In celebration of Father’s Day, we reached out to the amazing dads at AIS, inviting them to share their thoughts on balancing the complex demands of work and family life, how AIS supports them in this journey and the treasured moments of fatherhood they value most. Read their stories below!
Greg, IT Manager
One strategy that significantly helps me balance work and family life is having a schedule that aligns with my boys’ school hours. This allows me to assist my wife with dropping them off in the morning on my way to work and pick them up from school in the afternoon right after I finish work.
A flexible work schedule and an understanding manager at AIS are crucial in helping me manage my responsibilities as a father while effectively handling my workload. This flexibility ensures I can be present for my family when they need me most.
Being a father is a fantastic experience! Watching my two boys grow up has been incredibly rewarding. I cherish spending time with them, teaching them life lessons, helping them learn and grow and sharing my hobbies and interests. It’s truly an amazing journey.
GREG’S KIDS
Greg, Staff Attorney
One effective strategy my wife Heather and I use to manage our busy schedules is keeping a detailed calendar. With both of us working at AIS and our girls being active in school, sports and dance, it can be overwhelming to keep track of everything. So, we have a calendar in the kitchen where we mark down all appointments, practices, games, dance recitals—everything!
The hybrid work schedule and flex time at AIS have been invaluable in balancing my career and family responsibilities. The ability to work remotely and make up time as needed allows me to participate in school activities or care for a sick child while staying productive and meeting job demands. I honestly don’t know how we managed before!
One of my favorite things about fatherhood is watching my girls develop their own unique personalities and getting to re-experience things through their eyes. Things like learning to ride a bike, playing sports, the magic of holidays, the tooth fairy and a million other more mundane things that we take for granted but are amazing to them.
GREG’S FAMILY
Michael, Chief Engineer
One strategy that helps me balance work and life is leaving the office at the same time every day. This consistency lets everyone at home know when to expect me. It benefits my family in several ways: my wife knows which activities I can cover, my boys know when they can ask me to play kickball or watch to see how long they can juggle and my colleagues avoid any guesswork regarding my availability for meetings and check-ins.
When thinking about my gratitude to AIS, the health care support immediately comes to mind. Having great insurance means I don’t hesitate to seek timely and effective medical treatment or advice, keeping my family healthy and the tally of broken bones to a minimum. Another aspect I appreciate is the flexibility to work from home when needed. While I prefer coming to the office daily, being able to work from home when necessary helps me adapt to life’s curveballs and stay productive.
I love encouraging my boys to experiment in life and to relish the cycle of failing and then learning from the experience. Just yesterday, I let my middle son try to back the lawnmower out of our shed by himself, which requires using a few fold-out ramps and some nuanced maneuvering. I watched from inside and saw him learn, in real-time, how (to quote one of my favorite movies) “when you’re in reverse, things come from behind you”. Luckily the playset we have is pretty stout, it survived the hit.
MICHAEL’S FAMILY
Chris, Principal Engineer
A specific strategy that I’ve found to be effective in balancing work and life as a father of three daughters is copious amounts of coffee. Jokes aside, and as the kids are getting older, I find it much easier to maintain balance by having a shared calendar with my wife to track both things going on at home as well as any pertinent work commitments. This goes hand in hand with having family commitments in my work shared calendar and ensuring that my team is aware of anything that may impact my availability.
AIS’s flex time has always been the most helpful while raising all three of our kids. Between appointments, school activities, extracurricular activities and life, the flex time policy allows you to manage the demands of work while still allowing you to make family a priority.
The most rewarding aspect of being a father is guiding your kids through life while watching them grow into their own person with their own unique personalities. It’s funny to see how different all three of my daughters are, while also having certain traits of my wife and myself within each of them. At the end of the day, there is nothing like coming home and seeing how truly excited your kids are to see you.
