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When Amy Sandoval picks up her daughter from preschool, she’s also on the clock at Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, Virginia, where she works as a Web marketing consultant. Luckily, she can be in two places at once.
“On the days I work from home, I try to pick her up between 3:30 and 4 p.m., which is technically still business hours,” Sandoval says. “But I can check my email from my Treo while I’m there and not have to worry about it.”
Because workers no longer have to be in the office to get work done, more employers can recognize the needs of working moms like Sandoval, offering flexible schedules. In turn, women are using technology to stay productive on the job, whether they’re at the office or on the playground.
Here are three gadgets working moms find especially helpful:
Treo Smartphone/BlackBerry Handheld Device
Treos and BlackBerrys not only provide access to the Internet and email but also allow you to make phone calls, keep a daily planner and address book, take pictures and in some cases listen to music. It’s no wonder many working moms consider these gadgets their portable office.
“I use it to check email more so than I use it to answer it,” says Sandoval, who contributes to Work It! A Blog for Working Moms. “It’s helpful to stay on top of things. It’s almost like I’m at my desk.”
For moms who always work from home, these devices come in particularly handy. “I love my BlackBerry, because I can do things like take my son to the doctor but stay in touch and not panic while I’m away from my desk,” says Christine Perkett, CEO and founder of Perkett PR in Marshfield, Massachusetts, a virtual agency with employees all over the US. Perkett also contributes to the Be Gutsy Blog, found on the career advancement Web site Womenforhire.com.
Perkett supplies all of her employees with BlackBerrys, because “if you can respond to clients while watching your kid, it makes it easier to do work and be a mom.”
Laptops
Portable computers aren’t new, but they can certainly make a working mom’s workday a lot easier. “I use a laptop for my main computer,” Perkett says. “It’s great, because I can go downstairs and give my son a kiss while he’s eating lunch, instead of chatting it up at the watercooler.”
Susan Wenner Jackson is a copywriter at Cincinnati advertising agency Bridge Worldwide. Her 16-month-old daughter goes to a babysitter during the day. Despite working full-time from the office, she’ll use her laptop to work elsewhere. “I’ll take a break during the day and go to a coffee shop and do some work,” says Jackson, who contributes regularly to the blog Working Moms Against Guilt. “It’s nice to work in a variety of different places. Working out of the office can often stimulate creativity.”
iPod
With room to store so much media on these small, sleek gadgets, there is plenty of space for both work and play. “I use it mostly to listen to music,” Sandoval says. “But just recently I’ve started listening to podcasts for work.” When in the car, Sandoval will plug in her iPod via an adaptor: “I have music on [it] for my daughter, and she’ll make requests from the back seat.”
And an iPod can also help make time spent driving more productive. “I’ll listen to [it] in the car all the time,” says Jackson. “If I’m driving to a meeting or something, I might listen to a work-related podcast.”
Technology Helps Moms Balance Work and Life
“I think there is this idea out there that moms who work part-time or on flexible schedules are slacking,” says Sandoval, who works from home two days a week. “For me, that’s not the case. I have to work harder to accommodate both. I’m constantly multitasking.”
And gadgets like her Treo help Sandoval accomplish more. “Last week I was driving my daughter home, and I got an urgent email from work,” she says. “So I had to pull my car over and answer it quickly to keep things from escalating.”
Jackson does not have a Treo or BlackBerry but understands their benefits. “I think it would be wise for companies to give [them] to employees,” she says. “It would be great to have all the capabilities a BlackBerry or a Treo would provide.”
Bottom line: Without these gadgets, working moms would not be able to stay in touch with the office as easily or as often, making it even tougher to balance responsibilities. “Women with children have a lot more commitments -- they have to balance a lot more,” Perkett says. “Technology helps them stay in touch.”
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