SmallBizResource Blog -- Freelancing

Need Help? Call a Mom

Posted by Gayle Kesten Wednesday, Apr 30, 2008, 02:19 PM ET

Two stay-at-home-mom friends of mine are a few months away from putting their youngest on the school bus. Their thoughts are slowly, nervously, heading in the direction of rejoining the paying workforce, but after eight-plus years away they're both understandably worried that their skills have softened and unsure if their previous careers still hold appeal.

Perhaps there's a way they can ease themselves back. According to this Wall Street Journal column, some employers are outsourcing work they need back in a pinch to stay-at-home moms.

Says WSJ writer Sue Shellenbarger: "The decision among some highly educated women to stay home with children is sparking a countertrend: The rise of the mommy 'SWAT team.' The acronym, for 'smart women with available time,' is one mother's label for all-mom teams assembled quickly through networking and staffing firms to handle crash projects. Employers get lots of voltage, cheap, while the women get a skills update and a taste of the professional challenges they miss."

One company that has taken this route is LendingTree. The Charlotte, N.C.-based online lending and realty service freelanced a writing project to five at-home moms, one of whom had been a senior manager for Bank of America. Similarly, eight moms, some with PhDs and MBAs, were each paid $21 per hour by the University of Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School to teach leadership skills to MBA candidates.

Granted, I think women are more inclined to sacrifice salary for certain intangibles, but everything comes with a tradeoff, right? (Or is that the way my female brain is trained to think?) Either way, between the 81 million or so moms in America today and the doubling of college-educated women in the past 20 years, you clearly have an extremely talented pool of resources you might not have otherwise considered.

Me, I've always been a working mom. I considered myself extremely lucky to have had a four-month maternity leave when my son came along in 1999. Still the day I returned to the office was excruciating; I cut it short by 3 p.m., when I could no longer contain my tears. I sobbed all the way home and even for a little bit after I had Jared back in my arms.

I hope my friends find their first days back a little easier.

Freelancing