I’m sure many mothers feel like a one-member SWAT team at times, but in this case, SWAT stands for “smart women with available time.” A Wall Street Journal article talks about stay-at-home moms who are basically on-call professionals. These former high-powered women — executives, stockbrokers, lawyers, doctors — are called in to complete special projects. Most of the tasks are assigned at the last minute, but the companies have faith that the highly educated and competent women they enlist are perfectly capable of carrying them out. Sometimes, the projects pay as little as $21 an hour, according to the article. But that’s not a big deal to some of these moms who used to manage $2 billion portfolios — they are in it for the professional and intellectual stimulation.
Sounds like a great deal for all involved, right?
The moms get to scratch the work itch when they feel like it; the companies get the cheap labor. A win-win situation? Not if you read the responses to the Juggle blog post about this article! Many of those who commented were outraged and said the companies were exploiting the moms.
