當某知名酒店公司全球銷售總監梅根?米爾斯休完產假，重返工作崗位時，她心中充滿顧慮。最緊迫的關切，莫過于即將到來的六天全國公務旅行，以及如何在旅行期間為她的女兒哈珀泵奶。她曾從另一位高管媽媽處得知，TLC公司程序開發副總裁瑪麗莎?利維是泵奶和旅行方面的達人。

“在一兩次電子郵件溝通后，我們互通了電話，她介紹了我希望了解的方方面面：從最好使用哪種冷卻器運送乳汁，到沒空清洗時如何用封口塑料袋存放泵奶器，再到如何使用客房服務來冷卻我的冷藏袋等，”米爾斯表示，“我們是通過一個互助團體連接在一起的陌生人，她甚至會告訴一些我根本想不到的細節，”米爾斯回憶道。

利維表示，她經常收到“陌生人”打來的電話或發來的電子郵件，向她詢問與工作和新媽媽相關的問題。“我樂意回答每個問題，我只有一個條件：她們要將愛傳遞給其他新媽媽，”她表示。

她是怎么做的呢？對許多女性高管而言，一個成功秘訣就是在日常生活留意并利用周圍女性積累的智慧。從保姆、日間托兒所、到旅途中管理家庭需要的簡單技巧等，米爾斯和利維等女性正默默地與其他希望在新媽媽角色及公司職位升遷之間實現平衡的女性，分享她們的建議和技巧。

瑪麗莎?塔爾伯格是塔可鐘連鎖餐飲公司的首席品牌互動官。她創辦了旨在為女性創造更正式溝通途徑的社交組織“紐約高管媽媽”。她表示，“‘高管媽媽’是一個未能獲得周到服務的群體，是一個被忽略的巨大市場”。

高管媽媽轉入地下和線下為她們自己創造資源，這反映出許多公司缺乏相關的支持系統。許多女性高管表示，面對缺乏彈性的工作日程，長時間的工作安排，她們正努力抗爭。

事實上，在美國，每周至少工作50小時的女性所占的比例高于其他任何國家。即使在實施彈性工時的公司，部分高管媽媽擔心，如果使用彈性工時，她們可能會被視為缺乏熱情或“不夠積極”。

戰略咨詢公司Forty Weeks一個名為“工作項目”的計劃，旨在幫助公司制定人事戰略，以便更好地招聘并留住新父母。其創始人朱利亞?貝克表示，許多公司未能幫助女性解決這些問題，這是一個嚴重的問題。許多覺得缺乏支持的媽媽們最終選擇辭職。貝克表示，更換高管不僅花費高昂，而且如果“考慮到她是一位領導者、一位導師，一個不斷壯大的生態系統的重要組成部分”，她的離職會削弱公司的士氣和凝聚力。

“我只是跟認識的其他職場媽媽互相幫助，因為我覺得我們之間存在一種默契，而且不會相互評判，”某金融服務公司一位不愿透露姓名的資深高管表示。但她也表示，即使是在一個相對較小的圈子中，她仍能獲得許多寶貴的意見。“我從這個秘密社團學到的最重要的事情，就是不要向直接上級匯報過多信息。當我開始解釋為何早退或沒有時間時，會給其他人提供批判的機會。現在，我只會簡單地說，我面臨時間沖突，或我沒有時間。就這么簡單，”她表示。

彭博社多樣性與包容性全球總監埃里卡?艾里什?布朗表示，她通過彭博社面向員工的“工薪階層家庭網絡”分享信息。該網絡設置虛擬聊天，安排指導午餐、小組討論和相關機會。她的秘訣是什么？“我會放棄非以客戶為中心的晚餐，除必要外，我很少在會議的前一天晚上外出，我在家中而非健身房健身，而且每個周日會為接下來的一周做兩到三頓飯，”布朗表示。

在許多情況下，女性還會提出非正式的方法，互相幫助對方擺脫工作難題。為梅根?米爾斯提供建議的TLC高管利維回憶，在她的公司辦公室里，為了能處理多重任務，一些新媽媽用浴簾桿和窗簾制成防護屏，加裝在隔間的透明玻璃上，這樣一來，就不必跑到指定的泵奶間去泵奶了。窗簾桿在有需要的媽媽中間相互傳遞。“很快地，當人們看到窗簾時，就知道不能進去。當新來的員工有需要時，我們會繼續傳遞下去，”利維表示。

