Our Parents of Uplight Employee Resource Group (ERG) is a community that serves as an accessible resource for supporting parents and their allies in raising the next generation. The groups’ objectives include influencing and advocating for how Uplight can become a destination employer for parents, attracting and retaining employees who are parents/prospective parents, educating employees about Uplight’s benefits, and serving as a partner to the People and Executive teams to create the best workplace for parents.
Here we speak with Parents of Uplight member Michael Sobota, about his experience working at Uplight:
What is your role and what do you do at Uplight?
I am the VP of Engineering and am responsible for all of Uplight’s Software Application and Solution development.
Tell me about your ERG, its members, and the goals of the group.
Parents of Uplight exists to motivate and enable parents, children, and allies to raise sustainable people. We want to create and advocate for a more supportive and flexible workplace for parents. We invite anyone interested in participating in the conversation to join our Slack channel.
What makes working at Uplight great for parents?
As a new parent, I was able to take advantage of the many ways that Uplight supports working parents. Our son, Noah, was born in April of 2021, and Uplight has made the transition into parenthood smooth. I was able to take parental leave and break it up into two chunks that worked best for our family. Uplight has an unlimited PTO policy which gives me the peace of mind that I can take a day when I need to, and our team is very supportive when taking a day on short notice is necessary!
Uplight also leverages a ten into nine schedule, which allows every other Friday to be a flexible day for using how we see fit. As a parent, these are great days to run errands during weekday hours, catch up on household chores, or just spend the day with the little one!
What’s been difficult as a parent at Uplight? Where is there work to be done?
It has been difficult as a parent to figure out the best way to get long-term childcare that fits our needs. With COVID-19 and a competitive childcare environment, we have needed to balance childcare during the day while my spouse and I find time to focus on work. Uplight’s culture has been very supportive of the flexibility of when work gets done, but I think there is work to be done to help further support parents looking into various options for childcare. Our parenting ERG has been a great place to start this conversation.
What would you say to other parents who are looking at working at Uplight?
Uplight is a fantastic place to build a career as a working parent. It is a place where I can work on an important mission, grow my career, have the flexibility to be with my family and have a generous amount of autonomy in setting a schedule that balances work and life.
Interested in joining other parents working for a mission-driven company? Join us! Visit https://uplight.com/careers/.