The Working Mother Experience

Ever since the Working Mother Experience launched in April many of the women from EMC who did not choose to participate in the book want to somehow be a part of the ongoing discussion. I have interviewed a few women at EMC and will start posting their stories to keep the spirit of the Working Mother Experience alive, but for all of this site’s readers that would like to participate the stories need not be EMC stories. We have EMC customer and partners lining up, but if there is someone who would like to add their 2cents an EMC Badge is not required. Just shoot us an email (link to the right).

Looking forward to it!

By Kelly Lavin and Natalie Corridan-Gregg
May 22, 2009
On Wednesday morning, 48 employees, customers, and partners gathered for a networking breakfast and panel discussion hosted by the EMC Women’s Leadership Forum on issues raised by The Working Mother Experience book. The book, published by EMC, contains real stories written by 96 EMC women (and one man) from around the world that provide candid perspectives on being working mothers in a fast-paced business environment.

EMC SVP ML Krakauer thanked the crowd for gathering at such an early hour to attend the event. She acknowledged EVP Frank Hauck and the WLF for putting the event together and stressed the importance of projects like The Working Mother Experience to the vitality of companies. Attendees from many different companies, men and women alike, mixed effortlessly during the breakfast portion. They introduced themselves and immediately exchanged stories about their experiences as working parents. EMC’s Marisol Arroyave presented a brief background on how The Working Mother Experience book came to be, how the project was launched, and the importance of the book to EMC’s culture.

Several dads joined in the discussion about work-life balance.

Attendees viewed a video montage of the book launch event in Hopkinton on April 3, and then the panelists took the stage. EMC employees Wendy Bertino, EMC Commercial Pre-Sales; Jean Weintraub, NY/NJ Sr. Practice Manager; Kathie Lyons, VP, Global Services; and Cathy Herbert, Director Partner Systems Engineering Organization, participated as panelists. Principal Product Manager and WLF advisor Natalie Corridan-Gregg served as moderator.

Each of the women related personal stories and exchanged advice. Popular topics of discussion were work-life balance, the help and hindrance of technology on family life, and the importance of having a good support system, both at work and at home. Panelists and attendees spoke about shared feelings of self doubt, guilt, pride, and joy in their experiences as working parents.

One panelist’s EMC team (mostly men) came to support her participation as a panelist. They talked about how proud they were of her accomplishments and “effortless” juggling of career and family.

The conversation in the room might have started with the WME book, but it was quickly a discussion of the balance of parenting (not specific to women) and career. About halfway through the event, it was clear that there was little difference in gender when it came to the struggles of working parents. The men were so engaged that the moderator had a difficult time winding down the conversation so the attendees could move on to the next scheduled EMC World 2009 event.

Key thoughts from the panel discussion included:

“The hardest part about being a working mom is probably getting over the preconceived notion that all women stay home after having children. I’ve always been a working mom and have had a positive experience. There are four people in the room here now that came to support me, and to me that’s very important.”
—Jean Weintraub

“I have a great support system at EMC, as well as family close by that I can rely on. I feel very lucky to have such great support in my choice to be a working mother.”
—Kathie Lyons

“If it is important to you, you can make it work.”
—Cathy Herbert

“My family knows at the end of the quarter things may be tough for a little while. I will have to take phone calls during dinner and answer e-mails during soccer games. Technology is a double-edged sword that can be overwhelming, yet helps us balance our work and family lives.”
—Wendy Bertino

“The women at EMC won’t accept second best, but setting achievable goals and understanding you can do a good job is important.”
—Natalie Corridan-Gregg

Many had to miss the event due to other commitments and classes that were running concurrently. The support that was shown throughout the day and requests for more of these types of sessions was a message received loud and clear.

Kate from customer Johns Hopkins said it best. “By having this event at EMC World, EMC is acknowledging the role of women in technology. They are putting their money where their mouth is around valuing employees and greater diversity. EMC is a company that gets it, and I want to do more business with that kind of a company.”

Moderator Natalie Corridan-Gregg (far left) with panelists (l. to r.) Wendy Bertino, Jean Weintraub, Kathie Lyons, and Cathy Herbert.

