Here's what Saffura's mother taught her about work

In the third installment of our special Mother’s Day series, we spoke to Saffura Chinniah, Vice President of Group Communications and Sustainability at Axiata Group Berhad. She shared with us the trials and tribulations of returning to the workforce after a nine-year career break.  

(Read part 1 and part 2 of the series)

 Saffura Chinniah never considered herself particularly maternal. However, after giving birth to her first child, she decided to take a career break.

“I knew without a doubt that it was fundamentally impossible to leave home for the office after 60 days of having a baby. I made this decision to resign from my job and stay home with the newborn,” she said.

But the calling of the workplace was never far away.

“The fear of the ‘real world’ striding ahead and leaving you in the dust is crippling,” she said. “Staying at home and worrying about laundry and diapers, meals and carpools can cut a grown woman at her knees. When she stands in front of a hiring manager with a resume in her hand, she is battling her sense of worth and readiness.”

 Saffura traced her grit as a career woman to her upbringing as a child in a single-parent home.

“I saw for myself how my mother, who was a teacher, take on the role of provider and only parent when my father died unexpectedly when we were young. My three brothers and I could only depend on her and she did not drop the baton. With her teacher’s salary she shouldered on, moonlighting for extra money by selling Pyrex, Tupperware and Cosway,” she said.

That determination and sheer force of will rubbed off on young Saffura, and when she was pregnant with her third child, she could see herself walking in the footsteps of her mother.

 “It dawned on me, that as a woman, I have no other choice but to hold myself to greater accountability. In the end, when the dust settles, my children are solely dependent on me, just like how my brothers and I could only turn to my mother.”