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Seasonal Unemployment Rules Working Moms Ought To Know

Summer is here, and it’s a common to see teenagers going around searching for seasonal jobs. Working moms like me are also on the lookout for employment as taking on a short-term job enables me to make ends meet. So while my two little girls enjoy their summer vacation, I’ll be working at our local water park.

During the school year, I earn money as a private tutor to middle school kids. I also teach English as a second language (ESL) at a language center. I have students who I’ve tutored for the past three years as well as working for the ESL center for five years.

Working Moms Must Know About Regular Earning Replacement

My income has been consistent until my finances took a hit as the language center shut down in January. My family lives a frugal lifestyle, but we had to cut back even more. A friend suggested seeing if I qualified for unemployment. It was such a relief when I learned that I could collect my unemployment benefits after all.

I wanted to know if I’m eligible to receive unemployment benefits the months I’m off work. So far, here are the things that I’ve learned:

Working Moms Must Know State Laws

As reported by CNN, federal law gives states the option to offer benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor website shows the criteria for unemployment benefits.

Working Moms Must Know the Eligibility Laws

Employed teachers are not qualified to take unemployment benefits during the summer. In some states, bus drivers, janitors, crossing guards, and cafeteria workers are eligible. Working moms in entertainment such as stagehands and actors may even collect between seasons.

Working Moms Must Know About Independent Contractors – unemployment benefits

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, Independent contractors are self-employed. Contractors are not required to provide unemployment benefits or pay unemployment taxes. Benefits, such as paid leave, medical insurance, and retirement plans are the employer’s discretion.

After doing my research, I learned I could pick up seasonal unemployment benefits. I’ve worked in the water park for three weeks now and was offered to stay on as a part-time employee after the summer. Though the pay is a bit lower, it’s still better than having nothing to fall back on during the school season.

The extra income and unemployment benefits keep my family afloat for a few years.

Additional resources:

Unemployment Rules for Seasonal Workers

Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

BIO: “Jackie has worked in many different roles over the years to try and make ends meet. When she took to writing as a career some time ago, she decided to write on the topics she knew most about, including family finances, business, and current affairs. She’s a mother of two small children now and in her free time looks after a menagerie of pets and volunteers for a couple of local charities”

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Essential Power Tips For Parents Going Back To Work After Maternity Leave

Leaving your little one at home is stressful enough without considering how the dynamics of your job may have changed while you were away on maternity leave. There are some things that you may experience or obstacles you may face, but being forewarned is the same as being forearmed. Here are some power tips for getting back into the swing of things after maternity leave.

Expect to be Distracted

Even if you found yourself looking forward to your return to work, you should expect your divided thoughts between the tasks at hand and your new baby at home. Your first day back at work will likely be one of the longest periods of time that you have been away from your child since his or her birth, and you can expect to have some feelings of anxiety about this. Some tips to cope with the separation:

Spend a day, or at least four hours, away from your little one before your first day back at work. Transitioning from maternity leave, this will help take the edge off of your first day when you’ll likely have a mountain of work to get through and make your time at the office less stressful.
Be gentle with yourself! It is only natural to be concerned for your child, even when you know that they are perfectly safe. Remember that it will become easier to be away from your new infant, and this will happen quicker than you think.
Have your partner, babysitter or other caregiver send you regular updates via text message or email – whichever will be less intrusive to your work. For the first few days, you might even ask them to send pictures every hour on the hour. The constant communication and transparency keep your mind at ease during work when you know that an update will be coming through on a regular basis.

Prepare for Success at Home and Work

Juggling the demands of children with those of your job after maternity leave can seem like a Herculean task. Many women report that they always feel like they are falling short in one area of their life. These feelings are normal – it is impossible to be perfect at everything all of the time! That said, there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success:

Adopt an organizational system. Between work and home life, you will likely have a million to-dos. Make your life easier by tracking them all in one place. Project management tools such as Asana and Todoist can be ideal for this. All you need to do is set up one project (or list) for childcare and other home items, and separate projects for your work tasks. Then set reminders, so you are sure to knock off all the things on you need to.
Prep anything you can the night before. Nothing is more stressful than packing snacks (or pumping milk) while trying to put yourself together, get your kids to the sitters, and get to work on time. For example, lay out clothes for yourself and your children the night before. You can also pack snacks, put everything you need to bring to work in your bag, and go over anything else that needs to get done.
Adopt a routine. Children respond well to routines, and it makes it easier for you to accomplish essential daily tasks too. Incorporate any self-care practices, teeth-brushing, breakfast and getting dressed – for you and your children – into one solid routine.

How to Deal with Feelings of Guilt

Sometimes, in addition to the separation anxiety that you may feel, you may experience guilt for not being there to care for your child yourself. This is a common experience for many new parents. When feelings of guilt creep up, it can be helpful to have a few go-to ready to change your thinking around working away from home:

You are setting a good example for being an independent woman with a career. There is evidence for daughters, in particular, they complete more years of education when their mothers work away from home.
Most babies have no problem staying at home with another caregiver. Of course, they feel a special bond with their mothers, but if needs are met, they will do perfectly fine with your sitter!
A meta-analysis study found that there are no behavioral complications or other issues introduced by maternal work outside of the home early in the lives of children.

