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A theory that has been worked on as of late.
Women (without kids) in the workplace versus women (with kids) in the workplace.
In my observation, across many different fields and careers, I have found that women with kids are less organized in the workplace.
The younger the kids at home, the more unorganized in the workplace the woman is.
The rationale behind the possibility of a woman being less organized in the workplace is rather obvious when she has 'yungins' at home.

But overall, do you not think that this is a fair assessment? Do you agree or disagree?

(DISCLAIMER: as with everything, there are exceptions and I am sure there are many kid-less ladies out there that are terribly unorganized and some women with infants out there that are incredibly organized)

Let me suggest an alternative hypothesis. The degree of organization and focus of any individual in the workplace is inversely proportional to their load of child-rearing and familial duties at home. I know many men who have significant child-rearing duties (myself included) and our degree of organization and focus also suffers.

Interesting observation and generalization. I have had just the opposite experiences where the women (with kids) that I work are very organized, mature, professional and are wonderful because they get right down to business. Kids require alot of planning and attentiveness especially when sick and as DukeUsul highlights (not sure that gender is an issue here, let alone whether they have kids or not), thus I am not sure that I would agree with your generalization.

knights68 wrote:A theory that has been worked on as of late.
Women (without kids) in the workplace versus women (with kids) in the workplace.
In my observation, across many different fields and careers, I have found that women with kids are less organized in the workplace.
The younger the kids at home, the more unorganized in the workplace the woman is.
The rationale behind the possibility of a woman being less organized in the workplace is rather obvious when she has 'yungins' at home.

But overall, do you not think that this is a fair assessment? Do you agree or disagree?

(DISCLAIMER: as with everything, there are exceptions and I am sure there are many kid-less ladies out there that are terribly unorganized and some women with infants out there that are incredibly organized)

I think it's more a reflection on the woman herself and her organizational abilities kids or no kids. I worked with two women who had young kids, one was very organized, the other less organized.

CathyCA wrote:

we are amused

CathyCA wrote:

knights68 wrote:A theory that has been worked on as of late.
Women (without kids) in the workplace versus women (with kids) in the workplace.
In my observation, across many different fields and careers, I have found that women with kids are less organized in the workplace.
The younger the kids at home, the more unorganized in the workplace the woman is.
The rationale behind the possibility of a woman being less organized in the workplace is rather obvious when she has 'yungins' at home.

But overall, do you not think that this is a fair assessment? Do you agree or disagree?

(DISCLAIMER: as with everything, there are exceptions and I am sure there are many kid-less ladies out there that are terribly unorganized and some women with infants out there that are incredibly organized)

Exactly, CathyCA! Dare we consider what factors make men more or less organized? or effective? or anything?hhhmmmm?

[quote="shereec]Exactly, CathyCA! Dare we consider what factors make men more or less organized? or effective? or anything?hhhmmmm?[/quote]
Now now folks, cool your jets. No one was saying men are somehow more or less organized. The current theory debated was whether folks believed that women with kids (the younger the kid, the potential to me more disorganized) could more likely be disorganized (understandably, mind ya) than folks with older kids or no kids at all.

And from my own experiences and observations in the past, I have seen this to ring true more times than not. But as with everything, there are exceptions.
As for the male equation, it is the same aspect per sey. Guys with newborns are just as distracted and have reprioritized their thinking than guys with kids that are much older. Just like women.
It's not right or wrong, good or bad. Just an observation.

And to explain slightly further, for those who wanna know, at work we just hired a person to fill in for my teammate who is going out on maternity leave (her first kid).
This new person is a mom of two (I think one is 7 yrs old and the other 4 yrs old). She has already demonstrated twice that she may be disorganized and not as reliable at work because of the prioritizations at home (kids come first.... duh!). And she hasn't even started working with us yet.

I am interested to see how this observation is further proven (or disproven) by this new person, but also by my teammate when she returns from maternity leave. She is very organized right now but one cannot help but to think that'll go out the window when the newborn arrives.

We have three small kids. My wife is one of the best employees at her place, out of thousands. She is constantly getting awards and has even been asked to do presentations on some of the things she does that make her so good. She's VERY organized when it comes to work. She compartmentalizes her life completely. She's like two different people at work and at home. Like you said, there are exceptions. If so, she is definitely one.