Parenting, career and remote work: Sandra’s experience

The month of March drives the need to assess the state of gender equality and generally reduce inequalities among minorities. As part of embracing and celebrating the social, economic, and cultural achievements of women, we at Bewsys celebrate our Human Resource Manager, Mrs. Sandra Selby- Annor.

Sandra, a mother to two daughters (a 4 and 6-year old), doubles as the Human Resource Manager and a member of the executive team. 

“I don’t find it extremely challenging”, she said, about her journey at Bewsys so far. “I have been given a platform to expert my skills and my talent, hence I find it exciting. I have learned a lot and I will never regret working for Bewsys no matter what. Fortunately, remote work affords me to take care of my kids; knowing they are safe and healthy”.

When asked about the mind-boggling question about child care and career development, Sandra said, “I don’t think I’m developing as much if I didn’t have any kids or if I had a helping hand. I was also looking into furthering my education to do my Ph. D. and advance my career in lecturing. However, I have been restrained career-wise. But I think with child care I’m doing very well.” 

She talked about the struggles remote work presents to working mothers. “Over dependence is the biggest challenge faced by mothers in the workplace. Prior to remote work, some responsibilities were left for the weekend, but now it seems you are at home so you should have time. It gets stressful, and you have to meet them halfway. Also, sometimes you are working and you have to break in and out to get things done.”

Despite these challenges, Sandra strongly believes that in her experience, having children is not a trade off to where her career could have been. She elaborated that when she started having kids she became more tolerant. Growing up, she was strong-willed and wanted things done in specific ways. Though she studied psychology at school, she still expected people to be more mature and behave in a particular manner. “Raising kids has made me a better person in dealing with people in my career path”, she said. As she is a key part of the top decisions made by the company and leading the HR team, this skill comes in handy a lot. 

In her take on women empowerment, she shared that though remote work is helping women in the workplace it is not a definite solution for the challenges working mothers face.  also poses some challenges. More work needs to be done for working mothers. Technology has made it possible for employees to work remotely. Unless there is a reason for a “new mother” to be at the office working for 8 hours, technology and monitoring tools can be used to prioritise the health and well being of employees. She added, “technology is making it possible to do so, Ghanaians should embrace it.”

Lastly, Sandra’s advice to all women who are considering pursuing a career and raising children is, “it’s challenging but we have to embrace it. We can double-task more than men. Everything is possible, where there is a will there's a way.” 

Getting my education before marriage helped me. I was able to complete my master’s degree without any challenges. If you want to have all your kids and go to school it’s possible, you can juggle them. Don’t let childbirth restrain you from achieving your goals.”