Conclusion

With some extra planning, self-compassion and mindfulness, you can make the transition back to work and be even more productive than before

Amanda Sekulovska is the guest writer
Amanda is digital and social savvy and has a strong passion for the industry. She has experience in developing and working towards digital strategies to optimize business and brand objectives through a combination of digital platforms and tools, social media channels and owned assets. Currently a Digital Marketing Coordinator at Launch Recruitment, Amanda is responsible for brand association and engagement, social media management and advertising, content creation and curation, owned media asset development, strategy, analytics

by Mark Anthony Dyson

How to Shut Down Daily Workplace Sexism From Sexists

Editor’s note: Beth Leslie is the editor of the Inspiring Interns blog. Her bio is at the end of this article.

In the West, women have won the right to enter the workforce en masse. They have won the right to work in industries once assumed to be the exclusive domain of men. They have won the right to set up businesses, manage conglomerates, and govern countries.

These examples from The Everyday Sexism Project illustrate the battle against workplace sexism is very much still ongoing. It is the job of all feminists – male and female – to eliminate it. The problem is that speaking out against “harmless banter” can mark you out as a killjoy or a bad team player, so people stay schtum to avoid risking their professional reputation.
It doesn’t have to be this way.

Confronting sexism while remaining irreproachable is possible.

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Here’s how to shut down sexism professionally:

Sexist Comments

Sexist comments – remarks which implicitly or explicitly demean women – are often explained away by perpetrators as “banter” or “throwaway remarks,” but help entrench offensive and damaging attitudes towards women in the workplace.

How you deal with sexist comments depends on your relationship with the offending party, you’re standing in your organization and your confrontation level. As an absolute minimum, you should refrain from positively engaging with the comment. Do not laugh at sexist jokes, or just carry on the conversation with no rebuttal. Both of these things signal that you find sexist comments inoffensive, and encourage their continuation.

Instead, look quizzical, and ask the perpetrator to repeat themselves. Keep your voice neutral – often, simply having to repeat their sexist statement will shock people into realizing how inappropriate it is. The same effect can be gained by calmly asking them why they said that or why that joke was funny.

With an unabashed perpetrator, you can point out the problematic connotations of their remark. Again, maintaining a calm demeanor is key: it makes you look reasonable and encourages them to engage with you, rather than dismissing your objections as over-sensitive.

If you have influence, pull them aside and discuss the inappropriateness of their remark. If not, ask their manager to do the same. Handle comments like any other performance issue: something they need to work on, but which they will not be harangued about if they show improvement.

Sexual Harassment

Workplace sexual harassment happens when an employee or employer directs frequent, unwelcome sexualized behavior towards one or more of their co-workers. It is one of the most serious types of workplace sexism, and it is also depressingly common: half of UK women have experienced it.

However, workplace sexual harassment is illegal in both the United States and Britain, which means businesses have a strong incentive to stop it. Consequently, if you experience or witness sexual harassment, you should go straight to HR. Make sure you document everything! Write down your recollections of events, to ensure they have the evidence they need to investigate.

When HR is unresponsive, escalate the situation externally. Lawyers, trade unions, employee support groups and employment tribunals are all suitable places to turn. With sexual harassment, the law protects you from repercussions from your employer.

Listen to How to Get a Great Career Start with Janine Truitt and Chris Fields

Gender Stereotyping

Every employee is sometimes asked to do odd job duties that aren’t related to their job title. But if you notice that only women are ever requested to fulfill ‘domestic’ duties like making coffee, tidying up and running errands, then that’s a problem. (Before you act, be sure that these women aren’t simply the only admins/assistants/junior staff present. It makes sense people with these job roles would be tasked with the most menial work, regardless of their gender.)

Optics are important, which means female staff should avoid doing anything that will reinforce existing biases. Senior female employees shouldn’t volunteer for gendered tasks. Deliver frequent requests from peers to perform gendered tasks with polite but firm excuses. If you can’t duck out of the responsibility – say your boss or a client asks you – ask a peer of the opposite gender to help you with it.

Calling out one-off requests as sexist is hard to prove, and should be avoided. Patterns, however, are easier to confront. When a task is repeatedly split by gender alone, calmly question it: “I notice that you always ask Jane and Prisha, and never Tom or Ahmed, to fetch the coffee. Is there a reason for that?”

The perpetrator may not even realize the implicit sexism of what they’re doing. Giving them a chance to backtrack gracefully prevents them from going on the defensive.

Gendered Assumptions

Women are more likely than ever to hold senior roles, yet being mistaken for a secretary or assistant is still a common experience. Luckily, it’s easy to confront a sexist assumption that a woman is less qualified or senior than she is: simply correct the mistaken party.

As always, the tone is important here: you shouldn’t be aggressive, but you should be firm. Laughing or forgiving the mistake suggests it’s not egregious. The person who made the assumption will undoubtedly be embarrassed, but by refusing to brush off the mistake, you’ll reduce the likelihood of them doing it again.

Sometimes, if the assumption implies aggression (e.g. you answer your male colleague’s phone, and they ask you to make an appointment in his diary) then your challenge needs to be a little softer, to give the asker the benefit of the doubt. Think: “That sounds like something you’d need to talk to his secretary about, so I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

Men who are assigned clients who refuse to work with qualified female employees can also do their part. If asked, pretend that you’re not sure and you need to check with your better-qualified female colleague. You’ll combat the client’s prejudices without being rude to them – and show your female counterparts that you value their contribution.

Bio:

Beth Leslie is a career and lifestyle writer. She is also the editor of the Inspiring Interns blog, which provides graduate careers advice to young people looking to excel in the workplace. Inspiring Interns is a recruitment agency which specializes in matching candidates to their dream graduate job.