a slight cough or common cold sees a 5-day medical certificate these days. Angele feels that some employers might think that working mothers equate to more time off and not being able to perform as well at work. Some of this is seen in discriminatory hiring practices where employers ask potential employees if they have plans to start a family.

Angele feels strongly that having a family does not mean one is held back. In fact, she’s preparing to transition to another role in the company with an even bigger scope and possible regional traveling once travel restrictions ease up. She takes it upon herself to upskill and be future-ready, taking several online courses to better prepare herself for her next role. Certainly, a mindset shift from society at large, employers and even colleagues is needed to level the playing field for women.

How to survive this WFH period

She leaves me with 3 tips on how she balances working from home this period.

1. Plan your schedule – this will help one prioritise.
2. Wake up early – she sleeps early, wakes up early and tries to get some exercise in before starting the day. This helps her get endorphins going and geared up for whatever challenges may come.
3. Smile – it’ll get you through the day.

She ends our conversation by sharing one of the funniest moments she encountered in this current work-from-home situation. There was a ministry call that so happened to catch her at bad timing, while she was bathing her son, and yet she could not reject the call. So she took the call (video off, of course) but in-between the conversation her son suddenly exclaimed “Mummy! Help me change clothes!” to much laughter from everyone.

Hearing her story certainly strikes a chord, I’ve lost count of the times my own children have popped into my Zoom calls or thrown a tantrum while I tried to speak. And yet through it all, we working mothers just keep trying our best – to deliver our work and to be present to those who need us at home.

By Jasmine Chua.

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