How to Maintain a Good Work-Life Balance as a Working Mother | Publicis Sapient Gurgaon feedback

The plight of working mothers in India is well-known, as can be seen in the image above. However, when 27% of women restart their career, they also embark on a mission to balance home and office work. I know this is not easy, family responsibilities need to be balanced with office work expectations!

In this Sapient Gurgaon feedback, I am sharing some of the real-life stories of women working here and how they hold the fort. For maintaining anonymity, I am naming these women as Meera and Shivani.

How Meera overcame her challenges?

Meera is a Marketing and Sales Executive for 6 years. She married two years back and had a baby daughter last year. She took 6 months of maternity leave and is now back in the office. She says, “My life took a completely unexpected trajectory after getting married and embracing motherhood. It’s a lot of work, but I am loving all parts of it.

Marketing and sales work demand consistency and focus which is hard to do when you are a new mother working from home. She did not let these issues affect her job! How did she manage to do this? She adds, “If you want to keep working and deliver successfully, it’s important to prioritize both. Choosing one over another isn’t an option.” To give an example, she says that she has hired a live-in babysitter to attend to all her baby’s needs while she is working. 

 

She explains, “It is a daily struggle to finish office work on time. During daytime, the distractions of house chores keep pulling me out of my focus. So I try to finish home chores as early as possible and get to work at the earliest.” I compensate for the lost working hours by working at night. It’s peaceful at night and helps me focus well.” The key is to prioritize your tasks according to the urgency and deadlines. Everyone has a different style of working. The key to maintaining a balance is to understand what works for you and build your working hours around it.

Many Sapient Gurgaon reviews from working mothers say that time management is key in successfully managing their work-life balance. Determination to achieve success in the corporate world and good communication skills are integral to succeed in post-motherhood career.   

How Shivani restarted her career?

Shivani took a career break of 3 years before she joined Publicis Sapient as Senior Manager, Data Science. She has 10 years of work experience in the IT industry. She did an online M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence while she was on a career break.

 

On completion of her further studies, she joined various women support communities including ‘Jobs For Her, Sheroes and Iron Lady’ where like-minded women had a common goal: restart career. To strengthen her professional profile, she further took time management lessons, improved her negotiation skills, and took Google’s Cloud Computing Architect certification.

 

She recalls, “Maintaining a work-life balance during the job search phase was also a challenge. I built a support group and routine. I planned my daily activities, such as networking, applying to jobs and reading at least relevant articles from Harvard Business Review. It helped me focus and manage all work well.

             
Shivani also explains, “Getting back to work full-time was a challenge in itself. So, I started preparing for it a month in advance. I planned my day, so I could do home chores and deliver office work in time. I set daily targets and divided work in the 9 hours shift I would have, when I start working at PS. I believe jumping back to full-time work would have been overwhelming for me, so I decided to train myself before I took the plunge.”   

 ‘She is now a Senior Manager, Data Science in Publicis Sapient. In many Sapient employee reviews from women employees, you will find the company strives to get women on their career break back to office and give them opportunities to thrive. Recently, several women on a career break have accepted offers at the company.