A few weeks ago, this article was shared with me:https://www.today.com/parents/covid-19-hurting-working-moms-careers-causing-job-losses-t194460
It was another reminder of how hard parenting has gotten in 2020.
While I believe our core purpose as humans is to raise our children, I recognize our careers play a huge role in how we see ourselves and financially take care of our families needs.
Since reading the article, I have felt stress and sadness for parents, especially moms, who have had to step away from careers to be at home with their kids. It also made me revisit my own wife’s decision to step away from her career to be a primary caregiver to our son.
As someone who is building a company to make parents’ lives easier, I’ve wondered what role Maple can play in reintroducing parents back to the workforce amongst a pandemic and a distributed world moving forward.
Up until the pandemic, parents have used various side hustles to bring in some extra cash. These options have ranged from being an entrepreneur starting an online store to driving for Uber or Lyft.
While we can’t take an infinite enrollment approach that the gig economy has established, we think there is a better option for parents to make money, to be a part of something greater and be at home with their kids.
Most tech companies are eager to grow their teams with full time employees, and we recognize that is just not possible for all parents who want to participate. Today we are excited to open up our first part time role at Maple and share some of our commitments to hiring more stay at home parents in the years to come.
Here is why I am excited:
- Maple is a completely distributed company, which means we are going to be able to hire parents all over America and Canada to start, allowing for mom and dads who stay home to also join our journey.
- We are a family first company, and always will be. To be the best parent and team member possible, we are going to establish “family flexibility hours” for our part time team members so that one’s family schedule and work schedule can exist in harmony.
We are starting with one role so that we can learn and improve, but our goal is to hire dozens of part time stay at home parents in 2021 across RND roles, support and business operation roles.
I hope we see a world where a parent doesn’t have to choose between being home with their child or having a career. At Maple we believe there is a path where they can have both.
Michael Perry
Founder, Maple.
