Day 2: Do I Need Explain?

On Day #2, I decided I needed to blog daily my experiences.  The first blog you see, I only posted on Facebook.  And the fact that i did not spell out # (It means HASHTAG--a way to easily call up the items you have posted--trends as it were) and if you had to ask what it was--this blog is for you!

What happened on day 2 of the Silver Streak?  The corporate world has certainly changed.  After sitting at the Under Armour world headquarters waiting for our Golden Child as she was acting in a global training video, i noted that there was not ONE person over 35--maybe 40--working at the business.  My daughter was brimming with stories of the tour--the turf field, the basketball courts (all requiring UA garments from shoes to shirts in order to play on them, thus there was an area with items available should you not have them) the cafes, the logo wall made entirely of flora and fauna, and the view of the Baltimore Harbor.  I wouldn't mind working there myself, alas, i don't think I would be hired as i am somewhat over 40. 

It made me think about the visit to a local website creator I had hired to do a client website.  While I assist with website content, I do not want --nor need-- to learn the how it goes together. As I sat waiting for the designer, i played with the sandbox and rake in the center of the conference table-- the fung shui of the room. I cannot say it relaxed me, but the ball I was sitting on did make me giggle a little.

As the young man entered the room, complete with his colored water and apple he took from the cafe outside (every floor had a stocked cafe) he said they were ordering salads for lunch from the local restaurant, but I was invited to make my own from the cafe outside the door if I liked that better.  (I did not, as a mother of 3 and wife, I take every opportunity to be waited on.)

We reviewed the outline and copy and were quickly done. He did offer when it was over to teach me how to update the website  (SMS--for those who need to know the technical term) --for another fee, or he would send me a handbook they had in PDF form that was included for the price.  I opted for the PDF, as it was a system I used for many a client. Would I like a tour?

It was an interesting tour. Everyone sat on a ball (Better for the back and balance) there was the "thinking room" a room with pool table, pin ball machines, and computer games, a place to go and get the kinks out of your mind.  But my favorite rooms were in the back corner--the quiet corner-- an area of rooms  where new mothers brought their newborns and were sequestered away from the noise and, in my estimation as I watched the mother using the area who had brought her 5 week old, the germs that infected the rest of the offices. Talking was forbidden in that area if a mother had occupied the area, as well as limited traffic.

When I gave birth, my pediatrician said no taking the baby into the world for 6 weeks.  Plus, enjoy the time bonding.  Yes, as a self employed mother in an era before laptops, I did continue to work from my kitchen table as my husband moved my computer to where it was easier to access and I could enjoy my baby (babies--i had two more after the first). So when did it come that a mother, with access to computers, email, social media, needs to come into the office at all?   

No, this is not a senior DISS-count on the business world, I am an entrepreneur, a business owner,  I know what it is like to have employees, to be a woman in business and to have a family.  It is more of a lament that the business needs to make a quiet area, as opposed to letting the worker be a mom--at least for a few weeks-- at home.