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Women at Work wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the H Ideacast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish. It's pretty well known by now that the COVID-19 pandemic has put an enormous strain on working parents.

It's also put a new strain on the managers of those working parents.

Leading a team to drive results that's always been the manager's job,

but how do you do that when your team members are suddenly managing child care

while they're on the job.

The pandemic has forced many working parents to stay home.

Their kids may be home during work hours too, maybe attending school virtually or because care centers are closed, hiring

help may not be safe, and on top of that these workers may be sharing a home office with

their spouse. So working parents are stressed and stretched and research shows that that increased burden at home during this pandemic is falling more heavily on women.

So if you're a manager, you need to understand this reality of your reports, but you also need to hold them accountable.

Today's guest has researched this growing challenge and has some advice for managers.

She recommends offering working parents

to things that might seem to be in conflict, predictability, and flexibility.

Here to explain that is Ellen Ernst Kossack. She's a management professor at

Purdue University and she's a co-author of the HBR article What Working Parents

need from their managers.

Ellen, thanks so much for coming on the show to talk about this.

Thanks for having me, Kurt. Why is this a management problem and not about individuals basically just trying to hack their

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