Hello Friends –

As I am beginning to type these words, I already have a few tears running down my face. Today is officially my last day on Maternity leave as I go back to work on Monday. I know that all of you working momma’s out there have been through this experience and I am not quite sure their is much advice to give besides loving on those babies as much as possible. Charlie is currently laying on my chest, sleeping away as I write. Soaking in that precious new baby smell and trying my best to catalog this memory in my brain. Knowing I will need this on Monday when I have to drop her off at Daycare for the first time.

My Work:

I have an extremely high stress job so come Monday the whole world I have been living in the past 12 weeks is going to change. My job is the Director for a Recruitment Outsourcing company, so it literally consists of helping my clients find the qualified candidates they need to run their businesses. Lets just say qualified people looking for work these days is a commodity and extremely hard to find. Recruiters spend most of their day trying to convince skilled already working candidates to jump ship and come work for one of our clients. Recruiting is truly an art these days and unless you know how to do quickly and efficiently you will lose the race every time.

To add to the stress of going back to work full time, it is our busy season. The team is currently working on helping our largest client open up 5 new retail stores before memorial day weekend. This means my team and I will successfully recruit and onboard about 2,000 people between now and April 15th (fingers crossed) in labor markets where unemployment is about 2.7%. If we pull off staffing all 5 stores by memorial day weekend, I truly believe we will have performed a miracle! That being said, I have complete faith in my team and the processes we have put in place but it is going to take thoughtful execution and little bit of desk vodka to make it! (I am only kidding about the desk vodka but really there might be some tears shed)

Work-Life Balance:

Best news I can share is that I have really taken the last 12 weeks to unplug completely from work, with the expectation of few emergency phone calls, and enjoyed my time with Charlie. This actually took concentrated effort on my part as my work-life balance has never really been on par. I eat, breath, live my work and I am extremely passionate about what I do, which is a good thing but has created some unhealthy balance in my life. More determined now after having my 2nd baby that I am going to figure out how to juggle all of it better. Telling myself consistently that it is perfectly fine to disconnect from time to time. Hell, I have successfully done it for 12 weeks, I should have the skill set now to do at least once a week.

Starting my Blog:

That is really where this blog comes into play, I decided that I needed something in my life that I can do for myself outside of work. My husband thinks I am absolutely crazy…his exact words to me were “Isn’t writing and maintaining a website more work?”. When he said it, I actually had to take a minute and think about it….YES, keeping up with a website, blogging, and running several social media sites is quite a bit of work but work is a relative term. Starting a blog, would most definitely feel like work for my husband because he actually despises social media and absolutely hates to write. I on the other hand tend to love social media and actually enjoy writing. Typically spending 75% of day writing business e-mails, so it is refreshing to be able to write for fun and especially about subjects I love!

At the end of the day, my goal with adding more to my life is that it will create balance that I have not had before. This might sound crazy but I am hoping this blog will be the perfect outlet for me so I have place to redirect my mind when work becomes overwhelming. You will know if this not working when you stop seeing these blogs from me, so I am asking you to hold me accountable! Feel free to call me out when its been more than a week since my last blog post, it probably means I am so wrapped up in work that I have not taken the time to unplug and write!

In the end, no matter how you slice it going back to work after having a baby is hard. The only advice I can give is : Take the 12 weeks unplugged, find a great daycare that you trust, and allow yourself the grace that you need to adjust!

As always…..Ciao Bella!

~Chloe~