CEO pens post to working parents and the Internet is cheering
A CEO is making news. Not because of a deal she brokered or a company she acquired.
She's making news by telling working parents to go home.
Charity Delmo, the CEO and founder of Ideal Visa Consultancy in the Philippines, has a new rule: "Family over boss."
Delmo's now-viral post has been shared 46,000 times on Facebook. In it, she writes in part:
"So when the time comes that you will have to choose between attending your sons and daughters’ school activities over a client’s needs, if you have to choose between your wife or your husband’s needs over mine as your boss' — please choose them.
"I have always believed that a person who’s happy at home is also happy at work."
Delmo told "Good Morning America" she wrote the post on a business trip in Australia.
"My head administrative staff was updating me on our offices and employees. Some were already getting sick because it’s already the end of the year and stress level is already high. A few mothers are asking extra day offs to attend their kids needs," she said.
Simultaneously, she said, she saw a member of her staff tagged in a photo of her son getting a school award.
"I asked her where she was during that time and she said that she was at work. It crushed my heart knowing that. Recognition at school happens almost once or twice a year and she shouldn’t miss that milestone," she said.
Those instances, she told "GMA," prompted her to "let them know that I don’t run a business to be rich. I am here to give value, help others grow in their careers without sacrificing the very essence why they are working and to stop the stigma that one has to sacrifice important family needs for my satisfaction as a boss."
One day, Delmo said, she hopes she too will become a mother.
"I will be needing the same grace and understanding from the people around me, especially my employees," Delmo said. "So the rule of thumb at work now is family over boss. This has been so effective because they work more diligently every time it’s busy season because when it’s their own version of 'busy season' at home, they know they can always go home too without the fear of losing their job."
She added, "Life is too short for us to be chasing so much with perfection at work only to miss the joy of the reason why we are working can give to us."
