I have worked at Ageas for 20 years within the IT department. I started out as a Trainee IT Developer after University and am now a Senior Developer. When I started in 2001 my contracted hours were 35 hours a week, Monday to Friday.

In 2008 I had my first child, when I returned to work I requested to reduce my hours to 25 hours a week, doing three 7 hour days and one 4 hour day. Ageas agreed to my request and this pattern suited my lifestyle for years, including when I had my second child in 2011.

My primary childcare was both sets of grandparents but as they have gotten older I changed my working pattern in 2019 to two 7 hour days and two 5.5 hour days so that I was able to pick up the children from school 3 days a week.

Last year I needed to reassess my work/life balance after the pandemic and requested to reduce my hours to 22 hours a week over four days so that my working pattern fitted into the children’s school day.

Reducing my hours took an enormous amount of pressure off that I was putting on myself and has helped my mental health improve significantly. Since I reduced my hours, I have been promoted and I’m also doing an apprenticeship through work to expand my career choices. Ageas has been so supportive over the course of my career and are very accommodating to changing working patterns that I would definitely recommend them as an employer.

Joining Ageas in June 2022 has been a great move for me. As mum of a pre-teen with a chronic medical condition, it was really important for me to find a role that allowed me to do what I love doing (leading a team of talented individuals who deliver innovative tech solutions) whilst being able to be on hand to give my daughter the additional support she needs during those challenging secondary school years.

I’ve worked at Ageas for almost 23 years, and am a fulltime Project Manager in the Transformation team.

When I first started working for Ageas I was able to start early and finish early which was fantastic as I got to miss the traffic and as a young person got to make the most of life. When I had my daughter 9 years ago there was no quibble when I adjusted my hours to work around childcare, working 1 half day and 4 longer days.

As school life began I realised I wanted to be part of the school day too so whilst still working fulltime, I adjusted my hours enabling me to do 2 morning drop offs and 2 pickups.

The pandemic threw the cat amongst the pigeons as home schooling and work became a huge challenge, but we survived like many others.

Now with Smart working I’ve never been happier. I venture into the office roughly once per week this enables me to see my team, colleagues from other teams and benefit from the office buzz. I cherish my office days and over the summer holidays they are my days I get to dress up, put shoes on and escape the child! I’m really lucky that my husband only works part-time as this takes most of the pressure off with childcare, but when I’m working at home I don’t feel like I miss out either.

Ageas and my department managers have been amazing.

They recognise that work life balance is so important, we are encouraged to manage our time effectively calling out when the workload gets too great, but more importantly making sure we look after ourselves. I know if I need to flex my hours to go to Sports day, or for a teacher conference I can.