‘My courage helped me find a work-life balance’, says Heather Williams of Cullen McLeod Lawyers

‘I am a Mum to 7-month-old Hayden and 3-year-old Georgina.  I also work full time as a lawyer in a busy suburban practice.

When I was researching return to work plans and weighing up the options, I had to identify what my values were and why those things were important to me. I needed to find a way to make work fit in around my family, and not the other way around.

Standing up for myself and pitching the idea of working from BubDesk was a challenge for me. I was terrified of the judgment that working flexibly would bring. In the end, I decided that it didn’t matter what anyone else thought of how I structured my life and balanced my responsibilities, it was my choice. It took a long time to make peace with that decision but I’m glad that I did.

Finding my new identity as a working parent evolves as my kids get older. I’ve now learned that there are some things about my working life and my home life that I can control. I can set boundaries and the world does not collapse.  Gaining some control of my life through working remotely from BubDesk and generally having flexible working arrangements available has been a game changer for me.

I don’t have to compromise on my parenting goals anymore. I can feel accomplished at work and that I am contributing at home.

I work remotely in peace and quiet, where I can feed my baby when he needs me, then hand him to qualified early learning educators when he is done and I get back to work in the building next door. I can see he is having a good time playing or track his sleeping so I can anticipate when he might need me and structure my work around his needs. These BubDesk days are my most productive and happy days at work.

On my BubDesk days, it feels like I get to have the best of both worlds.’

Written by Heather Williams.