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Liz Budnik has spent her career in small businesses, and remembers taking the car seats out of her car before job interviews so that no one would judge her as less ambitious. Despite being more ambitious than ever before!
She shared her views on the changing world of working families, available care options and that workplace dynamics have been very slow to keep up with these changes.
Mother guilt is something mothers feel no matter what they do – and Liz says every family should be free to make choices that work for them.
In this episode we discuss:
- Liz’s personal work experiences and why she’s passionate about understanding (and changing) the experiences of working mothers
- Workplace practices have been very slow to keep up with changing family dynamics and care models. Her own work requirements have made her keep life and work completely separate.
- Liz has had very little flexibility which means she missed out on things with her kids, and without a parent that she could rely on heavily it would have been very, very difficult.
- Liz hid the fact that she had a family, so that people didn’t make assumptions and have that work against her in the hiring process. In one job, a recruiter specifically said she should not disclose children in the interview process.
- The guilt that mothers feel in never being able to make the ‘right’ decision about when to go back to work, because of the judgement we face.
- The second shift, and the split of domestic load, and how tiring it is to get up with kids at night.
- Acknowledgement of the significant responsibilities that often fall to the mother keeping all the plates in the air is valuable.
About Liz Budnik
Liz is a forward-thinking, performance-focused senior marketer with broad experience developing b2b and b2c marketing strategy. Data and insights-driven, she’s passionate about the role that digital ecosystems play in connecting audiences with products and services, maximising engagement, conversion and retention.
Liz measures success by being able to demonstrate measurable commercial returns on any marketing initiative. Motivating, mentoring and driving the personal and professional growth of my team is a key priority.
She lives in Sydney with her partner, two teenage daughters, and cats.