Hi All,
I have received the following request by one of our members - a very real and classic example of why some companies find it difficult to retain women in the workplace and why so many women feel as though they have no alternative but to leave!
I would be very grateful if you could spare a few moments of your time to read this and provide some helpful information.
Thank you in advance, Jo.
''I've been doing the job I'm in now (Signalling Design Engineer (Railways)) for the past 6.5 years - started as an apprentice and worked my way to designer, but I am no longer sure if its what I want to do. However, I feel completely stuck and don't know how I would go about trying something different?? I want to stay as an engineering type role - maybe Project Engineering?? I have industry qualifications and experience, but not much academic wise (ONC/NVQ Level 3/Cert in Business Studies probably being the highest).
My other problem is that being a single parent with no support network my current role doesn't give me the flexibility that's now even more important to me - maybe because my managers just don't understand and it feels like instead of them trying to help me and be accommodating they are just making things harder. For example they are asking us to put extra hours in at work, so I said I was happy to put an extra couple of hours a day in as long as I could do it at home once my daughters gone to bed. So they initially agreed although my direct line manager was reluctant as he doesn't believe in working from home from the sounds of things. But now they've decided to take my laptop off me and give me a desktop which therefore means I can't do overtime from home. So unless I stay late and spend even less time with my daughter I won't be able to do any and could be perceived in their eyes as showing a lack of commitment to my job.
I don't necessarily dislike my job and if I felt I had the support I needed then maybe I wouldn't be looking at other options but I'm not sure?! And I don't know what to do about it?? Sometimes its not feasible to do the work from home and in which case I understand. But the work I currently have is more than feasible and to be honest I tend to get more done at home as there are no distractions.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated!''