最后，塔爾伯格表示，高管媽媽們共享著“我們共同面對一切”的體驗精神，她們會迅速向面臨相同困境的其他媽媽提供秘訣和技巧。

“女性知道什么是支持，得到支持是什么感覺，這也正是她們樂于相互分享的原因，”貝克表示，“她們不想失去‘其中的任何一位’”。（財富中文網）

翻譯：喬樹靜/汪皓

審校：任文科

When Meghan Mills, director of global corporate sales at one of the top hotel companies, returned to work after her maternity leave, she had many concerns. Among the most pressing: An upcoming six-day, cross country business trip and the question of how to keep pumping milk for her daughter, Harper, while on the road. She had heard through another executive mom that Marisa Levy, VP of program development at TLC, was the go-to person for everything related to pumping and travel.

“With one or two emails, we set up a call and she filled me in on everything I needed to know—from which coolers are best to transport milkto using Ziploc bags to store my pump if I don’t have time to wash it, to how to use room service to freeze my freezer packs,” Mills says. “We were complete strangers connected by one mutual connection and she told me everything, details I had not thought of,” Mills recalls.

For her part, Levy says she often gets calls or emails or phone calls from” virtual strangers” with work and motherhood-related questions. “I happily responded to each and every request with one condition: They then had to pay it forward to other new mothers,” she says.

How does she do it? For many female execs, one secret to success is informally tapping the knowledge of the women around them. From nannies and day care to easy recipes and tips for managing family needs from the road, women like Mills and Levy quietly share suggestions and tricks with others trying to balance motherhood with the corporate climb.

“Executive moms are an underserved community, a giant niche,” says Marisa Thalberg, chief brand engagement officer at Taco Bell, who founded New York City’s Executive Moms, a networking group designed to try to create a more formalized way for women to connect.

The fact that executive women go underground and offline to create their own resources points to the lack of support systems in many companies. High-ranking women say they contend with inflexible schedules and long hours—indeed, the percentage of women working at least 50 hours a week is now higher in the United States than in any other country. And even at corporations where some flexible options exist, some exec moms say they fear that, if they use them, they risk being viewed as less ambitious or as “leaning back.”

The fact that companies aren’t doing a better job of helping women wrangle these issues is a serious problem, says Julia Beck, founder of the It’s Working Project, an initiative of the Forty Weeks company, which helps firms develop HR strategies to better recruit and retain new parents. Moms who feel unsupported often end up quitting. Not only is replacing these executives costly, but when you “factor in her role as a leader, a mentor and a part of a thriving ecosystem” the departures hurt company morale and cohesion, says Beck.

“I tend to only trade favors with other corporate moms in my personal network because I feel like there’s an unspoken understanding and no judgement,” says one senior level executive at a financial services firm, who asked that Fortune not use her name. Yet even within a relatively small circle, she says she’s gotten valuable advices. “The most important thing I learned from the secret society is to not offer my direct report too much information. When I start to explain why I’m leaving early or not available that allows others to offer their judgment. Now, I simply say, I have a conflict or I’m not available. End of story,” she says.

Erika Irish Brown, global head of diversity and inclusion at Bloomberg, says she shares information via an employee-driven Bloomberg network called Working Families, which features a virtual chat and hosts lunches, panels and opportunities for mentoring. Her tips? “I forgo dinners that are not client-focused, I rarely travel the night before a meeting unless necessary, I work out at home instead of at the gym and I cook 2-3 meals every Sunday for the week,” says Brown.

In many cases, women also come up with informal ways to help each other out in the office. Levy, the TLC executive who advised Meghan Mills, recalls working at a company withglass-paned offices. Some of the new mothers at the firm fashioned a shower rod and curtain into a privacy screen that could be easily used when pumping at work for women who wanted to multitask in their office instead of using the designated pumping room. The curtain rod got passed around from one mother to another as needed. “In no time, when people saw the curtain they knew not to enter and when someone new needed it we would just pass it on,” says Levy.

Ultimately, Thalberg says, there’s a strong “we’re all in this together” shared experience spirit among executive moms who are quick to offer their tips and tricks to anyone else in their predicament.

“Women know what support looks like and feels like—this is why they are so eager to share with one another,” says Beck. “They don’t want to lose ‘one of their own,'” Beck says.