Helen & Alison
Helen Sachdev and Alison Green bring a unique combination of executive and non-executive experience, D&I Board expertise, and senior executive coaching. They founded WOMBA in 2015 ...
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Who are you?
My name is Helen Sachdev. I'm a director and founding member of Womba, which stands for work, me and the baby. We're a coaching consultancy that particularly specialises in supporting working parents. We work with a large range of organisations from very small to very large. In terms of my own background, I've worked as an executive originally in retail. Then in retail banking. I've sat on the DNI boards of a major UK bank, and now I actually have a portfolio career. So I work as a non-exec director in three organisations, two of which I chair, and I'm a working mum with two children. I'm Alison Green, an executive coach, and I joined Helen as a director at Womba back in 2018. And from the very beginning of Womba, it was founded on an evidence-based research led approach, and that's at the heart of the coaching work we do, supporting working parents. I had decades long corporate career including serving on the diversity and inclusion board of a major organisation. I'm currently a non-exec director as well, and I chair their ESG committee and I'm a working mum.
My child has a mental health condition, how do I approach this issue with my employer?
I think it's helpful to perhaps think about how you are feeling about your child's mental health condition. It might be that you Are how you might be judged by somebody else. So perhaps you feel reticent or worried about sharing that information with your manager. And perhaps something that might help is put yourselves in the shoes of that other, in this case, the line manager. Imagine that was you. How would you feel if somebody were to approach you and share what they were experiencing, share with you how their child was struggling with their mental health? And just think about the empathy and the care that you would show that person. And perhaps that might make it feel a bit easier for you to have that conversation with your manager. And I guess why you're saying that, Alison, is that too often I think that internally we're concerned what other people are going to think. So if for a moment you can think about how you would approach someone having a conversation with you, you'd obviously be empathetic, you'd listen, you'd respond in a way that was human. And I think sometimes when that situation is with you, it's difficult to think how the other person might respond. Yeah, So perhaps a few practical pointers is think beforehand about what you want to say and how much you want to share. It might be easier to signal to your manager beforehand, perhaps by email that you want to have a conversation that is about something that's going on in your personal life and let them know. We also know, and we do hear sometimes it's really hard to approach managers. Some people have got amazing managers who are so supportive, but you might not feel that you are able to have that conversation with your manager. And if so, there are other places to go. So perhaps have a conversation with HR instead of having a conversation with your manager, perhaps reach out if your organisation has an employee assistance programme, reach out and get some advice from there. I think probably the last point to say is, you don't solve all the issues in one conversation and probably the first conversation is the hardest and just keep communicating.
Can I take time off to accompany my child to appointments?
Often we hear from the working parents that we coach, that they feel they almost need to be superhuman. That actually by asking to have time off from work to accompany a child to a medical appointment, somehow they're less committed or people will think they're less committed to their work. It's really important to do what matters to you, to be able to accompany your child to that appointment and to have that conversation with your manager and explain with as much notice as you can possibly give to the manager so they're aware if it has implications for the team, other members of the team, they can then manage that on behalf of the team. But first and foremost, have that conversation. Make somebody aware that it is important to you, why it's important to you, and don't not have the conversation because you're concerned around being less than, less committed than your colleagues. The thing I'll say is through our coaching work, it's amazing how many people say to us, my manager was fantastic when such and such happened. And actually the conversation, they've incredibly nervous about the conversation, but having had it with their manager, another human being, they've been amazed just how supportive the work environment is. This conversation is not going to be as scary, when you get into it, as you think it might be.