How I balance worklife as a mum!

Going back two & a half years I found myself in a pickle employment-wise, I had 12 years Hair & Beauty experience and offered this service mobile around Stafford which worked well around family life as a mum of 2. However, after my 2nd child started nursery, cancellations and seasonal changes meant that the work just wasn’t regular enough… I knew I needed something that was more stable, not too far from home and preferably around school hours (not an easy find with limited qualifications)?. Through an agency I applied for a telemarketing position just 5 minutes from home in March 2017, which was originally a trial to see if it would work within the business, and by July following success with creating leads and meetings for other departments to act on, I was here to stay and was offered a fulltime contract 9-5.30 with risual in early October 2017. The job grew from strength to strength. I was happy, had exactly what I wanted: nearby job, great colleagues, stable income and new career prospects.

Meanwhile back at home I had two children asking for my time. They felt mummy was always at work, they were at school club and nursery 8.30-6, came home and had a rushed tea, bath, then straight to bed. Weekends would then be spent with homework, dance, martial arts classes, washing, housework and then Sunday evening arrived and we’d be back in work/school mode ready to start the week. Childcare was taking so much of my wage and due to ill health of my father and my husband’s shift hours, family support wasn’t there to help out on a regular basis. I am fully aware that this is the norm for many families but it was never my norm, nor what I envisioned when I had my children as I always wanted to be a hands-on mum, giving them my time not to miss any moments whilst they’re still so small as well as wanting to show work ethic. So, after careful consideration and weighing up priorities, I explained this to my manager & the decision was made to alter my hours to 9-3 ? this was brilliant! I felt I got everything back on track. I was back to doing school runs, we had time after school for homework and to relax as a family at the dinner table but of course with that comes a cost as the wages were lower so the holidays/luxuries took a hit.

In January 2019 I was transitioned within the business from the marketing department over to the Sales team, so again facing exciting new career progression the hours were back to fulltime and a pay rise?. Luckily I’m able to work the new hours in office in school time and then log back on when the children are in bed for a further two hours.

Although it’s a new challenge, the hardest thing I’ve found is going from a successful role in telemarketing to starting from the bottom in a new role where it takes a longer time to see results and for me to feel I’ve contributed to the business, along with trying to balance a working life as a mom of 2 littluns. This is has all been made possible with the use of Azure, O365, Modern Workplace and cloud technologies enabling me to work remotely and do so securely, as well as having the support from a brilliant company I couldn’t be more grateful. All in all, this was a positive change for the whole family and in turn no work was lost I feel more empowered and am still able to deliver a good job in both my roles.?

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