Making family and work, work thousands of kilometres from home

Q How has RPS supported you during your travels?

“When we found out that Jasmine had been selected in four Australian youth teams and would be completing at four back-to-back world championships over eight-and-a-half weeks, my wife and I had to do a lot of planning to prepare for this as well as juggling our three other children and work commitments.

I raised this with the Executive Director of the PM Division, Michael Owens, and he was open to me working remotely with flexibility around how I managed my working time and leave.”

Q What has it meant to you to be able to spend this time with your daughter?

“It is a unique experience to be able to travel with my daughter and support her at these events. Most of the time Jasmine was in training camps or with the team, which provided me flexibility to be able to continue working a reasonable proportion of the time. I would generally get up early and do a few hours of work while it was afternoon in Australia.  We were also able to manage my wife travelling with us for a few weeks as well.”

Q How important is it for workplaces to offer flexible working opportunities/options for employees?

“Covid changed the working landscape, accelerating the technology and importantly the workplace cultures to support more flexible working arrangements. I feel RPS has been forward leaning in this space, with robust technology platforms, laptop and mobile devices and flexible working policies. While RPS’ approach assisted me in supporting my daughter for this unique opportunity, importantly it also assists our employees in their day-to-day working arrangements at home.”

Q Can you share one or two highlights of your time away with Jasmine?

“There is an immense amount of training and effort that goes into achieving national selection, so it was definitely a highlight just being present to see Jasmine represent her country. Between the sprint kayaking world championships in Hungary and the open water swimming in the Seychelles we had a couple of days in Istanbul, Turkey where Jasmine celebrated her 16th birthday. It was amazing to be in such a culturally diverse location in the world at such a young age. She did miss her Mum though.”

Q How did your daughter go? Will we see her in the next Olympic Games!?

“Jasmine performed quite well. She was the youngest member of all four teams – she’s in Year 10 where most of her teammates are in Year 12 or finished high school. The level of international competition was a real eye opener with some of the sports having a large step up from winning Australian Nationals to competing on the world stage. She did end up with three gold medals and one silver as part of team events at Surf Life Saving World Championships in Italy as well as a bronze medal at ocean ski world championships in Portugal, which involved a 20-kilometre paddle in the open ocean. She is eligible for the junior teams for another two years so it will be interesting to see if she improves.

As for the Olympics, she enjoys training and competing. If she can continue with this enjoyment, travel and meet people from across the world - anything else is a bonus.”