Female boss says sorry to all the mothers she has worked with

This article is more than 12 months old

Mar 07, 2015 04:00 pm

Katharine Zaleski is the president of an Internet start-up. She is also a mother.

But years ago, before she was either, she was a high-flying executive who was horrible to mothers.

Here are some of the "sins" she committed.

It was only when she became a mother herself and struggled to put in the same hours as before that she realised she had been treating mothers horribly most of her working life.

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Ms Zaleski wrote in a column for Fortune on Tuesday (March 3): "I'm sorry to all the mothers I worked with."

Her life is now vastly different.

She not only works with mothers, her job is very much focused on them.

She is the boss of a company that matches women with jobs that they can do from home.

Fifty per cent of her team are mothers and they have "processed over US$1 million (S$1.38m) in paychecks for women who work from home across five continents".

She wrote in her column: "I wish I had known five years ago, as a young, childless manager, that mothers are the people you need on your team. There’s a saying that 'if you want something done then ask a busy person to do it'. That’s exactly why I like working with mothers now."

She added: "Muoms work hard to meet deadlines because they have a powerful motivation – they want to be sure they can make dinner, pick a child up from school, and yes, get to the gym for themselves."

Said Ms Zaleski: "Now I know who I am. I’m mother who can manage a large team from my home office or on a business trip, raise money, and build a culture for women to succeed."