Irony in the workplace # 1

A meeting was called for all of the partners in my division of my firm. It was a pretty important meeting, basically to discuss our "off plan" revenue performance for this financial year to date and what we are going to do to claw it back in the remainder of this financial year.

The original meeting request was for 8am Friday morning - perfect for me as Friday is one of my work days. The request was then changed for 5pm Wednesday - not good for me at all as Wednesday is one of my non-work days. Even if Wednesday was not one of my work days, 5pm would be no good for me as I like to leave at 5pm so I can get home to see my boys before they go to bed (that is why I am usually in the office at 7am). My response to this change was to sigh, realise that this is my lot in life as the only part time partner in this division (there are only 4 women out of about 20, only 2 of these have children - I am 1 of those 2 and the other is currently on maternity leave but works full time when she is at work) and ask Hubby to come home from work early on Wednesday so I can make the meeting. As a part time partner I can't expect the way the office runs to change for me, so I make the necessary arrangements such that I can work in with the office (within reason anyway).

So this is all fine. I then ran into the PA of the head of our division who had noticed that I had accepted the meeting request even though I didn't 'work' on Wednesdays (on another note, I find this notion that I don't 'work' on Mondays and Wednesdays a real joke - yes I am 'not in the office' which is my preferred description for it, but I find myself answering calls, emailing on my Blackberry and working while the boys are asleep and after they have gone to bed - so Mondays and Wednesdays being my 'days off' or the days that I 'don't work' is a bit of a misnomer). I said that I thought the meeting was important so I had made arrangements to come in for it. She then mentioned that the reason it had changed was because there her boss (male) had this year committed to take his son to school on Friday mornings so the meeting couldn't be then.

This is great - I think that there are more men who work in jobs like mine who should make this sort of commitment, and yes, he is the head of the division so he gets to decide when the meetings are, and yes, 5pm Wednesday or 8am Friday is probably no skin off the nose of the other partners (although truth be told few of them are in the office before 9am so it would have made an early morning for them!). But what gets me about this is that despite all the steps we have taken in recognising the contribution of working mothers and the issues that we have, the flexibility that some workplaces (and I have to say that mine does offer a lot of flexibility - at least officially) when a man takes time away from work to do something with his family he is seen as some kind of superhero - "so hands on", "really committed to his kids" - but when I 'work' part time and am paid part time, there is this expectation that I will leave my kids, on my 'day off' to come in for a half an hour meeting.

I think this is a little ironic.