The Protiviti Parents’ Network: Taking Baby Steps Together

What does work/life blend really look like?  

At Protiviti, we work to create an empowering environment for working parents. The latest development in this effort is the establishment of a Protiviti Parents’ Network, which is a community for working parents through which we will tackle the challenges of work and life together.

Features of the Parents’ Network include a dedicated site on our company intranet, a team of champions in offices across the country, regional executive sponsors, and a parent mentoring program.  The network also provides an opportunity to highlight key benefits for our working parents — one recent example is a “Guide For New Parents,” which documents what to expect (at Protiviti) when you’re expecting. Additionally, we will leverage the Parents’ Network to host webinars on relevant topics, such as how to save for your child’s college education or how to leverage our backup dependent care program.

Now back to the topic at hand.  We recently asked three moms and three dads -​- all of whom also happen to be champions in our new Parents’ Network — to share their thoughts on life as working parents.  (Note: Adorable kid alert! We asked our champions to each share a picture of how they have been spending their summer vacations).

Tom – Minneapolis

      A day at the park with Dad

“As a working parent, my biggest success has been learning to balance work time and family time.  As a recent example, this involved being the assistant coach on my son’s soccer team.  It was often a challenge to get to my son’s practice at 6:30 p.m. in time, due to work commitments.  However, I found that if I built this into my schedule and actually put this on my work calendar, then the time was not requested, and I remembered not to overcommit to other things.”

Kristin – Boston

      (does that slide not look awesome???)

“I have become more confident in setting limitations with both my work and my family.  It helps to know that my colleagues look to me as a role model as a working parent.​”

Jenna – Cincinnati

      Cute hat and overalls?  #NailedIt

“As a parent, I have learned that there is never going to be enough time to do everything you want exactly how you want it. Letting go of the little things and being OK with a messy house or easier/not-so-healthy dinners is OK if it means extra time to spend as a family.”

Jose – Orlando

Here Jose demonstrates the art of multitasking.

“My biggest success as a working parent is the aggregation of many small wins that were important to me and my family. These include going to pediatrician milestone appointments with my wife, going to music classes over lunch breaks, and taking random days off (like I just did recently) to take the girls to a Disney Park.

More than anything, when I get home from work each night, both girls come running to the front door yelling ‘Daddy!!!!’  It may seem silly, but that pure/genuine feeling of emotion that they display when I get home in the evenings is extremely fulfilling and affirms that we are somehow making it work.”

Andrea – Kansas City

       Nothing better than a family selfie.

 “One thing that I have learned about myself as a parent is that I am a lot more flexible (out of necessity) than I thought I would be.  Sometimes you just have to go with the flow!”​​​

Gabby – Los Angeles

       Just a little father-son snorkeling

 “My biggest success as a working parent is being able to coordinate schedules – such as pick-up and drop-off for school or tae kwondo – with my wife who also works in the service provider industry.”

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As Protiviti grows, so does our opportunity to support one another.  As a community, we strive to collaborate fully on the challenges that our working parents face.

–Bridget