It’s a year since Evotra’s co-founder and CEO Sally Merritt returned to work just two weeks after having a baby. She was prepped and up for the challenge, but in a year of sweeping technology transformation across wealth management – and with the unknowns that parenthood brings – how did it go and was it the right decision?
“This time last year, I’d just returned to work—only two short weeks after my baby was born. As the co-founder and CEO of a company that’s still in its first few years, I chose to juggle baby and business instead of taking maternity leave.
While I’ve used the saying, ‘no one’s indispensable’ many times, at this particular moment it didn’t ring true for me. My co-founder, employees and clients had all put their trust in Evotra – as had I – and I felt an enormous responsibility towards them and the business. Evotra was my baby too and I’d worked too hard to step away.
So, one year on, how did it work out? How is it still working out?
Practical planning paid off
I went into planning overdrive as soon as I knew I was pregnant: with my co-founder Depesh and our team and, at home, my husband. We mapped out every last detail of the practicalities, from bringing in extra support at work and sharing out some of my personal responsibilities to my husband, putting his own career and earnings on hold to care for our baby. And we made contingency plans, and contingencies for the contingencies.
And it really did pay off. Evotra is going from strength to strength. In 2024 we won new clients, took on new staff, developed our propositions and partnerships, and grew our profits. Reinforcing this upbeat view, Evotra also conducted its first client and staff engagement surveys and the responses were overwhelmingly positive.
But of course, not everything went to plan – we didn’t achieve everything that we wanted to in 2024, and we learned some valuable lessons from our surveys. But, personally, I’m incredibly proud.
My baby is thriving too. All the practical planning we did has stood us in good stead – he’s had a wonderful start to life with so much attention from his father and other great people. Even though I do work long hours and have multiple distractions, opportunities to work from home mean that I am never absent for long.
The rest wasn’t so easy
I’m a great believer in honesty and it’s not helpful to anyone when people in my position gloss over the tough bits. So here it is – I hugely underestimated the emotional and physical toll. I’m exhausted, constantly! My body did not take kindly to getting jostled about on rush hour tubes or leading an in-house workshop so soon after a caesarean and whilst still trying to breastfeed… And I am forever wrestling with yearnings to be with my baby and guilt when I’m not. Of course I am!
Recently, I’ve also been dwelling a lot on the fact that if I’d taken a year’s maternity leave, I’d still (at the time of writing this) be at home. It makes me really sad, even though rationally, I know I made the right decision.
Grappling with this stuff is hard and it’s something that every working mother goes through… I’ve been watching a video clip of the magnificent Shonda Rhimes on repeat over the last few days. In it, the prolific screenwriter and TV producer is speaking at a graduation ceremony and telling the crowd that you can’t do it all. If you see her killing it at work, then she’s probably failing in some way at home and vice versa. I hear you, Shonda!
It’s impossible to give 100% to more than one thing at the same time, so life now – more than ever before – is about trade-offs. But ‘fail’ is a strong word so let me clarify: for me, it relates to how I feel. I started this article by saying that I didn’t feel dispensable enough to take maternity leave – and I still stand by that. As the leader of a company, you are not alone. I have a fantastic team and on a day-to-day basis I learn to trust that if I’ve chosen to go to my baby’s health checkup, someone else will lead the client meeting for me, and they’ll do it admirably. And when I am around, my son might not be in my hands, but he’s in safe hands.
Flexibility and balance – for everyone
The fact that I can choose to go to my baby’s health checkup isn’t lost on me. I’m in a privileged position as the CEO of my own company. But like many other companies, at Evotra we’ve been focusing on flexibility and grappling with how to support our teams with work-life balance. There are others with babies and small children, and everyone – regardless of whether they’re a parent or not – juggles full lives with competing demands.
I’m very much of the mindset that we’re all grown ups and I trust you to get your work done. But when your business is built on supplying expert people to help companies through technical transformations and other challenges – when invariably it’s ‘all hands to the pump’ – how do you balance that while still giving your clients the service they need?
One great example of the challenge is working compressed hours, which is increasing in popularity with employees everywhere. In theory, getting five days’ work done in four seems simple. You do the extra hours by starting early, working late and shaving time off lunchbreaks. There are plenty of examples of companies where some employees, usually parents, have contracts that allow for this. But what does it mean for the others? In reality, pretty much everyone puts in extra hours when needed or skips a lunchbreak to meet a deadline. Shouldn’t they get the extra day too? And then what about my clients who need someone on a Friday? Plus, if our billable consultants are working four-day weeks, what does this mean for our revenue?
I’d love to hear how others are grappling with these challenges…
What’s in store for 2025?
Well, both babies are growing. My son has had his first birthday, Evotra is turning *five* and it’s shaping up to be another busy year.
There’s masses going on across our industry – M&A, regulation, new technology and the march of AI – so the technical, project management and training specialisms we have are very much in demand. We’re rising to this by taking on new skilled employees, collaborating with other innovative technology partners and broadening the products and services we offer. We’re also building a new website with free, downloadable guides to help wealth management businesses get the best from their technology.
It’s going to be busy, frantic and at times messy but I’m surrounded by fantastic people and together, I know we will achieve great things!”
To find out how the team at Evotra can help you get the best from your technology, give us a call on 020 3410 1966 or email [email protected]