Parents of Payara: Senior Marketing Specialist Dominika Tasarz-Sochacka

What’s life like as a parent at Payara?

Due to our flexible remote-working policy, there is a lot that is appealing about combining parenthood with Payara. When your commute is non-existent, it’s easier to be there for those precious moments. However, when your work and home life are blended, there are challenges!

We are talking to Payaran parents about the mix of family life and a career at a fast-paced scale-up business. Hopefully you can find some inspiration, or even just a bit of recognition for experiences shared…

Today we speak to Dominika Tasarz-Sochacka, Senior Marketing Specialist:

How old are your children?

4.5 years and 15 months (or just 4 and 1 😃 )
Dominika illustrated drawing

What is it like trying to balance being a parent and working full time?

Difficult, challenging, tiring, frustrating 😉 But on the days when it works out, it’s actually quite fulfilling and gives me a feeling of great accomplishment!

Do you ever get parental guilt trying to balance the two roles?

Oh yes, it does creep up on me sometimes. But I am lucky enough to have a good childcare arrangement, as my partner is looking after our 1 yo most of the day while the 4yo is at school. So, knowing my kids are not really far away and safe definitely helps.

How does remote working support you as a parent?

Being able to work remotely has been a real life-changer. When my son was born back in 2018, I was still working from the office so things were more tricky to arrange, parenting wise, especially that I went back to work after 6 months and was breastfeeding until my son was 3 years old.

With my second, born in 2021, we were already working remotely, and this has helped tremendously – it was much easier to transition to the working life, and breastfeeding is much easier too as I don’t need to pump twice a day in the office! It was great to have this option before, but I am glad I don’t have to do it again 😉

How does flexible working support you as a parent?

Dominika with baby!It allows me to have a very active part in my kids’ social life, especially since my son started school. I don’t have to miss out on school events and activities, which I actually really enjoy taking part in! It also allows me to make some last-minute emergency adjustments in case something happens or if my youngest needs more of my help as she’s still very attached to me– I can just take a break and get back to work when things calm down. It takes away a lot of potential stress, both work and parenting related.

What advice would you give to working parents considering a new role/company?

Definitely check what the current policies are around work-life balance, parenting, parental leave, maternity leave, flexible working etc. Also, if you do have specific expectations, voice them early – many times employers can adjust their policy or make exceptions if you agree on that early on. E.g. I was the first one to go on maternity leave at Payara so the whole policy and enhanced maternity pay was pretty much created ‘for me’ and thanks to that, every other Payaran mum will enjoy some great parental benefits too!

Do you think the working world needs to change for working parents and how?

Definitely yes. Policies and rules differ from country to country and each company also has their own rules and benefits but in general, I feel that the world expects parents to be able to both work and parent with 100% time and energy which is simply not possible. We cannot do both and often do not actually want to do both. In the ideal world, I’d like every parent to have a real choice of what they can do – whether they want to come back to work early and have good childcare solutions available, or whether they’d rather take more time off to spend it with their children and not to worry about finances or coming back to work after a few years of parental break. I do not have any magic solutions on how we can get there, but it is achievable.

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At Payara, we try to meet the needs of parents like Dominika and Simon with in-built flexibility, adjusting to allow for home routines.

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Topics: Fish Food, Payara Life

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