A single mum who once replied to her emails days after giving birth and asked to go back to work just three weeks later says she is “proud” to be a workaholic. Lydia Mujuru, 49, didn’t realise she was “obsessed” with work until she felt like something was missing when on maternity leave with her eldest son, Damien, 23.
The career-driven mum was contacting colleagues before she knew it to ask for work to do. Lydia returned to her job as a personal assistant six weeks post-partum – having help from family and child minders to look after her baby.
After giving birth to her second son, Sean, now 17, she started checking her emails as soon as she was discharged and even called her office to ask if she could come back after three weeks – but was refused. Lydia says being a workaholic has “paid off” as she has successfully raised her two boys and started her own company.
The owner of an imaging diagnostic company, who lives in Birmingham, said: “I didn’t realise I was so obsessed with work. After giving birth I felt like something was missing.
“Before I knew it I was contacting colleagues in the first few days of giving birth. I never thought anything of it.
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“I put it down to being scared of being a mum for the first time. With my second son, I started checking my emails as soon as I was discharged. I felt irritated.
“But I balance raising the kids with work. I still have a life. I am proud to be a workaholic as it has paid off.”
Lydia couldn’t wait to get back to her work as a personal assistant after giving birth via C-section to her son, Damien, in September 14, 1999. But doctors advised her to wait six to eight weeks before she could return.
She said: “I offered to help with anything I could help with whilst on maternity leave. By the start of the sixth week I couldn’t bear it anymore - so I went back to work.”
Lydia was working an admin job in Inverness, Scotland, when she had her second son, Sean, on March 31 2006. She was told to take a month off work before giving birth which Lydia admits she found “challenging”.
She said: “Stopping work was very hard. I should be relaxing but it was really hard not going to work.”
After being discharged, Lydia couldn’t help but peek at her work emails. She said: “I remember in my third week I called work to check if I could go back, and they advised me to start on reduced hours after six weeks of the delivery date.
“On the night before I was due in, I couldn’t sleep. The excitement was just too much.
“The next day I woke up early, got ready and I was at work bright and early. By the time other staff came in, I had started working through my emails.” As a single mum Lydia had the support of her sister Leonah, 36, to look after her two boys while she was at work.
She moved to Birmingham in October 2009 to pursue a career in childcare – joining the NHS as a ward clerk before taking a job in the radiology department and making her way up to a management role. She studied a degree in healthcare while working six days a week and raising her boys.
In November 2022 Lydia took the plunge to set up her own company. Lydia said: “Having children doesn’t mean giving up on your dream.
“People say, ‘How do you do it?’ ‘Do you have a life?’. I love working. I feel ill not working.”
Lydia still ensures she has a balanced life – taking walks on her lunch breaks and carving out time to spend time with her sons. She said: “We are shamed as single mums.
“People are surprising at how my sons have turned out. They are well mannered and supportive. See your dreams through - whatever they may be."
