Mums in Tech – feat. Molly Gavriel
We recently had a fantastic chat with Molly Gavriel, a Business Analyst at dxw about all aspects of being a mum within the tech industry. Establised in 2008, dxw are a leading employee-owned digital agency that works with the public and third sectors
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 is so important?
Molly: My name is Molly Gavriel, and I am a Business Analyst at dxw, a digital agency that works with the public and non–profit sectors. I started my career in Local Government on the NGDP programme, before moving into the world of digital start-ups and agencies. I started working at dxw in February 2022, when I was pregnant with my daughter.
Supporting working parents is an essential part of creating an inclusive workplace. It’s also important to understand that parenthood looks a little different for everyone, and impacts on everyone’s relationship with work in different ways. In the tech sector, we have an incredible opportunity to lead the way in creating inclusive work environments. We’re often well placed to allow remote and flexible working. When office working is required, the locations used by the sector are mostly well suited to co-locating with a creche or childcare facility. It’s less why should the sector support working parents and more…why wouldn’t they?
Taking advantage of this to support working parents is essential to attracting talent, and retaining a happy workforce. It’s an important part of ensuring everyone can bring their full selves to work, removing barriers to progression and encouraging openness about the types of support people need to do their jobs well. Normalising the balance around work and childcare can also encourage fathers to play a more active role in parenting too.
I’ve found that at dxw, the senior leadership team leads by example when it comes to embracing flexible working around parental and caring responsibilities. This gave me the confidence I needed to join the company when I was pregnant.
Amber @ MotherBoard: How did you find balancing pregnancy and work?
Molly: Quite an experience! I remember my first day in the office when I was around two months pregnant - I had to get off the bus three times en route to throw up in the bushes…
That said, after a difficult first couple of months I really enjoyed my pregnancy. I made full use of our wellbeing offer and flexible working at dxw to fit in regular yoga sessions and swimming before and after work, and I enjoyed being able to take the time to look after myself. I was lucky in that I didn’t face complications during my pregnancy, and generally remained in good health. This is definitely not everyone’s experience and I count myself very fortunate in this regard.
The hardest part was having to pretend to my new colleagues that I didn’t like wine or coffee - before my pregnancy I think I lived off caffeine, and I’d recently completed a WSET qualification!
As a lot of our work is conducted remotely, meeting clients over video calls, I avoided many of the difficulties of having to navigate pregnancy at work. I also count myself lucky to work in one of the less physically demanding industries, where making sure to take screen breaks is a greater consideration than being on your feet all day.
Amber @ MotherBoard: As a business analyst at dxw and a mum, what does a typical day look like for You?
Molly: As a business analyst at a digital agency, I work with our clients to help them to understand and analyse a business problem or opportunity. I sit within the Strategy team at dxw, so while our organisational expertise is technology, I get to take a more holistic look at organisational processes and structures and really focus on strategic problem solving. I often work with multiple clients at once, which I find fascinating - I love joining the dots between different problems and the exposure to different sectors.
My daughter is currently only four months old and, thankfully, a good sleeper! So I’ll try to wake up and be at my desk with a cup of tea around 8am which gives me a good two to three hours of focus work or time to check in with the team before she wakes.
I’ll then be on client calls (quite possibly with my daughter on my lap), meeting with project stakeholders and gathering information.
I try to take a two hour lunch break when possible so that we can have some time together. There’s the feed-change-cuddle cycle and we’ll try and go for a walk if the weather isn’t too bad which helps her settle down for the afternoon. We also try to go to a local stay and play for an hour or so once a week.
I like to get on with focus work, analysis and any report writing in the afternoons and evenings. I should say that my partner is a chef and works shifts, which means he’s often around during the day to look after our daughter too.
I went back to work when my daughter was ten weeks old, which has made things easier. At ten weeks she was still napping quite a lot during the day….and she’s yet to learn how to crawl which keeps us both out of trouble! She’ll be starting nursery in April and I can’t wait for her to have some more time around other babies.
Amber @ MotherBoard: What do you think is important for businesses to look out for so those future mums of tech can be fully supported?
Molly: Lead by example. Watch out for a culture of ‘presenteeism’ and make sure your teams are rewarded by the work they’re doing, not by how often they’re able to get to the office!
Be kind. Everyone at dxw has been so kind and considerate with my return to work. On the occasions where I’ve had to go into the office, I’ve been able to bring my daughter with me and we’ve both been made to feel so welcome. My line manager and delivery manager in particular have done an excellent job of championing my working patterns and the support I need with our clients.
Understand how pregnancy and maternity impacts on health and wellbeing. For example impacts on the immune system, and conditions such as gestational diabetes or postpartum depression. Employers need to be considerate of both the physical and mental health factors associated with pregnancy, birth and parenthood.
Watch out for stereotypes and assumptions. I’ve lost track of the number of unhelpful stereotypes there are out there. There’s a general assumption that the birthing parent or mother takes 100% responsibility for looking after children, which is not helpful and rarely true. This seems to translate into public policy as well, which moves us nicely onto your next question!
Amber @ MotherBoard: What do you think the government needs to do to support mums more to make it easier to balance a career and parenting?
Molly: Start with maternity leave. Despite the introduction of shared parental leave, parental leave policies are still unnecessarily gendered. This makes establishing equity in caring responsibilities an uphill struggle.
Because I was already pregnant when I joined dxw, I wasn’t entitled to SMP. If it wasn’t for dxw’s parental leave policies, I would have had to go back to work two weeks after having my daughter as a result. Even mothers who are eligible for SMP end up taking at least a 10% pay cut for a minimum of two weeks.*
The childcare sector in the UK is in urgent need of reform, and is currently ranked as one of the lowest performing countries in the OECD. The cost of childcare, in particular for children under 3 where there is little to no financial support from the government, means that returning to work after having children just does not pay.
The child benefits system no longer provides universal support for families, takes little account for household incomes and punishes families where there is a discrepancy in salaries between working parents.
The question is less ‘what should the government do’ and more ‘where do we start?!’.
I also wish that there was more support for working parents outside of ‘office hours’. Perhaps my only regret about going back to work when my daughter was so young was that I haven’t been able to take advantage of the many free parent and baby classes provided during my working week. Everything from baby sensory to baby cinema and postnatal pilates seems to happen on a Tuesday at 11am. However, I have been lucky enough to meet other working mums through Mama Swim, so that I can at least get back in the water.
Amber @ MotherBoard: Do you have any final words of advice for our readers about balancing being a mum and having a successful career?
Molly: You’ll have to come back and ask me how I’m doing once my daughter learns how to walk….!!
Joking aside - we’re only four months in, but it’s been a good four months so far. I feel like things can only get better too - currently lobbying for a work creché (hint hint!!).
The last four months have made me very aware of how lucky and privileged I am to have so much support around me, whether that’s from my employer or from my partner and family. I think it’s important to acknowledge this and recognise that there’s a lot more that needs to be done to make this support universal.
Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself and what you need. Ask for support when you need it.
Bring on affordable childcare and bring back universal child benefit.
