Running multiple functions at once

I have a couple of status check functions which report on long-running functions (e.g. mailbox exports) which are foreach-ing against a list of user names.

The long running functions all seem to run concurrently. However, I would like the status checks to also execute simultaneously.  None of the other functions send out-put to the console.

What is an elegant way of accomplishing this feat?

function MailboxExportRequestStatus
 {
	$statReport = Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity $user_name\mailboxExport -IncludeReport
	$i = 0

	while ( $statReport.status -eq "Queued" )
	{
		$statReport = Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity $user_name\mailboxExport -IncludeReport
		Write-Host "`t`t`tExport request for" $user_name "has been in queue for" ($i * 15) "seconds"
		sleep -Seconds 15
		$i++
	}

	while ( $statReport.status -eq "InProgress" )
	{
		$statReport = Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity $user_name\mailboxExport -IncludeReport
		Write-Host "`t`tExport request for" $user_name "is in progress. It is" $statReport.PercentComplete"% complete"
		sleep -Seconds 15
	}

	while ( $statReport.status -eq "Completed" )
	{
		$statReport = Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity $user_name\mailboxExport -IncludeReport
		Write-Host "`t`t`t`tCompleted! The mailbox esport request for" $user_name "is now"$statReport.PercentComplete"percent complete"
		sleep -Seconds 2
	}
	Get-MailboxExportRequestStatistics -Identity $user_name\mailboxExport -IncludeReport
 }
foreach ( $user_name in $user_names)
{
spam
eggs
MailboxExportRequestStatus
foo
bar
}