Being a parent with sofatutor
sofatutor has developed from a small start up to a top player in EdTech in the last few years. Our staff has grown as well and many employees have also grown at home and have become parents.
sofatutor tries to relieve and support parents in many different ways. In the following I will share my experience as a father and Caro’s experience as a mother working for sofatutor:
All parents are faced with the same question “How can I best combine my job with my family?”
As soon as you have children in the family there is suddenly another person you have to include in your plans. There are many things that must be taken into consideration: The child is sick, the daycare/school is closed, pick-up times have to be organized, etc. and besides these organizational things, you want to spend much free time with your family.
I was lucky to become a father in March and I, too, was thinking “How is this all going to turn out and how child-friendly is sofatutor as an employer when it comes down to it?”
Spoiler alert: I can’t imagine it any better.
The first thing that I noticed positively was how spontaneously I could take time off as a father after birth. There were zero discussions about the duration, the short notice, or other issues. When the time came, I quickly applied for leave, closed my laptop, and enjoyed getting to know each other with the new family member and mastering this new situation together.
Me, I went back to work after 2 weeks and my team and lead were supportive from the beginning. I was relieved at the beginning to find my way in the new life situation and step by step it went back to full load.
And (unfortunately) it didn’t take long before I was able to take advantage of the next parent benefit from sofatutor.
The little one got sick right away in the first 2 months and what can I say? It was super fast and easy to apply for child sick days. They just have to be submitted to our HR management tool “Personio” without a medical certificate, which gave us enough time to take care of the child before heading to the doctor after it did not get better.
The number of child-sick days is also beneficial. Before Covid, it was 10, due to the situation we went through sofatutor increased the days quite pragmatically to 25 days for one child, or even more, depending on the number of children. These particularly generous rules were in place for 2020, 2021, and 2022 due to the Corona pandemic.
And also now that he is healthy again, sofatutor can convince as a child-friendly employer. Due to the beneficent home office arrangements, everyday life can be perfectly organized around work. During the day, due to the flexible working hours, you can also take care of the child, should it be necessary. Best of all, you effectively have more time with the family, since the commute is eliminated.
There is also the annual sofatutor family & friends picnic. At this picnic, all sofatutor employees are invited to bring their family and friends. It is one of the highlights of the sofatutor events for young and old.
From the mother’s perspective, sofatutor can convince too. For more insight into this point of view, I spoke with Carolin from the Product & Tech team about her experience.
She told me that from the moment she told her lead that she was pregnant, she only experienced positive things in this context. She knew that pregnancy always brings organizational challenges for a company, especially since she had an important role in Product & Tech at the time. Nevertheless, she didn’t feel any pressure or problems regarding her pregnancy form sofatutor side. She was only met with congratulations from her colleagues and lead.
The application for parental leave also went completely smoothly and when she then went on maternity leave 2 weeks earlier than planned, she was simply told “your and the child’s health are the top priority” and it was approved without any trouble.
After she was out of active work she still felt appreciated by the sofatutor when she got flowers to start her maternity leave and a small gift for the birth.
Towards the end of her parental leave, she was asked what her plans for the future were. In this context, not only was a model developed together with her with how she can find her way back into everyday work, but she was also directly suggested a path for the future, which gave her security about how to get back into work.
Our conclusion: From both the father’s and the mother’s perspectives, it can be said quite clearly that sofatutor is a super family-friendly employer.
Our mission, values and familiy-friendly work environment appeal to you? We look forward to hearing from you! Please reach out to us via jobs@sofatutor.com.
On our website, you can moreover easily apply for open positions.
You rather look for learning tips for your child? In our magazine, especially for parents " Eltern-Magazin", you get useful everyday tips, information on the usage of our different learning products and more insights into topics that parents are concerned about.
author: René Kirchschläger
