Life at Wilson | Balancing work and family life

Hi, I'm Ileana. I'm based in Bucharest, Romania. I'm a Senior TAS and we're going to be discussing balancing work and family life.

Culture is very important in supporting working parents because I can work flexibly as long as I achieve my goals, as long as I achieve what I said I'm going to achieve. Also, whenever I need to, pick up my kid or something is happening there, I know that I can talk to my leader, they will understand it. And it's really important for me in this part of my life. Because this is also new for me, like being a working it was a little bit challenging to balance it, but I know I have this support from Wilson and it's really important for me.

So the Unlimited PTO really gives me a peace of mind because I don't have to count my days. So that's really, it was important when I was not working mom, it was important before. But now, yeah, even more important. And the other benefit was remote work. So my kid, for example, goes to kindergarten close to home. for me, when I pick him up from kindergarten, I would work from home. So it's good not having to go to the office. However, it's also good for me to have that option. Because when I feel like going into town where we have the office, I can just go and enjoy a cup of coffee in the city center. So it's nice to have that balance. But I think for me, it's also it is challenging to be working full time and having a kid. And most challenging for me was just to get back on track with the day-to-day work because I had quite a long pause and I needed that confidence first that I know how to do my work still. Another challenging part was picking up my kid from kindergarten because I had to close the computer a little bit earlier than I was used to. And I think I'm still in the process. I feel like I'm back on track with work and in control with what I need to do and delivering at the level that it's needed and wanted here.

I feel supported all the time by my colleagues, by my leader. I can talk honestly about what's happening in my world whenever maybe there's a drop a little bit in my activity because maybe the kid is not feeling well, I would just notify my manager, maybe a colleague could pick up some things for me and then I could be back in the game the following day.Sometimes I can start a little bit earlier, then do an errand during the day and then continue working and stuff like that. So knowing that I have that flexibility is really helpful.

Yeah, so setting boundaries for me was to finish when I say I'm finished. Even if the work is not finished, I can just do it the following day because sometimes it never finishes. I still have emails to answer and so on. But that was one of the boundaries. Like when I said I'm finishing at that hour, I need to finish and go pick up my kid. And that's it. The rest, you know. I can do it later, I can do it the following day, I can do it early on the following day and so on. So that was one of the boundaries and getting used to doing that.

I think it opened up another world, another layer for me because being a mom, a parent, you kind of start to multitask at some point. So I need to remind myself, yeah, let's just do this task, this now, and then start the other one and so on. And sometimes I just need to be present at this one task. In a way it's good, but just not do it too often, let's say, because then you start to get mental fatigue. and it also taught me to be more efficient, let's do this task. Let's finish as much as I I need to finish by this time because I need to go pick up my kids and so on. So I really started to be more efficient and I think it helped.

Think it's very important to be transparent with your leaders, to say what's happening to you as much as you can, especially if you kind of see it coming, and just ask for help, For example, for me, it's really helpful if someone can help me prioritize what I need to do. And now when you're a parent, I think it's important to stay open, to be honest with your leader, make them aware if there's something that concerns you so that they can also balance.

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