Mums in Tech – feat. Cassie Fidler
As part of our ‘Mums in Tech’ series we caught up with Cassie Fidler, Senior Project Coordinator at Bromley, Lewisham & Greenwich Mind.
The purpose of our 'MotherBoard’ content series is to highlight incredible working mums within tech & data, as well as individuals and businesses that are supportive and progressive within their approach to creating more inclusive tech & data teams for women.
Amber @ MotherBoard: Can you please introduce yourself, your role, and why you feel supporting mums working within tech & data is so important?
Cassie: Hi, I’m Cassie and I am a Senior Project Coordinator for Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich Mind working within the Mindful Mums and Being Dad services. The service I work within provides support for new and expectant parents from pregnancy up to the first year after birth. My role involves a lot of organisation and resilience. We’re very data focused as we have lots of reports to write and presentations to give to show how the projects are doing.
I previously worked in an EdTech organisation as a Product Manager but after having my son I discovered it was no longer the right environment for me and my needs as a new mother. I found it incredibly difficult to find truly flexible and supportive employers within tech and data, specifically as a Product Manager. I ended up having to move away from the industry I was keen to remain in, in order to find a role that would really support me and also provide me with opportunities and equity.
“I found it incredibly difficult to find truly flexible and supportive employers within tech and data… I ended up having to move away from the industry I was keen to remain in, in order to find a role that would really support me and also provide me with opportunities and equity.”
I have also, for the past 5 years, been part of the instructional team at General Assembly where I work freelance to help deliver Product Management training courses. This has always been a passion and I love working with GA. I feel lucky that most of the team there understand and being that we work freelance we are able to make arrangements in advance or be selective over which courses we can work on, and I can continue to do this.
It’s so important that more mums are supported to return back to their roles or into new ones within tech and data, I really feel that it’s one of the least equipped industries to work in as a mother, especially as a new mother with a child under the age of 2. Many of the organisations I was keen to apply to had very rigid ideas of flexible working.
Amber @ MotherBoard: What does a typical work/ parenting day look like for you?
Cassie: Usually, I will be awake around 6 am with my son, often after a disturbed night. Sometimes if it’s been a particularly bad night (which is often the case) my partner will get up with our son for an hour or two and let me snooze. I work 3 days currently and it’s a Hybrid role so sometimes I am working at home, sometimes in the office, and sometimes out in the community. Generally, I am ready by 8:30 am so that I can drop my son off at childcare and head into the office or back home to start at 9 am.
I am fortunate to have my Mum look after my son at the moment, so I will get regular updates on how he’s doing. I always feel on alert though, ready just in case I need to collect him or deal with an unforeseen circumstance. Parenthood is so unpredictable. I think that you can never really switch off from being a parent while working and finding employers that understand that is difficult.
“Parenthood is so unpredictable. I think that you can never really switch off from being a parent while working and finding employers that understand that is difficult.”
By 5:30 pm either I or my partner has collected our son and then we have roughly two hours of time before his bedtime which is usually filled with making dinner, playing, reading stories, having a bath, and getting ready for bed. Once he is finally asleep (which seems to take up to an hour these days) I will often be found tidying and cleaning up, doing the washing, making dinner, going to the gym, catching up on some work and repacking my son's bag ready for the next day.
On a non-working day, I will usually be out by 10 am with my Son, taking him out to places like the park, a farm, or to see friends. I think because I spend so much time indoors, I have to get out as much as possible when I can with him.
Amber @ MotherBoard: How have you managed to build a successful career, whilst also embarking on motherhood and what challenges have you faced in finding a balance?
Cassie: I would say that I am in the early stages of this now. I felt that before having my son I had built up a good career, I had a path I was following, I put a lot of effort and energy into my career, and I had all these ideas of how I would progress but then I had my son and everything changed.
