My mummy culture has gotten out of control. Help!

Hi Aunty B,

I introduced into our company fantastic “mum” packages. Staff get great paid leave, they are encouraged to bring their children to the office when the kids are sick (not really sick of course) and we have double the number of sick/family leave days. We give them a day off for their birthday and other generous benefits.

I have tried to be an advocate of women and I am proud of what I have achieved, which is that nearly all my employees come back after having children. But hand on heart? I have overdone it and created a mummy culture where my business is dominated by women who never seem to be there. I have one mum who is having her fourth child. She has been with me eight years and worked the equivalent of two of them.

Someone referred to us as the baby factory the other day and I looked around and most of the women at the meeting were pregnant. I also have two of my key leadership team away on a year’s maternity leave and just found out a third one is pregnant. Help!

Di R

Dear Di R,

Well, you have got things out of whack, haven’t you? Too much of anything is not good. And imagine all those hormones!

I love working with women but you need to go and get yourself a truckful of men to balance things up. You also need to look at hiring older women who are done with their families and shut up shop so to speak.

It is a great culture you have created whereby people and their families feel cared for but it can also be exclusionary for those who are not part of that dominating group. The best workplaces have a great balance of the young and old, of men and women, of the introverted and the extroverted, the chaotic and the pedantic, the mad and the ordinary, leaders and followers, the A team and the B team… and it happens by careful selection of staff with a mind to the balance. Get cracking. Draft in new blood.

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

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