Balancing work, family and community

Juggling is part of daily life for many working people with caring responsibilities. For Simon Caughey-Rogers, Corporate Social Responsibility Specialist and Charity Events Manager at Enterprise and primary caregiver to two school-age children, the balancing act extends beyond work and family to community and volunteer roles.

We caught up with Simon to find out more about his career journey and how he strikes the right balance across all his roles.

"I could see that Enterprise was a growing company that cared about people and communities, which was important to me"

As with many Enterprise career journeys, Simon joined the company as a Management Trainee working in a branch.

Unusually, Simon took up this role when he was 34 years old, after working in customer services, production, and events across a range of businesses including a theatre and a photographic studio.

“I could see there were good career prospects and I was attracted by the fact that Enterprise is a large global company,” Simon explained. “I decided to start at the beginning as a Management Trainee and see how things evolved.

He was also attracted by Enterprise’s corporate social responsibility (CSR). “I could see that Enterprise was a growing company that cared about people and communities, which was important to me,” he said.

At the time, Simon and his wife had someone to take care of the children which meant he could focus on being a Management Trainee full-time while his wife focused on growing her successful GP practice, of which she was the main shareholder.

When the childcare support ended, Simon faced a big decision.

“I thought I would have to quit because there was no way my wife could take over at home,” he told us. “I handed in my resignation and started to think about the next steps in my journey.”

Enterprise is known for encouraging strong employee retention, and this came into play in Simon’s situation.

“Within 20 minutes I had a call from the HR Manager,” he told us. “They had already spoken to the General Manager and said they had looked at options so I could stay, possibly working flexibly in one of the branches or in a home-working role in customer services.”

Simon decided to take the role in customer services and, in his own words, he “loved it”.

“It was an opportunity to build up a lot of relationships, which is something I really enjoy,” he said. “I could work from home and do my duties as a dad. My family is based in Coventry and I couldn’t move or commute into work, so, I created a good set-up working from home, coming into the office for meetings and events.”

Simon and his wife work as a team to achieve the right balance across all their activities, even though as a GP, his wife is out from 6am to 7.30pm on days when she is working.

“The split in the roles happened quite naturally. I get the children up, dressed and out for school. My dad helps with the school run. I also do all the laundry, cleaning, and cooking. My wife does the school run and shopping on Friday when she has the day off. The children do extra work during the week so we can spend time together as a family at the weekend.

“Our parenting adapts all the time as they move from one year to the next. We try to do things together. We’re even both Scout Leaders so we spend Friday evenings with our sons at Scouts.”

"I could work from home and do my duties as a dad"

An additional aspect of Simon’s life balance is that one of his sons is autistic and the other was diagnosed with dyslexia.

“We had noticed certain traits for example, around foods,” Simon told us. “He found it hard to stay focused in school. He’s on the smart end of the autism spectrum which means he finishes his work quickly and then can be distracted if he is not able to go and do other things.”

The next phase in Simon’s career journey happened during the pandemic when he was offered his current role as Corporate Social Responsibility Specialist and Charity Events Manager.

“I’d already been very involved with philanthropy at Enterprise, especially around BBC Children In Need. It’s a cause that’s very dear to me and has a family history as my dad, who has lived with us since just before the pandemic, built all the sets for the television shows.”

In 2019 Simon had already organised the first gala charity dinner in aid of Children In Need at the National History Museum and he launched Run Pudsey during the pandemic as a fun fitness and fundraising initiative .

Simon sees this as the job he was meant to do.

“I am so passionate about giving and the community, and delighted that this is something I can explore as part of working for Enterprise.”

If you are interested in a career with Enterprise, please visit our recruitment website at careers.enterprise.co.uk