Balancing Family and Achieving Career Goals as an Accountant

Employee Spotlight: Aimee Jozic

Women often reach a point in their lives where they feel pressured to answer a difficult question: do I want to raise a family or pursue career success? Historically, it’s been deemed near impossible to have both as a woman in modern society. Around the world, organizations are reconsidering their parental leave policies to better accommodate new parents. As a result, many women (and men) are now offered extended parental leaves. As of 2017, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported that 60% of employers offer 12 weeks of maternity leave and 33% offer longer leaves.

While this seems like a stride in the right direction (and in many ways, it is), these extended parental leaves tend to have negative consequences, especially for new mothers. Unfortunately, extended leaves can halt career goals, leaving many women with the choice between achieving their career goals or raising a family. According to the Harvard Business Review, women who take advantage of the full parental leave are less likely to be promoted, move into management, or receive a pay raise once their leave is over. They are also often seen as less committed to their job and are even at greater risk of being fired or demoted.

In order to achieve true gender equity in the workplace, women must be able to take family leave and balance their careers and families without facing undesirable consequences. In honor of Women’s History Month, we are shining the spotlight on one of our firm’s first part-time Partners, Aimee Jozic, and how she achieved her career goals in public accounting while raising three children.

A TBG Work-Life Balance Success Story

Aimee’s journey with TBG began back in 2004 when she started as a summer intern. She immediately felt at home at the firm and began working full time soon after. Starting in 2010, Aimee began working a reduced schedule to begin a family. Flash forward to 2019 and Aimee became one of the firm’s first ‘part-time’ Partners! She has since returned to a full-time schedule, but for 10 years, she worked reduced hours to help raise her children, while still successfully securing promotions to the Manager, Principal, and Partner level.

Aimee admits that she did question at times if she could balance both her career and her job as a new mom, but after seeing the support given to those who had pursued this before her, she knew things would work out. “I was very grateful for the opportunity to work a reduced schedule during my years as a new mom,” said Aimee. “I know this isn’t always the case in every industry or every firm. One of the main reasons I was and am still able to achieve my career goals while also raising three kids, is the unwavering support I have from my team at TBG, including my supervisors.”

Aimee also stresses that working a reduced schedule, achieving career success, and raising a family is also about balance and prioritization. “I don’t think that the scales are ever perfectly in balance at any given time, but my goal is to ensure that they are balanced as a whole. Whatever is important to you, should have your focus and in an instance where both family and career are important, both need to be given pieces of the best of you,” she said. “I am fortunate to have great family support at home – I could not do what I do without that.”

In speaking on her current success at TBG as one of the firm’s youngest Partners, Aimee comments, “Women bring so much to leadership positions. Women have inherent strengths that are incredibly important in business today. Our ability and tendency to collaborate, function in teams, and lead by example versus through directives only create a stronger firm.”

At TBG, we value work-life balance and the ability to achieve career success regardless of commitments outside of the workplace. In addition to unlimited PTO, the firm recently implemented a flexible work to give employees the support they need to achieve their goals while maintaining work-life balance. If you’re interested in a career in public accounting, TBG is expanding our team. Learn more about our firm and check out current openings on our careers page, or reach out today to learn more!

This material has been prepared for general, informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. Should you require any such advice, please contact us directly. The information contained herein does not create, and your review or use of the information does not constitute, an accountant-client relationship.