Empowering Women To Soar

Written by Amy-Jane Parry

In an ever-evolving world, the importance of family, individual well-being and work life balance cannot be overstated, but the expectation on women that we should be managing it all (with a smile on our face) can be just too much. I don’t believe that is a healthy goal to set for anyone. I say reach out; ask for help, ask for whatever you need, do less, until life is fun and fulfilling.  

This message is especially directed towards women. Many women find that they have to face many obstacles when trying to return to the work force; be that from taking a break to raise children or from ill health or being left to manage the family alone and the burnout that can cause.  

My experience of joining the team at Growing Circles has been that

the business wants all women to get the support they need to re-enter

the workplace with passion and be able to carve out a space for

themselves to thrive. They offer flexibility in terms of location and

hours of work to support the family as a whole.  

I wanted to share some of the ways Growing Circles is supporting both myself and the other women within our business. 

Prior to joining the team at Growing Circles, I had been out of the traditional job market for quite a number of years because I chose to focus on my children when they were young and then to home educate. I found from my own experience that I was ready to get back into work quite a long time before I did. The main reason I didn’t? Fear! Fear of being judged for choosing to stay at home with the kids, fear of how much everything had progressed without me, fear of being judged for leaving the kids to go back to work and just general anxiety that I had left it too late to get anywhere in my career. GC’s founder, Kris and I had an upfront conversation which not only acknowledged those challenges existed but created an open dialogue to explore strategies to overcome them. From my perspective, this was incredible.  

Growing Circles fosters a genuine culture of empathy and understanding of each individual within our team to make every team member feel valued and supported.  

It makes no sense to me that generally when women re-enter the workforce, the diverse responsibilities that we face are not recognised; it feels almost like women are being set up to fail or that we are forced to stay in a ‘certain lane’ without the opportunity to progress.  

Having the freedom to choose my working hours and location allows me to strike a balance between personal and professional life, whether I need to change days to attend doctors appointments or work from home if one of the kids is poorly. Growing Circles promotes flexibility as a cornerstone of the business as long as we deliver for our customers. 

One of the huge barriers for me was how much technology had moved on and even programmes I knew how to use didn’t come easily to me. Having Kris behind me every step of the way was exactly what I needed. There was a language used that never made me feel ‘bad’, she put the focus on the skills we needed to rebuild and how she could support me into getting those skills up to date. She found funding to part pay for courses and even allocated work hours for the course work to be achievable for me. 

Growing Circles provides guidance and a supportive network, to enable women to rebuild their confidence and embrace new opportunities. 

At the heart of the Growing Circles philosophy, is a belief that a healthy work/life balance is different for everyone and that if the team is supported to find the right one for their particular situation, then it will contribute to the overall wellbeing and success of both personal and professional life.  

Growing Circles knows that by taking better care of the team, they can then better care for their families and fulfil their professional aspirations. 

The last thing that really made me want to write this blog was thinking about how lucky we are here, but I really want that not to be the case!  

Women shouldn’t have to be lucky to get these benefits that will put them on an even playing field. These things should be standard. These issues should be live discussions within every business no matter its size or turnover. We should also acknowledge that more flexibility would also bring benefits to the whole workforce and not just women.  

By actively engaging with groups who advocate for and uplift women who face similar challenges to the ones I faced, we can work together to address the challenges and begin to tackle them as a whole business community. This could be online or with the partnerships we seek out through work with local organisations, social enterprises and charities to create a strong network of resources and opportunities. 

Growing Circles encourages working in partnerships, we want a society where women thrive and whole families are supported. 

Reintegrating into the workforce after a significant break was daunting. Being supported in an environment that embraces flexibility, empathy and support helped me to overcome this fear. The commitment to warmth, inclusivity and balance empowers women to regain confidence, pursue fulfilling careers and be able to support families with flexibility. 

Together, let's make holistic approaches to work life balance standard practice everywhere for all women, and indeed for all people, and create a brighter future for everyone.