At FieldCore, we believe that our company is unquestionably stronger because of the experience, perspective, talent and abilities that women bring to the workplace. That’s why as a company we’ve made great strides over the past years in building a culture of support and allyship for women to break biases, balance work and family, and grow in their careers. Here we share the experiences of a few of our colleagues.
Isabel York, Communications Leader for North America, was 30 weeks pregnant with her second child when she joined FieldCore and had to leave for maternity leave soon after. Additionally, this coincided with the start of the global pandemic and stay-at-home orders. “The ability to have direct, open conversations about expectations was crucial,” says Isabel. “As a newly hired employee of course I wanted to prove myself and excel at my job and so the ability to talk frankly about job requirements was so important. I’m grateful for the flexibility and support I received from my manager and the whole company that have allowed me to be a good mom and a good employee.”
The story is no different when it comes to the field, except it is harder to keep the balance in place. Tamara Biediger, Resource Manager, has shared with us that her managers always understood the need for a clear balance. “When I was a field engineer, I was frequently away for several weeks straight. I would view time with my family as quality time vs. quantity time. At the end of each season, when I would finally come home for the short amount of time, my managers understood if I would unplug, not be accessible at times, or if some calls would be sent to voicemail. When I am at home, I need to be fully home.”
Now that Tamara has been promoted to the resource manager position, she carefully triages and prioritizes the arising issues and emergencies to make sure that, as a manager herself, she does not have to interrupt her team after hours or during their personal time. “Yes, field work is partially a lifestyle and yes, there is a sense of urgency, but that doesn’t make everything an emergency,” said Tamara.
Flexible work arrangements offered at FieldCore were key to making a successful transition to motherhood for Dafna Teichner, Americas Immigrations Leader. “Flexibility helps me have a much healthier schedule and also gives me the ability to properly connect with my baby,” said Dafna. “There are companies that allow flexible work arrangements on paper, but unofficially it is not encouraged. It is a great benefit when flexibility does not exist just to check the box, but it is truly in the spirit of the company.”
While Isabel, Tamara and Dafna agree that a supportive company culture and managers who truly ‘walk the talk’ is critical, they also share a few thoughts about how everyone can help to achieve a healthy balance of career and family.
Isabel tells us that she relies a lot on her network of people in the business. “It is essential to build and maintain the relationships with people you know and work with. Those connections are an incredible support during any type of transition,” she says.
The huge role of families in our lives is undisputed, but career is equally important to many. “The pressure of needing to be the right example for my kids, to show them that they could do something similar and be successful and the motivation to give them a better life, has always spurred me forward in my career. They are the reason I pushed so hard in every position I held” – says Tamara.
Similarly, Dafna believes that there is no need to compromise. She always knew, even before becoming a mom, that she did not want to be just a mom or just a career woman. She wanted to have both. “I have learned that I do not need to strive for a perfect schedule, I need to strive for a realistic one. Some days I focus more on work, sometimes I allocate more time for my loved ones. I learned that balance is achieved over time, but you definitely need to invest in both. It is good idea to set goals and priorities and stick to them and remember to give yourself a break from time to time.”
Dafna adds, “Don’t judge yourself too harshly on the family or career side. You already do a lot, and you keep breaking the bias every day.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! Happy International Women’s Day.
