Public Health Consulting Without Childcare
When I did a few posts on COVID-19 back in March, I could never have imagined we’d be where we are now. I hoped we’d flatten the curve, take precautions, see improvement in access to testing and PPE, and we’d have some “normalcy” back in our schedules. While this may vary by your geographic location, I can tell you that not much has changed for my family from those days in March. We are still very strictly social distancing and we do not have childcare for our six year old boy and nine month old baby girl. There are some camp, daycare, and nanny options that are more available now but honestly we are still not comfortable with those options. So it’s just my husband and I!
Disclaimer: If I was a single parent, chief breadwinner, responsible for my family’s health insurance, essential worker outside the home (etc.) my situation would look very different and be much harder. I understand that it’s a privilege to choose the strategies I’m using to make it work:
#1: Saying “NO” to things
Everyone will have their own gauge for how to choose priorities. For example, a few things I’m looking at are what activities are paid vs. volunteer and which are mutually beneficial for me and the other person/company…vs. only beneficial for them. Here are some things I’ve said “no” to recently:
Informational interviews. I get lots and lots of requests for these and they are quite time consuming. Most of the questions that people ask can be easily answered by reviewing my blog or listening to one of my podcast guest interviews, so I’m directing people there for now.
Consulting opportunities. I’ve turned down 2-3 projects recently. Without childcare, my capacity is lower than normal and I have to be honest with myself about that.
Volunteer positions. I had been planning to apply for a prestigious volunteer opportunity, but for now I’ve decided I’ll reevaluate next year. I already have several unpaid things I do, and I can’t add to the list.
#2: Reducing the amount of content I’m generating
If you have social media accounts, a blog, and/or a podcast, you know how time consuming it is to generate high quality content. When I launched my blog in early 2019, I blogged weekly. During my recent maternity leave and transition back, I reduced my blog posts to two times per month. I originally planned to go back to weekly posts this spring, but given the childcare/COVID nightmare, I’m keeping it at two times per month. This feels doable to me right now.
#3: Choosing projects that are more flexible
Ever since I had my son in 2014, I’ve leaned towards projects that are flexible in terms of where and when I can do the work. Projects that require lots of facetime and meetings at specific times do not work well with minimal or no childcare. Things like grant writing and curriculum/training review can be done anytime. I’ve done them at midnight. I’ve done them at 6am.
Since I was in the process of transitioning back from maternity leave when COVID hit, I already had a lighter project schedule planned. So that’s made things a little easier. I did not need to abandon previous commitments.
#4 Setting realistic expectations
I pride myself on being a reliable and responsive consultant and public health professional. When my childcare plummeted from 35 hours/week to zero, my inbox became a little scary. I was feeling really guilty and anxious for taking too long to get back to people.
I finally decided to add an auto-reply to let people know that I’m working a reduced schedule and my reply may take a little longer than normal. After setting the message, I immediately felt better knowing that I had relieved some of the pressure I put on myself. I monitor for time sensitive emails, but the rest need to wait sometimes.
#5 Being honest about my childcare situation (*note: this strategy may not work for every consultant and every type of client)
I think it’s crazy to pretend we’re all not completely exhausted wrangling children while also trying to work. Our capacity is lower, it just is. I personally have not slept through the night since April 2019.
For many of the informational interviews, networking calls, and a few consulting opportunities that I declined (especially if they were offered by a trusted colleague), I have said very honestly that I’m still working from home with two kids and no childcare, so unfortunately I do not have the capacity for that particular activity right now.
I think many consultants are afraid to show the “parent side”. We don’t want clients to think we are unreliable or that we have priorities more important than their work. Many people are struggling to get consulting work right now, and they don’t want to give clients any reason not to hire them.
I keep hoping that by being honest about my capacity and childcare situation, I am normalizing it just a bit. That I’m making it easier for the people I’m talking with to say “Me too!” and for there to be grace and flexibility when we need to push a deadline or forgive each other for delayed emails.
When COVID first closed down schools, I made sure to email members of my mastermind group and say:
“I know several people are now working from home with children. If they are working beside you or in your lap for this call, that is 100% welcome. Please don’t worry about background noise, I’ve had my own little “co-workers” the past few weeks ;)”
I wanted everyone to relax and know that they didn’t have to hide their childcare situation from me.
I’ll wrap this by saying that many public health consultants are facing very hard choices right now. If they have the partner support and/or financial ability, they may reduce their project schedule for a while to make up for their lack of childcare. If they do not have the ability to do that, they may be working at 5am or 12 midnight to make deadlines after solo parenting all day. They may be sending kids to camp or daycare even if they’re scared to death because they have no other option that allows them to work and pay their bills.
So this is my situation for now. I don’t anticipate it changing anytime soon, especially because we’ve recently made the decision to homeschool my rising first grader for the 2020-2021 school year. If you’re interested in following along as I add in this whole new challenge to my work/life balance, I’m sure I’ll be sharing a lot on my Instagram.
Tell Me About Your Childcare Situation At The Moment:
Are you a student, full-time or part-time employee, consultant?
What is your childcare situation and how has it affected your work capacity?
What other strategies would you add to this list?