Released On 23 January 2024
Meet the WLC Team: Hannah Townsend
Here we meet our Website & Digital Experience Manager extraordinaire, who tells us all about her background in live events and website development, how she and her partner run their busy household alongside their work and her recent discovery that she and her son are both 'neuro-spicy'.
WLC: Hannah, please start by telling us about your background, and how you found your way to the WorkLife Central team?
HT: Honestly, incredible luck and good timing! As for my background, I've worked in the world of live events since I was old enough to coil and tape cables. I started work in a warehouse, preparing live events kit and sending them out on trucks, I then moved into a role as a lighting technician for live events which involved a lot of travelling and rigging! When I was in my twenties, and I had my first child, I took an enormous leap of faith and went back to university to study website development in order to find a role that would allow me to travel less and be at home more with my children, taking on more of a behind the scenes role in development and marketing, while still remaining within the events industry I loved so much. As it turns out - I have a real affinity for software and development, it's something I thoroughly enjoy.
When WorkLife Central was advertising my role, I'd been working in development for six years and had several positions, I spent my weekends working as the creative lead for a theatre I've been involved in since I was a teenager, and during the week I was working for an events company setting up their global websites and marketing platforms. Three months prior to joining the team, I'd given birth to my beautiful third child, Ada.
Due to the nature of my work and the unique way we run as a household, I've never had more than a few weeks off work after having a baby. I work remotely, and the two businesses I worked for didn't have anyone to stand in for me, so with both of my younger daughters, I took leave to have my babies, and then in the following weeks I would be back in my home office space with my baby in the baby carrier or in the bassinet next to me. I was able to work around when my children needed me, and my partner took maternity leave to act as full time childcare for the older two.
I had planned on a slightly longer period of leave with my daughter, but as I was the only income into the house, getting back to some sort of remote work remained a priority - and so I'd been keeping an eye on LinkedIn for a new adventure. I spotted a listing for a business that seemed like it would be a good fit for my skills and outlined that it was a remote position during school term time which of course piqued my interest; while I am very career driven, my children have always and will always come first. Something that I could fit in around their schedule, well it's like gold dust isn't it?
So I researched the business and as it turns out, WorkLife Central couldn't have been more of a perfect fit. Here is a business owned and run by some of the most inspirational working mothers I've ever seen. All of the content revolves around values I truly believe in, from support for working parents, to inclusion, to wellbeing and career support. It was October at the time and I hadn't planned on getting back to work until after Christmas, but I remember saying to my partner - I have to do this, I have to apply for this job, it's the dream job you know?
Thankfully my brilliantly supportive partner basically said, yep I've got the kids - you do whatever you need to do!
And here I am! Luckily I was able to demonstrate that I had all of the skills required to fulfil the role and a little extra and - it is indeed the dream job.
WLC: Tell us about your role: what do you do for WorkLife Central and what do you like most about your job?
HT: I started as the Digital Content Manager in 2022, my role then very much involved preparing and editing all of the On Demand video content, and then setting up and publishing the content on the website. Part of my unique fit for the role was that I had the editing skills required to prepare the content, and also as a developer, I had a good working knowledge of the website back end and was able to effectively manage the line of communication with WLC’s developers.
As I became more established within my role (and found my confidence) I found myself spending more and more time looking at the design of the website structure. So when the development of our corporate website became a priority, I leapt at the chance to use my design skills in adobe XD to create the initial front-end design of the website.
Being able to work with the team to design a beautiful layout, then feeding this back to the developers to create what we have now was incredibly rewarding and a brilliant journey for me, and it became clear that working in this area suited both my skillset and a particular need for the business.
Louisa and Anna recognised this and promptly offered to alter my role and so at the end of 2023 I became the Website & Digital Experience Manager for WorkLife Central. My role now very much involves using our analytics to monitor the website and our user journey, working with the WorkLife Central team and our team of developers to consistently add to and improve our website and applications to give our members the best experience they can have.
We have some incredibly exciting projects in the pipeline for 2024, from improving our websites search function through to making our content more accessible, this year is going to be full of development!
WLC: Tell us something that people might not know about you?
HT: I'm a late diagnosed neurodivergent! My brain has always functioned differently, growing up I just assumed I was 'difficult' however, when my son was going through his initial diagnosis for ADHD, we were filling out the forms and I remember saying oh! You get that from me! ... And that... and that... In the process of diagnosing my son, I also diagnosed myself!
Let me tell you, understanding and accepting that we are a neuro-spicy household has been a real game changer for all of us; I understand my own brain and habits so much better, and it's had a really dramatic improvement on the way I function. It's improved the way I handle everything, from relationships to workloads, because it all makes more sense now. I'm not low, my dopamine is. I can lean in to a hyperfocus with gusto and plan to use it to my advantage. I can more accurately explain why I'm struggling with a process because I now understand how my brain is working. And more than anything instead of feeling like I'm just a bit weird (ha!) I know it's totally normal and my brain is just literally wired differently.
And for my son it means he is going to get all of the support possible to make the best of his brilliant brain and the way it works, for both the positives and the struggles!
WLC: How do you look after your own wellbeing?
HT: It's a team effort! My partner and I both work, and have three children, two of whom are under four so life is chaotic. I often don't actually know how I'm going to fit everything I need to into one day, when you have very small people and they are attached to you all the time, life kind of stops being yours - if you know what I mean?
Sam and I are a team first, we try to divide everything 50/50 between us: we are both equally responsible parents, we are both equally responsible with our careers/house/money and so on. But in reality, it's never an exactly equal split at any one time and we both recognise this. Some days I'm completely burnt out and Sam will dig deep and take 100% of the mental load because he can see I'm flagging, and other days when he's feeling it I'll do the same.
We make sure we support each other and prioritise each other because generally as a parent you don't have time to look after yourself. For Sam this means I sometimes tell him to go and take a break and lie down, when I can see he's really tired and it's catching up with him. For me, he will often tell me to go and take a shower or do some yoga when he can see I'm feeling wound too tight.
We're not perfect at all, but it's taken years of trial and error and being in a place where you feel totally supported by your person is something that I would say does the most for my wellbeing when we have oh so much going on at all times.
WLC: What’s your favourite part of the WorkLife Central programme?
HT: It's all so good, can I say all of it?
I think the family aspect is something I strongly identify with, we have so many wonderful speakers that give incredibly practical advice on positive parenting, promoting a healthy family life/work life balance, it's something I strongly advocate for and have fought very hard to achieve in my own life, it brings me so much joy to have a career focused on helping others achieve it too!
But all of the programme is amazing, I can't even begin to tell you how incredibly proud I am to play a part in offering such a vast array of resources across so many topics I whole heartedly believe in.