Because I had such a difficult experience returning to work after my maternity leave had ended, I was sort of stuck in an extra long period of being Mum which, don’t get me wrong, was lovely to have had but also very difficult for a number of reasons. I began to feel very overstimulated by being always in Mum mode and sacrificing my career, so yeah, I would say I am rebuilding that career now, doing something that I feel very passionately about.
“Having the opportunity to work part-time is so valuable because I have a good work-life balance.”
Having the opportunity to work part-time is so valuable because I have a good work-life balance, the team is supportive and understanding and many have children so they understand how it can be. It also requires support; I am thankful to have an amazing support network around me.
Amber @ MotherBoard: What is the hardest moment you have had as a mum whilst at work?
Cassie: The ‘mum guilt’ is very hard. I love my current job and I really enjoy my workdays and I almost feel guilty for that. It’s the feeling of wanting to be your best self at work and at home and often feeling like you’re not.
Motherhood is a load in itself, people often joke about how it’s a 24-hour, 7-day-per-week job with no breaks and no sick pay but it really does feel that way a lot, and then if you throw into the mix going back to work and you’re suddenly working two jobs on very little sleep.
Amber @ MotherBoard: What do you think businesses need to do to support mums working in tech & data better?
Cassie: I think they need to offer more flexibility in terms of days and hours to stop mums feeling forced into full-time work or work patterns that make life difficult. Many roles I saw while hunting would state flexible working as a benefit but often, I think that’s a facade. When it comes down to it most wouldn’t consider anything less than a 4-day week or compressed hours. Mums do not need to fit any more into fewer hours, there’s never enough hours in the day as it is.
“I think they need to offer more flexibility in terms of days and hours to stop mums feeling forced into full-time work or work patterns that make life difficult.”
One simple yet HUGE thing that I think could be beneficial is hiring roles for job-sharing. It’s done in many sectors but is seldom seen in tech or data. I remember being specifically told that my job couldn’t be done as a job share or part-time but there was no evidence for this, none at all. They weren’t even willing to try it, businesses need to try these things. They need to show parents that they’re willing to try and support mothers back into the workplace and not forget that there are young reliant children at home who are as important as the job they’ve hired a person for.
“One simple yet HUGE thing that I think could be beneficial is hiring roles for job-sharing. It’s done in many sectors but is seldom seen in tech or data.”
I would like to see businesses providing more support for childcare, offering truly flexible patterns/hours, promoting job shares, offering slow and steady starts back into the workplace, and ensuring there’s a robust well-being policy in place for mothers to return because there’s a lot to factor into going from being the primary caregiver to a working mother and it can have a real impact on self-care, mental health, and physical health.
Amber @ MotherBoard: What do you think the government needs to do to make it easier for mums to balance a career and parenting?
Cassie: I would love to see the government offering businesses incentives to allow mums back into the workplace in a more flexible way. So many mums are forced to either give up work or return full-time and I think that places a really heavy burden on their shoulders.
I think that the government needs to look into childcare costs or provisions that support working families, it would be amazing to see a world where businesses have on-site childcare provisions which are low cost/subsidised by the employer much like the cycle to work schemes and season ticket loans or if not on-site then subsidised childcare as a benefit.
I think in general there could be better policies for mums in workplaces to support and protect them.
Amber @ MotherBoard: Do you have any final words of advice to our readers about balancing being a mum and having a successful career?
Cassie: I think the balance will look different for everyone so I would say, work out what that balance looks like for you as an individual, for your family, your wellbeing, and your child(ren), and don’t settle for anything less.
“Work out what that balance looks like for you as an individual, for your family, your wellbeing, and your child(ren), and don’t settle for anything less.”
Try, where you can, to find businesses that are willing to support you, find out about their policies and benefits, and question them. The last thing you want is to be in a role in a business that, when it comes to it, won’t be supportive when you’ve got to dash because your child is sick or isn’t willing to give you some leeway if you're working on minimal sleep. You need to know that they have your back.
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