Katharine Zaleski was at the top of her game as a career woman. She was ruthless about work and spared no courtesy to other female executives, especially if they were mothers.
To Zaleski, being a mother was a disadvantage. It wasn't until she became one that she saw the error in her ways.
In a piece for Fortune.com, Zaleski detailed some of the vilest things she's done or helped perpetuate against female colleagues. There was that time that she determined a female managing editor was not going to be on-board with her idea because she's "too much of a mother" (Zaleski deduced this after seeing pictures of the managing editor's kids on her table) and that time she let a perfectly capable woman get fired because another female executive wanted to boot her out before she got pregnant.
Horrible, right?
To Zaleski, however, it was just how things went down. Building a career means working and working means being in the office. Productivity was determined by the number of hours an individual sits behind a desk. Mothers who have to rush off in the afternoon to pick up their children from daycare, leaving the office as soon as the work day was done, were not seen as important to the team.
It wasn't until Zaleski gave birth to a daughter did she understand what the mothers at the other side of the fence were dealing with. She herself was wrestling with the idea of giving up a career she built over the last decade or giving up time to be with her daughter and she wasn't happy. Talking to Milena Berry, however, helped her decide.
Berry had approached Zaleski while she was on maternity leave and pitched her idea of launching a company that matches women with technical skills to jobs they can do from home. Banking on the feasibility of remote work and the need to address her problem, Zaleski co-founded PowerToFly with Berry.
"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," explained Zaleski.
"I wish I had recognized this years ago. For that, I'm sorry to all the mothers I used to work with."
Zaleski also got in touch with Cathy Sharick, the managing editor deemed. After the two started talking again six months ago, Sharick joined PowerToFly as executive editor.
Photo: Michael Kordahl | Flickr
