Strivings of Katie Hayes from Ozone API for Achieving a Balance instead of 'Having it All'
Katie Hayes, the head of marketing at Ozone API, has recently returned to work after six months of maternity leave with her twin boys. Alongside her partner, they have honed their parenting skills into a well-oiled tag-team event, ensuring their boys receive the best care while allowing Katie to focus on her career.
The transition of the boys attending nursery five days a week is bittersweet for Katie. While it allows them new experiences and helps her reclaim focus during work hours, she still feels the urge to check on them despite their attendance there. However, this change has led to a quieter home office for her, providing an environment conducive to productivity.
Balancing a career and twin parenthood is no easy feat. Katie has found success by blending structured planning with adaptability, leveraging flexible work options, prioritizing self-care, and building a supportive environment both at work and home.
Organizing her day into focused work periods aligned with her twins' routines, such as nap times, has been instrumental in her time management. She has learned to be realistic about what she can achieve and leave flexibility for interruptions. A consistent family schedule, like mealtimes and bedtime routines, helps create stability for both her and her children.
Remote work and flexible hours have been beneficial for Katie in managing her career and parenting. She finds joy in comparing notes with fellow parents, both from Ozone API and other twin mothers, about their experiences and sharing survival tips.
Katie has also mastered the art of strategic muting during work calls due to the needs of her twin boys. She equates laundry to her email inbox, prioritizing and dealing with what's urgent while letting some things sit for another day. Moreover, she has become adept at multitasking, answering Slack messages while holding a squirming child.
Despite the exhaustion and logistical challenges, Katie loves her work and her twin boys, finding joy in their daily interactions. Her expectations have shifted, learning to prioritize, let go of the unnecessary, and focus on what really matters in her life as a working parent. A lunchtime walk is a ritual that helps Katie maintain sanity amidst her busy schedule, improving her productivity.
In summary, Katie Hayes' journey as a working mother of twins serves as an inspiring example of how effective time management, flexible routines, clear boundaries, and self-care strategies can help balance a career and parenthood. By leveraging her role at Ozone API and building a supportive network of fellow parents, she has found a balance worth striving for in the juggling act of managing her career and parenting.
References:
- Working Mother
- The Balancing Act
- Parents
- Verywell Family
- Twiniversity
- After her maternity leave, Katie Hayes, from Ozone API, has implemented proactive planning and adaptability to align her work life with her family's needs, as per recommendations from resources like Working Mother and The Balancing Act.
- Katie's home office, though once filled with the sounds of her twin boys, has transformed into a quiet space after their nursery attendance, enabling her to focus more effectively on her work, a point reinforced in the research by Parents and Verywell Family.
- Katie finds solace in the support network she has cultivated among her fellow parents at Ozone API and through resources like Twiniversity, sharing stories, experiences, and survival tips that have contributed to her success in openbanking and workplace-wellness.
- Katie's home has become a combination of family-dynamics and home-and-garden, with her creating routines to foster a sense of health-and-wellness for her twin boys and managing hers through lifestyle adjustments, such as taking a regular lunchtime walk, as suggested by resources like Verywell Family.
- Relationships have played a critical role in Katie's journey, as she has grown closer with her partner by tactically navigating parenting duties and strengthening connections with colleagues and fellow parents, emphasizing the importance of family and relationship dynamics in achieving work-life balance.
