Have you ever had to work with your mom before? Well I have. It was an experience for sure, neither great nor bad. But it happened. Whether this was your choice, a random coincidence, or the result of a desperate job hunt situation, if you’ve ever worked with your mom before, welcome to the club (extra points if you still lived at home while working with her). Working with your mother is one of those experiences that can range from “this is the best thing ever” to “I am about to throw a stapler across the room.” But before you start to draft up that resignation letter, I’d like to point out that it’s not all bad, there can be some pretty good positives too. 

So around 2 years ago now I was employed at the same company as my lovely mother. She actually got me the job. And although we worked in different departments it was a super small company and office space with about 10 employees and she basically oversaw everything I did. It honestly started out great, things were going fine, we tried our best to leave work at work so when we came home she only played the role of being my mom and not my boss. But to be honest, it wore me out quickly, and for a college student living at home while all of my friends were off across the country at college, working with my mom was kinda just the icing on the cake. Long story short I left, buttttt it was a good time while it lasted, and if you’re in that same position that I was in there are definitely some perks to it all.

Carpooling 

Let’s face it. Gas is crazy expensive and parking around Vancouver is just a disaster. If you’re not paying upwards of $15 a day you’re probably just getting towed, but that was all eliminated when I got to drive with my mom to work. I mean yes, sometimes she’s yelling at me to run out the door because it always seems like I’m making her 10 minutes late and yes she likes her car freezing in the morning to wake her up (gross right) but it saves me from paying crazy parking prices, and let alone the actually parking part (me and parallel parking are not a match made in heaven). On good times she sometimes even lets me have the aux cord:)

Lunch Breaks

To be real, I’m not the best at making new friends. I’m just a bit lazy when it comes to the whole meeting new people small talk thing, but I don’t like to be the person who spends their lunch break alone, or worse, hiding out in the bathroom, eating with my mom solved this all. I liked eating lunch with her but I think she was secretly annoyed all along. Sometimes her department would go out and I’d always just be tagging along and having nothing to add to their financial analytic conversation, but hey I think I made it fun. 

Coffee Stops

I love going for coffee. A good Starbucks latte or matcha just hits sometimes. But you know what doesn’t hit. The amount of money it costs and how it seems to just add up so fast! But like mother daughter, we share the same coffee and matcha addiction and 6 out of 10 times, it was on her! I mean hey don’t get me wrong I’m not a freeloader, she was offering and I’d slip in the occasional coffee run offer too, but all in all let’s just say we got our hands on a good amount of caffeine throughout the week. 

The Comfortability Factor

I don’t know about you but I despise having to start out a new job. I mean it’s just the worst. You feel so out of place, it’s hard to get into a good rhythm and flow, and you feel like such an outsider. But when I started at this new job the whole settling in process just felt a lot easier. She introduced everyone to me, showed me the ropes, and even where the office kitchen snacks were. I felt super comfortable within the first week on the clock but it probably would have taken me a lot more time to reach that point if I was working elsewhere. 

Don’t get me wrong. It was not all positive there was quite the fair share of negatives that came with it. I mean it was kinda bound to happen, I just turned 20, I was living at home, not in school, and worked with my mom, while everyone else my age was out living on their own and figuring their lives out, I just felt a bit…. well… trapped. 

No Escape From Mom Mode

To get things straight me and my mom were not in the same departments. Actually in quite different ones, but somehow, someway, even on just the smallest slip up, she found out and she was mad. And not like a boss mad where it’s a sit down conversation, she was mom mad. Now I know she practically got me the job and I can’t let her down but c’mon everyone makes mistakes from time to time right?

Personal Business Was Not Personal

During my time at this job I was actually going through a breakup. And when I tell you the whole office knew every little detail. The whole office knew every single detail. I get she’s my mom and if I wasn’t working there she probably would still be talking about things going on in my life (as moms do) but this crossed the line. For weeks I had random people checking in on me, telling me everything was going to be okay, and offering me snacks when all I wanted was to be left alone. There was really no escaping this one either. It was awful, miserable, and I was hysterical.

What’s Work Life Balance?

There was no work life balance. Home came to work, and work came home. This is obviously not a healthy mix. Work life balance is the key to not getting burnt out in my opinion but this just really wore me out. We’d always bring up little things about work at home and visa versa and it felt like I was just always “on”. 

Working with your mom is not for the weak. It’s not the easiest thing but it’s also not the hardest thing. I don’t regret it at all and I actually was able to learn a lot about her and I got a lot of experience working in my first corporate-ish job. It was fun to see the work side of her (especially the work side of her at the Christmas party…)  For a while I felt a little bit behind my age group for working with my mom but honestly at the end of the day work experience is work experience and we had some pretty good times. Do you think you could ever work with your mom?