Some of the Women’s Leadership Forum event participants and panelists with EVP Frank Hauck.

SunHwa “Grace” Kang

Localization Quality Manager, South Korea

Mother of two: one youth; one teenager

Excerpt from Grace's essay (p. 176)

“… The other major factor that makes working from home possible is modern technology, with our wonderful VPN system a good example. While it is not easy to carry my heavy notebook computer in the jam-packed Seoul Metro, it works wonders when I work at home. Like magic, I can access all the designated e-rooms, Powerlink, Channel EMC and network drives around the world. I think technology is a friend to working mothers around the world.”

Why she wanted to contribute her story to the book: I love working at EMC and wanted to pay a small token of appreciation to my great managers who trust me enough to allow working from home sometimes. And I also hoped my essay will show how these state-of-art EMC technologies can help to balance my work and personal life. It is a very exciting to witness that modern technologies really can transform the way of human living and working very drastically.

Barbara “Bobbi” Newman

Senior Software Engineer, USA

Mother of one: one youth

Excerpt from Bobbi’s essay (p. 102)

“Recently, she [my daughter] showed me how much it means to her to be included in the things I do. My boyfriend and I took her Brownie troop out to the airfield to see the planes we fly. We let them sit in the planes and talked about what it was like to be a pilot. Before we went out to the field, we met with the girls to talk about safety issues. I hardly got a word in edgewise; my daughter kept raising her hand to explain one point or another.
… I’m not always sure if I’m doing the right thing by including her in some of my activities rather than focusing strictly on her in our free time. I guess I have my answer.”

Why she wanted to contribute her story to the book: The project was, in some ways, an outlet for me. There’s a lot about my story that I’d like to tell. There is a misconception out there that because someone is a single mother, she is automatically a low-income earner, or dependent on someone else for support. Oddly, I have also found that, in recent years, there’s been increased pressure to be a stay-at-home mother. This was a chance to say out loud that I’m a working mother and this works well for us. Naturally things are often rushed because both my daughter and I are so busy. But even with my working full time, my daughter and I can still have a positive relationship. This is due in part to the flexibility and acknowledgment of the professionals around me at EMC.

To order a copy of the Working Mother Experience

Shelly Donaher

Area Sales Process Manager, Canada

Mother of one toddler

Excerpt from Shelly's essay (p.36)

The hardest time is in the evening, when I have to finish some things from work, do schoolwork, and try to fit in some quality time with my daughter. So I’ve learned to take my job hat home, applying a sense of urgency to things that need to get done. My job at home is definitely the second shift, and I try to be just as organized there as I am at work. If I have a deadline in front of me, I like to just get the job done, rather than getting anxious about it. … I sometimes think life would be just perfect if I had a wife, cook, or maid.

Why she wanted to contribute her story to the book:

I wanted to contribute for a couple of reasons:

1. I think it is important to share your story.  A lot of people think that they are alone in juggling motherhood, marriage, home, work, school etc.  As you see that is not the case since we have enough stories for a book
2. It is important to share how difficult and busy a woman’s life is.  We have that added responsibility that most men don’t.  We actually have another full time job waiting for us at home.
3. Most important, EMC is a great company to work for.  In saying that, a lot is expected of you because EMC hires the best of best people.  I think that the women in this company are absolutely amazing to be able to excel at their job at EMC and excel at what they do at home.  This shows the fantastic talent that EMC has working for them.

Why EMC’s working mothers contributed their stories to

The Working Mother Experience

The Working Mother Experience contains real stories written by EMC women (and one man) from around the world that provide candid perspectives on being a working mother in a fast-paced business environment.

This book showcases the unique choices, daily challenges, and victories working mothers experience in today’s business world and in their personal lives. The essayists are the perfect examples of individuals who each day creatively and successfully manage the balancing act that is the working mother’s experience.

We hope you’ll enjoy reading short profiles of some of the book’s contributors, including excerpts from their stories and their reasons for becoming storytellers.

These stories will start with the title “Meet EMC Working Mother”