Louise's blog: Third Time Lucky

Ten months after coming back from maternity leave I now find myself in job number three. Given that I am not a contractor this has been quite a high number of new starts in under a year!

To clarify or justify what seems to be a lack of commitment to a new job, when I returned to work after  my youngest, I found I was really unfulfilled, actually to put it bluntly I was bored out of my mind. My manager a wonderful woman who I really respected as a friend and a mentor happened to also be a control freak / micro manager and so resulted in me twiddling my thumbs whilst she ran herself into the ground and no matter how much help I offered up it was always refused. I could not justify spending thousands of pounds on nursery fees and time away from my children to sit there and do nothing, it was soul destroying. So after a mere three months I got another job offer...it was too good to be true I thought, ticked all the boxes, more money, hybrid working, my new boss seemed to be a good person and interesting work - I would be a fool not to take it. To begin with it all seemed great, until that bit about hybrid working, well that wasn’t really true.

Sure it was written in my contract I could work from home but when I got into the office it was made clear as day that, that wasn’t the case and if I wanted to progress I would need to be in the office. The standard hours were 9am-6pm in London with no flexibility other than not taking lunch to rush home to get to the children before the nursery closed. It was exhausting and ultimately in the long run unfeasible, I was stretched too thin. I started to once again think what is the point in all this?

I was furious with myself for giving up a job where there was no pressure; I had hybrid working and could prioritise the children if needed and yet that hadn’t been enough. I had to do something and so I started actively looking for a new role and here I am now, in job number three...third time lucky!

It certainly feels it, I work for a fully supportive flexible working company, not only is it a company that is giving me job satisfaction, it also doesn’t make me feel like I can’t put my family first. I have to work hard but if I need to finish at 5pm and log back on later to finish something no one bats an eyelid and that is how it should be, we should be able to demonstrate that at the end of the day if we are doing our jobs and delivering why does it matter if we are seen at a desk 9am – 6pm, five days a week! I am by no means saying it still isn’t easy, trying to have a career and be a mum will always be a struggle but even if I can’t have it all I want to know I’ve tried.

Louise is a Senior Consultant, married and lives in Essex with her two wonderfully chaotic boys aged 1 and 3.

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• Careers