“Can I bring my baby to the interview?”
The message came in at 11 PM:
“Hi, I have an interview with you tomorrow at 2 PM. My childcare fell through. Can I bring my 8-month-old? I understand if you need to reschedule.”
Old me would have rescheduled.
Unprofessional. Distraction. Red flag.
New me replied:
“Absolutely. See you tomorrow.”
She showed up with her baby on her hip.
She apologized three times before even sitting down.
Ten minutes in, the baby started crying.
She tried to soothe him while answering questions.
She apologized again.
I stopped the interview and said:
“Hey. You’re managing a fussy baby, answering complex questions, and staying calm under pressure. That’s literally the job. Handling chaos while staying professional. You’re already proving you can do it.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
We hired her.
She’s been with us for a year now.
The most reliable team member we have.
Why?
Because when you’re used to handling a screaming infant at 3 AM and still showing up to work the next day, workplace stress feels like nothing.
Working parents, especially mothers, are some of the most organized, efficient, and resilient people you’ll ever hire.
Yet we lose them because our hiring processes are built for people with zero caregiving responsibilities.
If your interview process can’t accommodate a parent facing a childcare issue, you’re not filtering for professionalism.
You’re filtering for privilege.
Every person aboard the Madleen is a hero.
The genocidal Israeli state's attack on unarmed activists aboard a UK-flagged vessel delivering aid to Gaza is a flagrant breach of international law.
The UK must sanction Israel, end all arms & surveillance, & expel its ambassador.
Our qualitative study on paediatric mucositis is out👇
It explores the multifaceted emotional experience of having mucositis, the concept of removal from ‘normality’, the biopsychosocial impacts on eating, and strain experienced by families and services
https://t.co/VTGPUr9mc0
How ashamed will people be when, in years to come, they realise they chose to believe Netenyahu, Ben Gvir and Smotrich... instead of Oxfam, Save the Children, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN, Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, The ICJ, The ICC, UNICEF...
I can't get my head around the fact that all this agony is deliberately inflicted. This is being done to humans by other humans, and gleefully supported by more humans.
“I refuse to play the condemnation game. Let me make myself clear. I do not tell oppressed people how to resist their oppression or who their allies should be.”
It is frighteningly clear - today and everyday for the last year - that so-called international order, rules and norms are designed solely to protect white western lives and power, at the expense of everyone else.
It is with a heavy heart that I have today informed my whip and decided for now to no longer take the @Conservatives whip.
This is a sad day for me.
I am a Conservative and remain so but sadly the current Party are far removed from the Party I joined and served in Cabinet.
My decision is a reflection of how far right my Party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities.
A timely reminder of the issues that I raise in my book Muslims Don’t Matter
If it were iPhones that were leaving the factory with explosives inside, the media would be a hell of a lot faster to cotton on to what a horrific precedent has been set today. Nothing can justify this. It's a crime. A crime. And everyone in the world is less safe for it.
How are we meant to just get on with our lives? Apply for jobs, cook our meals, spend time with our loved ones knowing full well that miles away from us, there’s a man in Gaza who went to get birth certificates for his newborn babies & came back to his wife & new babies killed.
The revolutionary spirit of Freedom and Peace often burns brightest in young hearts, as shown by the students of Columbia University. I was about their age when I wrote Peace Train and know the feeling well. Praying for a just and peaceful end to their struggle - and those they're demonstrating their powerful support for.
#ColumbiaUniversity #Palestine #Gaza #Peace